Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/934

 924 Reviews of Books In introductory notes based largely on the hitherto unsearched papers of the Essex borough of Maiden, he cites facts which further illustrate the social questions referred to in the ballads, prove their historical accuracy, and " suggest that the incidents recorded in them were of everyday occurrence". Some of the ballads record historical events — the death of the Earl of Bedford in 1585; the Spanish sack of Calais, 1596; Essex's Irish campaign, 1599; Elizabeth's anniversary, 1600; the execution of Essex, the campaign in the Netherlands, and the Spanish invasion of Ireland, 1601 ; and the accession of James I., 1603. Other ballads allude to the grievances of the poor against the rich, including their loss of common rights ; others censure the evil customs of the age, voicing the Puritan ideals of Sabbath observance, etc.; others refer to the trial and punishment of criminals ; two contain the admonitions of a father and mother to their son, who is to be apprenticed to a weaver ; while many pieces both grave and gay, although throwing no light on institutions or social conditions, yet have an interest to the historian as indicating the temper of the times. Souz'niirs ct Fragments pour scrvir aiix Mcinoires dc ma J'ic ct dc mon Temps par !e Marquis de Bouille {Louis-Joseph-Amour) (1769- 1812). 'olume I. 1769-Mai 1792. Publics pour la Societe d'His- toire Contemporaine, par P. L. Kerniaingant. (Paris, Alphonse Picard et Fils, 1906, pp. 511.) The editor of this volume has taken his task very lightly, confining his efforts chiefly to " seeing it through the press ". The investigator who would use the text critically can look for little help from the editor. Information concerning the manuscript of the work, date of composition, and even essential details upon the life of the writer, must b<» grubbed out of the text, for the volume con- tains neither preface nor introduction. The author of the Souvenirs was the son of the Marquis de Bouille, who is known to fame in connection with the disastrous flight of Louis XVI. to Varennes. The son, also, had a part in that affair. Bouille, the younger, was born in 1769 and died in 1850. An examination of the text shows that the writing of the Souvenirs could not have begun earlier than 1827 (Bouille quotes, page 121, from a work published in that year) ; it was finished in August, 1828. It is possible that the writing did not begin before 1828. To attribute to a single year the inception and conclusion of the writing of this stout volume seems not unreasonable, if the manner of composition is taken into account. Al- though the book consists chiefly of the personal experiences of Bouille, he did not depend wholly or even chiefly upon memory for his knowl- edge of the past. He had in his possession " des fragments, des notes, des observations ", contemporary with the events described, letters written by himself and by others to him, and, finally, he had previously published a Vie prive of Henry of Prussia (1806) and an account of the flight of Louis XVI. (1823). These fragments he arranged chrono- logically and, to use Bouille's own words, " Je les ai lies par quelques