Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/126

 118

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. m AUG. s,

glance ascertain the day of the week for any given date. It provides for both Old and New Styles down to the end of the eighteenth century. EDWAKD LATHAM.

There is some mistake here. If it fell on 2 April, Old Style, it could not fall on 5 April, New Style, as printed. ADRIAN WHEELER.

NAVAL PRONUNCIATION (9 th S. xii. 28). It might be worth while to collect such as " gun- wale," " rowlock," &c. Perhaps Smyth's In this connexion I should like to add that it was usual for the captain to address the ship's boy as "my son" or "sonny," W. C. B.
 * Sailor's Word-Book ' deals with the matter.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

The Cambridge Modern History. Planned by the late Lord Acton. Edited by A. W. Ward, Litt.D., G. W. Prothero, Litt.D., Stanley Leathes, M.A. Vol. VII. The United States. (Cambridge, Uni- versity Press.)

THE seventh volume of 'The Cambridge Modern History,' the second in order of publication, illus- trates admirably the results to be anticipated from the scheme of co-operative association which is at the base of the work. To a certain ex- tent the present volume departs from this as originally announced. The conditions in America are, however, different from those prevalent in any other country likely to be treated. That the United States should be treated as a whole and the history brought down to modern days was Lord Acton's expressed wish. Time has naturally wrought havoc among those to whom the work was originally allotted, and of the thirteen writers to whom the book is due five only are of Lord Acton's appointment. The open- ing chapters, on the 'First Century of English Colonization, 1607-1700,' and ' The English Colonies, 1700-63,' are by Mr. John A. Doyle, of All Souls', Oxford. They are concise and consecutive, though an appearance of fragmentariness is given by the necessity of treating each State separately under heads such as ' Virginia,' ' The New England Colo- nies,' ' Maryland,' &c. Every one of these divisions seems to exact separate criticism. In New England, for instance, we see the desire for simple forms of worship, and the sense that rulers were remote and out of all sympathy with national aspirations, beget a half-conscious republicanism which " easily be- came a reality when it found an appropriate machinery existing ready to its hand." In every case the sources of difficulty were the clumsiness and mismanagement at home of ignorant and venal officialdom.

Miss Mary Bateson treats in the third chapter of ' The French in America, 1608-1744,' and Mr. A. G. Bradley, in the fourth, of ' The Conquest of Canada, 1744-1761.' In the chapter last named the record becomes more stirring and picturesque. In the dispersal of the Acadians it is shown that England was innocent, and that the influence of the French priests was responsible for the calamities. In the

following chapter, ' The Quarrel with Great Britain, 1761-1776,' Mr. Doyle reappears ; and in the sixth, ' The Declaration of Independence,' Prof. Bigelow, of Boston University, takes up the story. In this chapter the constitutional aspects are stated with an impartiality amounting to detachment. An in- teresting opportunity is furnished the reader who chooses to compare the American view with the Whig view as expounded by Sir George Trevelyan's 'American Revolution' (Longmans, 1899). Prof. Bigelow is also responsible for an enlightened chapter on ' The Constitution,' while the fighting in the War of Independence is depicted by Mr. Doyle, who sums up wisely and philosophically the causes of British failure. Prof. McM aster tells the story of the American struggle for commercial independence and for the growth and expansion of the nation, while Mr. H. W. Wilson, of Trinity College, Oxford, describes the foolish and mismanaged war of 1812-15. The President of Princeton University has an important chapter on 'State Rights,' while the late John G. Nicolay has four spirited chapters on ' The Civil War, 1861-1865.' On such later questions as 'Political Reconstruction,' 'The United States as a World Power.' and ' Economic Development,' the writers are wholly American. A concluding chapter, by Prof. Barrett Wendell, of Harvard, is on ' The American Intellect.' The views concerning a Transatlantic World Power are calm, judicious, and dispassionate. It is obviously impossible to deal with these separate contributions. It is suffi- cient to say that nowhere else in so convenient a form has so much information been condensed. The bibliographies are admirable, and the work is encyclopaedic in many respects.

A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare. Edited by Horace Howard Furness. Vol. II. Macbeth. Revised Edition by Horace Howard Furness, Jun. (Philadelphia, Lippincott Company.) IT has long been apparent that the Herculean task to which Dr. Horace Howard Furness has devoted the labour of a lifetime could not be executed by his own unassisted hands. At the rate of progress which has been maintained since the beginning of publication in 1875 the middle of the present cen- tury might possibly granting the continued life and strength of the editor witness the conclusion of his labours. It is pleasant to find assistance coming from the source whence it was most to be hoped from the son, that is, of the originator of the scheme, whose zeal and competency are no less marked than those of his father. As yet the labours of this valuable recruit are confined to revision. Mr. Fur< ness, Jun., is, however, engaged upon 'Richard III.,' and a fair and not wholly unauthorized supposition is that the historical plays generally will be con- fided to his hands, in a sense 'Macbeth' and ' Lear' also belong to British history. Quite inde- pendent of that fact are the reasons that have led to the reconstitution of the text and the ampli- fication of the notes in the second volume of the ' New Variorum Shakespeare.' It is almost in- herent in the execution of a work " of long breath " that the labourer should, in its course, arrive at a more definite idea of the manner in which the task attempted may most easily and advantageously be accomplished. At the outset Dr. Furness aimed at no more than supplying the best text to be obtained from a collation of editions of authority, with the addition, in the shape of