Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/365

 II

in. MAY 6,

NOTES AND QUERIES,

359

)i Skene much new information, some of it modify -

n^ conclusions previously accepted, has come to

ig t. This first instalment of the history ends with

,h( accession of Mary Stewart. It is written with

mv<3h vivacity, and gives an animated account of

hi turbulent proceedings and varied experiences

ffh ch make Scottish history during Stewart times

ht most picturesque and romantic in Europe. Not

as / is it to conceive a compendium at once more

er -iceable and more readable than is presented.

At the same time, we are occasionally puzzled with

>ui author's attitude towards the events he depicts.

ji 1445 the Earl of Crawford, Sir James Living-

toie, and the Ogilvies broke into the diocese of

St. Andrews and retired with their booty. For

,his James Kennedy, the bishop, excommunicated

..hem, laying under interdict every place where they

were harboured. Dr. Brown continues, "Exactly


 * >ne year had elapsed from the day of the harrying

)f the bishop's territory when the judgment of

Heaven overtook the chief offender." Is this seri-

jusly meant ? If every death in a foray or a feud

rt'as a judgment, the hands of Providence can seldom

lave rested. Again, it is said of Louis XL of

France that when the Scottish king's brother

Ubany took refuge in France, Louis, "taking pity

>n his destitute condition," gave him in marriage

\nne de la Tour, daughter of the Count of Boulogne

Lnd Auvergne. Such motive to action was at least

inusual on the part of that most cynical of rulers.

We are not quite sure that we understand what is

laid (p. 303) concerning the influence of the Lollards

If Kyle. On this we do not, however, insist. No

reat faith is inspired in our author by the lively

nd picturesque chronicle of Robert Lindsay, of

'itscottie. The best and latest authorities nave,

ideed, been consulted. New light on the early

ears of James III. is thrown by the 'Anciennes

Ironiques d'Engleterre ' of Jean de Waurin, pub-

shed by the Societe" de 1'Histoire de France. It is

3 be hoped we shall not have long to wait for the

3cond volume of this bright, trustworthy, and

livacious history.

plement to the Coinage of the European Continent. Jy W. Carew Hazlitt. (Sonnenschein & Co.) i. HAZLITT'S knowledge of the coinages of Europe wide, and he has the faculty for condensation. s supplementary volume will be found useful as jook of reference. Our coin collectors of former js confined themselves almost solely to the issues diseval or modern coins had a place in their rinets, they were almost always selected for their auty only, not for their historic significance. Our mghts have become wider, and there are now r eral British collectors who have studied the itinental mints with praiseworthy industry. 1, however, Mr. Hazlitt came forward there was rdly anything in our language that was helpful the student of foreign coinages. Some of the mbols used in continental mints have been very range. A briquet or miuritzei that is, a steel for iking a light appears on some of the money of arles the Bold, it is, we conclude, symbolical, were most of the ornaments and heraldic charges the Middle Ages. Mr. Hazlitt does not endea- ur to interpret its significance. It may have en the emblem of some saint, but if so we have led to identify him ; perhaps, however, it was t a fancy device, like the salamander of Francis L, lich occurs, with or without the motto "Nutrisco
 * he Greek, Roman, and English mints. If a few

et exinguo," on so many of the buildings and other works of art executed in his reign. Perhaps the Vuuritzer may be only intended to signify the fiery nature of him who bore it ; if so, it was undoubtedly an apt symbol. St. Oswald, it seems, appears on some of the money of Berg in Gelderland. The English king of that name is probably the person indicated. There are but two St. Oswalds in Pott- hast' s exhaustive list of saints, both of whom were inhabitants of this island. Mr. Hazlitt thinks that the right of coining money in consequence of a grant from the sovereign or other person having superior temporal jurisdiction has never existed in this country. What of the early pieces struck by Arch- bishops of Canterbury and York? And did not Lord Glamorgan claim that Charles I. granted him some such power ?

MR. J. G. FEAZEB concludes, in the Fortnightly, his essay on 'The Origin of Totemism,' in which he modifies to some extent the views he has expressed in his opusculum on the subject. His change of view is due to the ' Native Tribes of Central Australia ' of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, to which we have more than once drawn attention. Far too important are the questions raised, and far too intricate the explanations, to be easily dismissed. Yet further information seems, indeed, desirable. Briefly stated, the view of totemism among the Central Australian tribes Mr. Frazer advocates is that "it is a co- operative system, designed to procure for the community a supply, primarily of food, and second- arily of all the other necessaries of life." Thus regarded, Mr. Frazer finds in it nothing vague or mystical, nothing of " metaphysical haze." In its simplicity and directness he sees in this creation of a crude and barbarous philosophy something impressive and almost grandiose. Mr. Arthur Symons has a paper on Balzac, in which there is a good deal of " metaphysical haze." His estimate of Balzac is naturally high, and what is said is well worth study. Baron Pierre de Coubertin continues his brilliant and edifying sketches of ' France since 1814.' Mr. H. M. Paull has a disquisition upon ' Dramatic Convention : with Special Reference to the Soliloquy,' in which our modern dramatists are counselled to abandon the soliloquy before they are compelled to do so. We do not dispute the wisdom of the advice, but it will be some time yet before audiences insist on its observance. Mr. Hodge's 'The Teacher Problem' and Mr. Richard Davey's ' Cardinals, Consistories, and Conclaves ' repay attention. One of the results of admitting women as controversialists seems likely to be the resumption of weapons which we had hoped had been aban- doned in the conduct of polemics. In a reply on 'Woman as an Athlete' to Dr. Arabella Kenealv in the Nineteenth Century, Mrs. Ormiston Chant treats her adversary with a class of irony now for- tunately less common than once it was. The ques- tion at issue is not of a nature to tempt us into the fray. An article on 'The Ethics of War,' by the Rev. Father Ryder, suggests the conclusion that so long as our clerics are drawn from the same class as a squirearchy that sees its occupation in war and its amusements in the chase, humanitarian views as to war will not find very general advocacy in the Church. Father Ryder however holds, which is much, that not all defensive war can be pronounced justifiable. Mr. Sidney Low writes on The HVDO crisies of the Peace Conference,' and is of opinion that if Russia herself would abandon her arma-