Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/285

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of Elizabeth. S. R. Gardiner's account does not do justice to the situation. There was at the moment, with a possibly disputed accession, no legal authority in England except the peers, and they alone could act. This dilemma was reflected by the change in the Accession Pro- clamation. Before that time every new monarch, even if an infant, had proclaimed his accession in his own name, but James could not do so without risk and delay ; he was proclaimed, therefore, by the peers and magnates a true Great Council and it was not till new patents had been made out by James's order that the ordinary administration could resume its functions. The stress laid in Stuart times on landed property as a qualification for the peerage was not only founded on a definite economic and political theory, but also rested on an historical basis. The ' Modus tenendi Parlia- mentum ' is, of course, only evidence of the political theories of its time (Richard II.), but on this point it coincides with much other evidence as to the qualification for summons to the early Parliaments being connected closely with the holding of a certain number of knights' fees. Readers will appreciate the great divergence of the estimates as to the distribution o| wealth between the Lords and the Commons, which may be compared with Temple's a few years later, when drawing up his scheme for the regeneration of the Privy Council.

A subject of more than ordinary constitutional interest is the difference laid down during the Civil War between the peerage and the right of sitting as a Lord of Parliament. On two separate occasions it was formally agreed both by Charles I. and by Parliament that persons raised to the peerage by him after a certain date should be peers of England, but should not have the right to sit in the House of Lords or to vote. On one of these occasions it was added that to obtain this right the new peers must be approved by a vote of both Houses. Prof. Firth does not emphasize this discussion in any way, and a casual reader is likely to overlook a constitutional point which has become one of some importance. A full dis- cussion of the separability of these privileges of peerage may be found in Prynne, whose know- ledge of our records has only been surpassed by one student, happily still among us. A number of other interesting constitutional points will suggest themselves to every reader of this valuable and well-written history.

The National Review is vigorous, as usual, in ' Episodes of the Month.' ' A Heroic Woman,' by Ignotus, is a favourable view of the Empress Eugenie, presented as due to modern historians of the Franco-German War. We cannot endorse all that is said, or free the Empress from the charge of causing confusion by taking it on herseli to give orders apart from her husband. To cal' her career " the most tragic in all history " is over- strained. She has always been able to live in comfort, and she has never been imprisoned to take two points only. ' The Case for Woman's Suffrage ' is a speech by Lord Selborne, which Th National prints with a laudable desire to be above that " conspiracy of silence " which certainly affects some publications. Mr. W. M. Fuller- ton thinks that ' The New French Ministry ' is not so bad as it was painted in the first days after the fall of M. Briand. Mary M. Maxwell dwells

n ' The Lack of Privacy in the American Home,' which has many conveniences of equipment, but wants doors. The children bounce in on their parents at all times, and even borrow brushes rom visitors. Mr. C. Hagberg Wright has a very nteresting article on ' The Beginnings of the London Library,' an institution for which many a reader has to thank the grumblings of Carlyle. Capt. Humphries opens up in ' Apparitions of Animals ' a subject that would repay scientific nvestigation. There seems little doubt that the dog at least shares in collective hallucinations. The Captain, however, should not write of pheno- mena, " the bond fides of which are beyond question." There is a double mistake here which a man of education ought to have avoided.

IN The Nineteenth Century ' God's Test by War,' Mr. H. F. Wyatt, contains a number of debatable statements which readers may find difficulty in believing. Mr. W. S. Lilly's ' Some Notes on Chateaubriand ' tells us little that is new, and contains some exaggerated language which is not impressive. Bishop Welldon brings forward some striking comparisons of different renderings in a good article on ' The Making of the Authorized' Version,' and Mr. Ian Malcolm writes some enter- taining ' Humours of English Elections.' This article is not entirely fresh to us, but anecdotes in these days are frequently repeated. In ' The Story of the " Crown Domain " ' Mr. E. D. Morel once again exposes the horrors of the Congo, and the unblushing efforts made by the late Belgian King to bribe journalists and silence the com- plaints of investigators. ' The Case of Gwendo- line Casson, Misdemeanant,' by H. M. Wallis, is a pitiful story of a girl whose case has some peculiar features which made it difficult to help her. Sir Harry Johnston in ' The Seamy Side of Travel ' offers some very sensible criticisms of avoidable discomfort on English railways and elsewhere. We notice also an article by Dr. R. Y. Tyrrell on ' Our Debt to Latin Poetry as distinguished from Greek,' which cannot fail to interest classical scholars. The writer is a master of his subject and has besides an attractive liveliness. We congratulate The Nineteenth Century on a number so well varied, and on an increase of interest in literary matters.

IN The. Cornhitl Sir Laurence Gomme has brought together the results of various inquiries concerning the folk-lore of ' Telling the Bees,' in which our own columns have been concerned. Mr. Horace Hutchinson has a pretty story in which a war correspondent is going to be shot or hung as a spy until his Yankee judge discovers that both shared ' The Home of their Fathers ' in North Devon, and arranges for his getting off.. ' The Meaning of Death ' is discussed by Mr. Julian Huxley with reference to various experi- ments on lower forms of life. Sir Edmund Cox on ' Pig-sticking in India ' writes with an enthu- siasm which the sport deserves. " A Doctor's Wife " has an obviously genuine, and so interest- ing account of the trials and pleasures of ' A Country Practice.' Mr. A. C. Benson's subject this month is ' Frederic Myers,' with whom he does not seem to have had the same degree of intimacy as appeared in some of his earlier subjects. He writes, however, well on a man of singular mark, though vre cannot regard his portrait as a, complete one. The literary competi* tion set this month concerns Dickens.