Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/617

 1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 609 why a terrible lesson was deemed necessary for the Christian subjects of the Porte. The Armenian massacres of the late years of the nineteenth century were certainly dictated by a similar motive. Dr. Scheltema's work is, without doubt, an interesting contribution to the history of the horrors which shocked Europe in 1860, and made Turcophiles of the time come to the conclusion that the Turk was incorri- gible. The translation appears to be scrupulously accurate, and great trouble has been taken to elucidate what is obscure. An index and a bibliography would have been welcome ; an important item in the latter would have been the collection of diplomatic correspondence on Syria and Lebanon, translated into Arabic by Philip and Farid al-Khazin, of which three volumes were issued at Juniyah (Lebanon) in the years 1910 and 1*911. The American writer's condemnation of European diplomacy does not appear to be very judicious. When recriminations of this sort begin there is no saying where they will end. There are some who attribute the Armenian massacres indirectly to the American missions in the Ottoman Emoire. They suppose that the lessons received by Armenians in the American schools filled them with aspirations which brought upon them the vengeance of the Government. D. S. Margoliouth. Archaeologia Aeliana. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of New- castle-upon-Tyne, and edited by R. Blair. Third Series, vols, xvi, xvii. (Kendal, 1919-20.) Volume xvi, though it contains reports which show that the Society has come through the war with prospects of carrying on successfully, is still a war volume. It contains, however, nine papers. The most important is the concluding fasciculus of the catalogue of Durham seals. This comprises a rather miscellaneous collection of Scottish bishops and ecclesiastical officials and monasteries, foreign seals (ecclesiastical, episcopal, and miscel- laneous), a few municipal seals, and a short supplementary list in which there is one item of great interest, a seal of c. 1109 of Harold's College of the Holy Cross at Waltham. There are seven plates of the usual excellence, though a good many of the Scottish seals are badly damaged. Mr. Hunter- Blair's notes have become a ' Who's Who ' of the owners of the original seals ; and he even attempts to attribute several specimens to the same engraver (p. 158). Professor Mawer contributes some notes on Place- names, apparently in anticipation of the volume which he has since published ; the most striking are on Corbridge, Haltwhistle, and Hexham. Mr. Hodgson's paper of forty pages on the Manor and Township of Oving- ton traces very exhaustively the devolution of various properties, by purchase rather than inheritance. Mr. A. M. Oliver sketches less minutely the history of the charity of St. Elgy (Eligius) in All Saints' Church. The Society must be congratulated on the acquisition of the copper- plates recorded on p. x. There is a pleasant sketch of that indefatigable chronicler of Newcastle, the late Richard Welford. The other papers are less important. With the seventeenth volume the Society returns to pre-war dimensions, at the same time it completes the very valuable series of articles which VOL. XXXVI. — NO. CXLIV. R r