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 420 Reviews of Books chief, but in some particulars that of so recent and deserving a student as the Rev. F. Ives Cater of Oundle (Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, 11. 151-159, 235-246). The v^rhole monograph is painstaking and workmanlike; but a chief feature of general interest will be found in its exhibition from Browne's own writings of his gradual change of opinion from rigid Separatism, through increasing conformity, to a position which made his own acceptance of ordination in the Church of England on September 30, 1591, a not unnatural step, however in- consistent with his earlier beliefs. This fuller knowledge of the phases of Browne's mental development enables Mr. Burrage to combat suc- cessfully the theory advocated by Dr. Dexter that his later history is to be explained on the supposition of the breakdown of an overwrought mind. Whether Mr. Burrage leaves Browne a character more worthy of respect may be questioned ; but his picture is undoubtedly more accu- rate, and the nature of the man he portrays more consistent, than that delineated by earlier and less instructed biographers. The little volume is one to be welcomed by all students of the beginnings of Separatism and of Congregationalism. WiLLiSTON Walker. Letters and Pafers relating to tlie First Dutch ]]ar, 16^2-1654. Edited by Samuel Rawson Gardiner and C. T. Atkinson. 'ol. III. (London, the Society, 1906, pp. xviii, 452.) In this third volume, long delayed by Dr. Gardiner's death, there are almost exactly three hundred documents, divided into two sections: part vii., Tromp's Voyage to the Isle of Re, and part viii.. The Reorganisation of the Fleet. Dr. Gardi- ner, we are informed, had selected and arranged the papers, had written the introduction to part vii., and had made a certain number of foot- notes to both parts. The rest of the editing is due to Mr. Atkinson of Exeter College, Oxford, who will edit the remainder of the series. It is plain that there will be two or three more volumes, so that we arc likely to have a greater fullness of information respecting this war than respecting almost any other naval war of former days. The present volume, like its predecessors, presents many Dutch documents (trans- lated) from the archives of the Hague, chiefly resolutions of the States General and correspondence of that body and the admiralties with Tromp ; orders of the Council of State, letters of Blake, and other docu- ments from the Public Record Office and the British Museum: and extracts from pamphlets and newsletters. In part vii. the chief interest centres around the battle off Dungencss. The difficulties of Tromp's double task, to convoy the merchant fleet to the Isle of Re and also to seek out and destroy the enemy, the inferior state of preparation of Blake's fleet, the causes and responsibility for this, the nature of Tromp's strategy, are clearly manifested. " It is needless to say that no word occurs in these papers relating to the fabulous broom which Tromp is supposed to have hoisted at his masthead." The longest pieces in this part are the respective journals of Rear-Admiral Florissen, Vice-