Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/87

 9* s. v. JAN. 27, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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duly depicted, as are a hundred other spots of interest or beauty. In addition to the illustrations, which speak for themselves, there is a sensible map. Proof of the attraction of the book is found in the longing alas ! vain and fruitless to revisit the land of the Severn with which it inspires us.

Modern Spain. By Martin A. S. Hume. (Fisher

Unwin.)

A MELANCHOLY tale is that Major Hume has to tell in the account of ' Modern Spain ' he contributes to the " Story of the Nations Series." A hundred and ten years in all are covered by his work, which begins in 1788 practically with the accession of Charles IV. and ends in 1898 with the loss of Cuba. It is a story of unbroken calamity and trouble, due partly to the bigotry and untrustworthiness of her people and partly to the ambition of her neighbours. If a brighter outlook now exists, it is because of the spread of education and, the writer holds, because of the loss of colonies, the control of which was beyond her power. " A return to the days of Fernando or even of Isabella II. is as impossible now as a return to the despotism of the Philips." We are glad to hear such opinions, though the utterance fails to carry conviction. In the pauses between successive records of calamity our author gives us interesting information concerning litera- ture and the stage. We are thus told that Marquez, the celebrated actor, the victim of Ferdinand VII., did for the Spanish stage of the close of the last century and the beginning of the present what Garrick had at an earlier date done for the English. He did, in fact, much more, the obligation of the English stage to Garrick being less than is generally conceived. A great share in the decadence of the Spaniards is attributed to the wasteful and unproductive expenditure on the public services, an evil which no Spanish govern- ment has dared to tackle. Each change of govern- ment means an entire change of the administrative staff from the Prime Minister to the doorkeeper. " Empleomania " Major Hume calls this, a word coined from the Spanish empleo, of which Dr. Murray takes no notice. This work may be studied with advantage and interest, and is one of the best of the series to which it belongs. Major Hume, who is the editor of the ' Calendar of Spanish State Papers,' is a recognized authority on Spanish subjects. His book, which is dedicated to the I)uke of Wellington, is illustrated by some forty portraits of scenes and celebrities. The spelling is in some cases eccentric. Has Major Hume any authority for speaking of Pozzi di Borgo ?

The Age of Johnson (1748-1798). By Thomas

Seccombe. (Bell & Sons.)

To the series of " Handbooks of English Literature " edited by Prof. Hales has been added an excellent volume by Mr. Seccombe. In spite of its claims in art, which are indisputable, the eighteenth cen- tury has incurred the charge of dulness, chiefly, it appears, on account of the absence of romanticism and imagination from its poetry. From this charge our author is at some pains to defend it. It is certain that the age which produced Gray and Collins, and included Blake and Burns, cannot be ignored in any estimate of British poetry. No less certain is it that in the highest lyrical gifts it is as inferior to that of Milton and the Cavalier poets as it is to the age of Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats. The appearance of Blake's poems while the

influence of Pope and his ' Ars Poetica ' was supreme Mr. Seccombe himself holds to be " one of the greatest anomalies in literary history." The vindication of an age which counted in its ranks men such as Swift, Pope, Sterne, Walpole, John- son, Goldsmith, and Burke, to say nothing of minor writers, is, of course, superfluous, since none will attack it. Its taste in poetry and the question as to the rank in poetry of Pope and his school are open to be contested. Mr. Seccombe has supplied an admirable volume to an excellent series. His bio- graphies are models of condensation and accuracy, and his book may be read with pleasure and studied with advantage.

Social Chess. By James Mason. (Horace Cox.) MB. RUSKIN, who up to his death took a keen interest in chess, suggested fifteen years ago the publication of a selection of pretty and easily read games, with varied openings, for the delight and advantage of amateurs. This idea Mr. Mason has carried out. After some preliminary matter, interesting enough in itself, we come upon 131 games, almost all brilliant, the longest of which extends to no more than about thirty moves, while in some mate is declared in eight. When such a result is possible, great inequality of play is naturally to be expected. Every variety of popular lead is illustrated, and we have fine games by old friends such as Staunton, Bodeii, Burden, and Blackburne, as well as Morphy, Mac Donnell, and such later players as Steinitz, Tschigorin, Winawer, and Zukertort. This hand- some and instructive little volume should have a place in every chess library. It will be invaluable to beginners, but its service is not limited to such.

History of the Taxes on Knowledge: their Origin and Repeal. By Collet Dobson Collet. With an Introduction by George Jacob Holyoake. 2vols. (Fisher Unwin.)

THIS book should be read by all who take an interest in the progress of the Press of this country, for it contains a history of the part played by the society of which Mr. Collet was secretary the Association for the Repeal of the Taxes on Know- ledge in freeing the English Press from all taxation. Newspaper readers of the present day can hardly realize how, until past the middle of the present century, the British Press was hemmed in all round by restrictions. The measure x>assed by Mr. Spring Rice in 1836 consolidated the existing Press into something like a guild. "The members of the guild were protected by the Stamp Office in their monopoly of news ; but the Stamp Office gave this protection in order to preserve the revenue, not in order to enforce the law."

Mr. Holyoake who in his interesting intro- duction makes reference to the great services rendered by John Francis tells us how paper- makers were hampered in their business by the officers of the Excise ; how any one who attempted to publish a paper containing news without a stamp was liable to have all his presses broken up, his stock confiscated, and he and all per- sons in his house to be imprisoned; and even a reader found with an unstamped paper in his possession was liable to a fine of 20. Mr. Holyoake relates that when he published, during the Crimean War, War Chronicles and War Fly Sheets the Inland Revenue officers purchased six copies as soon as each number was out, and thus he incurred fines of 120. ; and that when the last warrant was