Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/314

 260 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. SEPT. 28, 1907.

chroniclers. They had, it is true, a far wider out- look ; but it may well be questioned whether their prejudices were not more narrowing than those of their mediseval predecessors. It is certain that it was not until well on in the nineteenth century that the instinct for historical study revived, and it was even later before it dawned on people how historical biographies ought to be written. The instinct for writing the lives of men and women of historical significance has now awakened, and as a consequence it is often safe to say that we have far more knowledge of some of the men of the past than was possible for their contemporaries. They now appear as human beings, not as mere pawns in a political game.

Even until quite recent days we have been con- tent, when we thought of Falkland, to accept with little criticism what Clarendon and Whitelock have told us. Clarendon had much admiration for Falkland, although their royalism was of far different tints ; Whitelock, on the other hand, was a Puritan, though by no means a fanatic, and he speaks of Falkland in high terms, as one who was "much lamented by all that knew him." He seems, however, to have thought him guilty of rashness little short of suicide in engaging per- sonally in the struggle at the first battle of New- bury ; and this idea has, we fear, come to be regarded in the popular mind as a truism.

To a man of active intellect like that of Falkland the times were perilous in many directions. There were dangers ahead such as the ordinary man of affairs always fails to see. Falkland shrank from the undisguised despotism of the King and the underlings of the Court with an aversion which it was hard to conceal, and men of the character of Strafford and Laud must have been especially hateful to him. At the same time he dreaded the Puritans, for he well knew that if the Presbyterians could gratify their desires without restraint the Laudian party within the Established Church, and the Catholics on the outside, would suffer persecution in its bitterest forms. He was one of the very few men of his time who had a real desire for toleration in a meaning not unlike what the word bears at the present day. He had friends among the more moderate Puritans, and many of his relations were Catholics. He hoped, therefore, against hope that it might be possible to bring about a form of settle- ment which, though far from his ideal, might re- move the heavier part of the burden from what were called, in the language of the day, "tender con- sciences." He had, as Mr. Marriott wisely insists, accepted the office of Secretary of State "from a

sheer sense of duty but for the King personally

neither reverence nor affection." When the Com- missioners of Parliament in February, 1643, visited Oxford, he must have felt well assured that no terms of peace could be the result of any number of conferences between the King and a body of men as perverse and narrow-minded as the King himself. The propositions the Commissioners came to enforce may pe seen at length in Rush worth ('Hist. Coll.,' pt. iii. vol. ii. p. 164). They constituted probably the most arbitrary and cruel State Paper ever compiled in this country by responsible statesmen. Never- theless, he must have felt that, if he surrendered his post, one or other of the divine-right Royalists would succeed him, with certain ruin to the royal cause.

Mr. Marriott has written one of the best bio- graphies relating to the Stuart period, the better

for partisanship being entirely absent. The last chapter in the volume is in some respects the most important, as he sketches therein his hero's character and convictions with what we believe to be consummate justice.

OF " The World's Classics " (Frowde) some two million copies have already been sold, and the series now needs no commendation from the critic. New volumes of varied interest are always being added and we cannot help envying the readers who have such facilities for increasing their libraries at so small a cost. The instalment of books before us includes Butler's Analogy of Religion, with a preface by Gladstone, which, though couched in some un- necessary verbiage, puts before us the great advan- tages of the present edition. The existence of headings to the various sections, and also of an excellent index, is a great boon.

Fielding's Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon and bmolletts Travels in France and Italy form a sufficient contrast in style and temper. Mr. Austin Dobson has a grateful task in pointing out the fortitude and manly endurance of Fielding ; while Mr. Thomas Seccombe in a long and careful intro- duction shows his thorough mastery of the subject and does his best to apologize for the unpleasant savour of petulance and dissatisfaction which is a feature of Smollett. What can be made of a tra- veller who "in regard to two exceptional instances

ot politeness on the partof innkeepers attributes

one case to dementia; the other, at Lerici to mental shock, caused by recent earthquake " ? '

Jervas's translation of Don Quixote, 2 vols has a masterly editor in Mr. Fitzmaurice-Kelly,' whose introduction and notes are learned and always to the point. Sesame and Lilies and Ethics of the Dust a PP. ear ,\ n ne volume in the "Ruskin House Edition, which is authorized by Mr. George Allen and, indeed, bears his imprint on the title-page' 1 urther works of Ruskin are promised iii this same

THE forthcoming double section of the ' Oxford English Dictionary ' has been enlarged so as to complete the letter N (Niche Nywe) and the volume. It is the work of Mr. W. A. Craiie In the new section there are 2,344 more words recorded ?^L more words illustra ted by quotations, and i\.u m r f. quotations than in any other dictionary of the English language. Among specially interest- ing words are nicotian, Nonconformist, Noniuror novel, and nutmeg.

We rmist call special attention to the following notices :

ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for uub lication, but as a guarantee of good faith.

H. W. BLEACKLEY. Received, and will appear as early as possible.

H. A. ATKINSON ( "Orchestra of Covent Garden' ) -Comparisons of the kind suggested are outside the scope of ' N. & Q.'