Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/75

 io s. XL .TAX. is, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

"he does- not talk to the Man, but attacks him, and whomsoever he can get into his Hands he lays

violent Language on His Tongue is always in

Motion, tho' very seldom to the Purpose, like a Barber's Scissars, which are always snipping, as well when they do not cut, as when they do " ; and of the Small Poet that "when he writes, he com- monly steers the Sense of his Lines by the Rhime that is at the End of them, as Butchers do Calves by the Tail."

Such utterances have the shrewdness, crispness, and point that distinguish all the great writers of "Characters " from Theophrastus downwards, and Butler is full of them. On the other hand, it is worth noting that with all his brilliancy he has distinct limitations. He lacks tolerance, and the humour that accompanies it ; his wit is too often, in Lamb's phrase, a lumen siccum ; and he is apt to become fierce and exaggerated. His portraits are, almost if not quite without exception, severe and satiric ; there are no representations of noble and wholesome humanity such as his predecessors were careful to intersperse among their base or ludicrous types. But when all is said, his work is worthy of careful study, not only on account of its literary merits, but also because it throws a great deal of light upon the social conditions and customs of the time, and this excellent edition of it is therefore most acceptable.

The 'Miscellaneous Observations' occupy some two hundred pages of the volume, and deal with diverse topics religion, statesmanship, literature, and so forth. On the whole, they must be pronounced a little disappointing. Butler was not a great thinker, and comparatively few of his dicta strike us as offering anything that is really original or suggestive, though they are often tersely and forcibly expressed. The Poetical Work* of George Crabbe. Edited by

A. J. Carlyle and R. M. Carlyle. (Frowde.) THIS is another worthy addition to the "Oxford Editions " of the poets, which have long been recog- nized as trustworthy and supervised by competent hands. In the present case the extent of Crabbe's work necessitates rather small type for a single volume. A reproduction of a portrait by Pickersgill of the poet forms the frontispiece, and the only notes are those made by Crabbe himself. In the able intro- duction the editors speak of Crabbe as " almost forgotten," which is, we think, exaggerating matters. He has always, we are sure, had select lovers among the best judges. Apart from his pungent and tonic outlook on real life, he shows at times " an antithetical cleverness " which is worthy of Pope. His muse, too, is by no means untaught. Glancing through the pages, we come upon a skilful turn here from Horace or Ovid, there from Gold- smith or Prior.

WE have frequently suggested that the Baptists should follow the excellent precedent set by the Congregationalists, and form a society for the pur- pose of collecting historical records and information relating to their body. We are gratified to find that the Baptist Historical Society has now been founded, its President being Mr. G. P. Gould, the Principal of Regent's Park College, while its Vice-Presidents and Committee are well known for their learning and influence ; it already numbers 120 members. With such a start there is every reason to believe that much good work will result.

The first number of the Transaction* contains a Prefatory Note by the President, who rightly anti- cipates that the information contained in the Transactions " will become a source of wealth to the future historian of the Baptist denomination." The first paper, by Mr. Champlin Burrage, is on a manuscript, 'Early Welsh Baptist Doctrines,' ascribed to Vavasor Powell. This is followed by a letter from Carey to his son. The third paper, 'Baptists and Bartholomew's Day,' is by the Secretary, Dr. Whitley, who disposes of the notion that any considerable number of ministers holding Baptist views needed the impulse of the Act of Uniformity to bring about the severance of their connexion with the State Establishment. Dr. Whitley maintains that Baptists were not Non- conformists in the old sense of that word.

Mr. Butt - Thompson supplies an account of William Vidler, Baptist and Universalist, born at Battle in Sussex on May 4th, 1758. He became pastor of a Particular Baptist church there in 1780. On being expelled from the Baptist denomination on account of his religious views, he came to London and joined the Unitarians, and in 1804 started The Unitarian Evangelical Society, and lectured on its behalf each Thursday at the chapel in Leather Lane. He died on the 23rd of August, 1816, and was succeeded in the ministry by William Johnson Fox, equally with Vidler "an old man eloquent." An obituary notice of Fox appeared in The Athenaeum* of the llth of June, 1864.

The last article is 'Porton Baptist Church,. 1655-85,' by Mr. Arthur Tucker, who tells us that "the burial-ground is still used as the last resting- place of members of the Baptist church in the village." As there has been a long discussion in ' N. & Q.' in reference to early tombstones of Dissenters, it would be interesting to know the earliest dates of those in this ground.

The Transactions can be obtained at the Baptist Union Publication Department, Southampton Row.

The National Review for this month has its usual vivid views of politics, beginning with ' Episodes of the Month.' Mr. F. W. Jowett, M.P., con- tributes ' A Labour View of the House of Commons,' and points out many weaknesses in the work done by the present system. ' Are Americans Pro- vincial?' is asked by Mr. H. W. Horwill, who- offers instances of the megalomania resulting in myopia among some Americans. Mr. Austin Dobson< gossips very agreeably about ' The Oxford Thacke- ray,' but we think he might have given us a little more criticism, which Prof. Saintsbury's prefaces strongly invite. Mr. F. S. Oliver is clever, as might be expected, but not particularly sound, we think, in his discussion of ' The Nature of a Whig.' Mr. George Hookham. whose name is new to us, has tackled afresh 'The Shakespearian Problem.' He makes constant reference to Mr. Greenwood's recent book on the subject, Mr. Sidney Lee, and the late Prof. Churton Collins, and he thinks that he has proved " that in his own day Shakespeare's poetry ,. as poetry, was not thought anything very won- derful," and " that the arguments, at any rate of the principal witness for the defence [Mr. Lee],, are not worth serious consideration." We merely remark that, on the evidence of this short article alone, we cannot regard Mr. Hookham as a sufficiently deep student of the subject to satisfy us. A second article is, however, promised.