Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/178

 1 68 Reviews of Books Siiic Lii^hts on English History, being Extracts from Letters, Papers and Diaries of the past three Centuries. Collected and arranged by Ernest F. Henderson, Ph.D. (New York, Holt, pp. xxii, 300.) Stu- dents and teachers of history have long been indebted to Dr. Henderson for his Select Historical Documents. They will, therefore, turn with inter- est to this new source-book, an attractive and imposing volume, illustrat- ive of modern English history from Elizabeth to Victoria. Dr. Henderson has laid under contribution State Papers, Somers Tracts, Historical Manuscripts Commission's Reports, Historische Zcit- schrift, news-letters, memoirs, etc., etc., and has succeeded in getting together a large amount of very interesting matter. The character and career of the different sovereigns from Elizabeth to George the Third are illuminated by extracts from contemporary writers, and the history of such events as the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, the coming of the Armada, the Gunpowder Plot, the trial of Charles I., the plague and fire of London, Monmouth's rebellion, the American War of Independence, the death of Nelson, and the battle of Waterloo is told in the language of the time. .■s to the use which the student may make of this material the editor says, "I should suggest that he be given a topic corresponding to the heading of one of my thirty-two groups and be asked to make an abstract of the salient points from his text-book. After he has done this, and added some supplementary reading, I should consider him to have reached a frame of mind most suitable for approaching the sources." That is, text-books and histories are to come first in the reading of his- tory, and independent study of the sources later. The wisdom of this advice becomes apparent when we examine the character of some of the sources drawn upon, the scurrilous "Character of James I." by Sir Anthony Weldon and " Bloody Assizes" by John Dunton, the Puritan accounts of Arthur Wilson and Sir Simonds d'Ewes, the Tory memoirs of Reresby and of North, and the Whig narrative of Burnet. These are, of course, among the most interesting contemporary narratives, and the editor has chosen from them the most interesting pages, but they are far from reliable. These source-books are not histories and he who reads them is not studying history ; but if one has time to use them, and if it is pointed out that half of the matter in them is trivial and the other half unreliable because partisan, they may doubtless be used with profit. They will at least add interest — though perhaps a fictitious interest — to the study of history. This is true of the book under review, but with this further qualification : the book seems too large for the use of young students, the contents too familiar to be of much value to advanced students. The Court and Times of James /. , Whitelocke, and Pepys, which are most quoted, are accessible to all students of English history, — where they are not accessible the study of English history must be out of the question. These criticisms of the book seem to me inevitable, but after all, interest is the main thing in a book of this kind, and in this respect the editor