Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/528

 440 NOTES AND QUERIES. [se s. VI. Dm. 1, 1900. “Round Table Conference ” which is still on the knees of the gods. It strikes us as rather beneath the dignity of the historic muse to quote_ “the paper which claims the largest circulation in the world,” and that merely for the (purpose of em; balming the obiter dictum of “ a Lon on magistrate ’ last May, that for his part he would like to mete out the same penalty of flogging to “ all brawlers during Divine service ” as he then pronounced “ on two small boys aggd respective Iy thirteen and twelve ” (p. 536). is worship’s iking is hardly history, even in the making. THE Edinburgh Review for October has an article on Hermann von elmholtz, who was one of _the greatest and most devoted explorers of the physical sciences which the world has seen, but beiyond the limits of those-in this country far too ew-who devote their energies to the serious study of what used to be called t e “natural sciences” there are, we fear very few who have hitherto had anything beyond a vague knowledge of what the great German did for the progress of scientific thought. Where this ignorance now exists there can but small excuse for its continuance, for the present article is an account of his career so clear y and simply written that any one may easily understand it. The most striking, if it be not the most im- portant of the discoveries of Helmholtz, is that which relates to the cause of the heat_of the sun. VVe will not take upon us to say that his t»heory)1s absolutely demonstrable; it is, however, proba le in a very high degree, and is at present the only one in t e field. t is, of course, not impossible that what goes by the name of “the shrinkage theory ” may underg; modification when we know- if such knowledge in store for us-what is the nature of that ether which is assumed to fill all space. When that time arrives it may become c ear that the waste of energy radiating from the solar orb and its countless brethren which stud_the sky is no waste at all but something as rigidly conservative as some other things whic were over- looked by the physicists of the past, bu_t are now regarded as among the most potent forces in the_sum of what constitutes the universe, so far as it is knowable to us. ‘ The Roman Conquest of Gaul’ is a striking picture of what Caesar did, and, we may ad, what he did not, for it is to his successors and mainly to Augustus that the settle- ment is due which took pace after Julius had fallen by the daggers of those who have been mls- named patriots. The sketch of Caesar himself is a mere outline, but drawn with a. firm hand. The opposing qualities of entleness and ruthlessness are indicated but no ‘futile moral reflections are forced upon the reader. We think the literary side of his character is hardly appreciated as it deserves. To us his ‘ De Bello Gallico seems one of the greatest historical narratives which have come down to us- so great that it is little short of desecration to use it as a book out of which to teach children to con- strue Latin. Whatever view we may take of the tangled history of the last nineteen centuries, if we would understand the growth of modern govern- ments we must begin with Gallia as Julius left her. As well as being er conqueror he was her first historian. The foundations which he and Augustus laid may be regarded as the basal courses of modern civilization outside Italy. There is, we need not say, no little danger of this great truth being pressed too far, but it is fatal to ignore it. _Before the name of Rome was known north of the Allps there had been a wild freedom among the Gaulis tribes, but it is to the organizing power of Roman genius we owe the communes as they ap ear in history, and indirectly, notwithstanding all) that has been said to the contrary, a no small portion of our own free, self-governing life. The new edition of Burnet’s ‘ History of my own Time ’ is taken as a text for a pgper on ‘The Restoration Regime in Scotland? e cannot speak so kindly of Burnet as the reviewer does, but it is well the other side should have a hearing. The VVhig bishop was hated bx his opponents in his own day. Hearne, the Oxfor antiquary, for example, was pleased to believe all things evil of him, and this unreasoning prejudice has come down, with many similar ineptitudes, to our own day. Burnet was in no sense a hero; he was grossly unfair, and it requires more faith than we possess to regard him as honest; but he did good literary work, though it was marred gy prejudice and vanity, if not ty greater faults. et he was in some ways a true riend to liberty, and we owe him no small debt of gratitude for his bein the remote cause of the stirring paper before us. gfhe writer has inherited, it may be, some of Burnet’s bias, as he has certainli availed himself of his straightforwardness in c aracter-drawing. His picture of the crueltgr and stupidity of the Restoration rule in Scot-lan is graphic. Some excuse may be made for its cruelty, for it was a time when the tenderer feelings were little regarded, but no excuse can be lplea ed for the stupidity which is without a para el even in Stuart rule. The pa r on Lord Byron is a fair estimate, and that on ‘ The Completion of Italian Unity’ contains many good soints, but the subject is too many-sided to be ealt with effectively in a review. gntim tu Gnmsynnhmis. We must call special attention to the following notices :- ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- llcation, but as a guarantee of good faith. Wm cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip oipaper, with the signature of the writer and such dress as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to Hut in parentheses, immediately after the exact eading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication “ Duplicate.” S. L. (“ Dickensiana ”).-Send address. A. G.-Ve cannot insert again so soon. NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to “ The Editor of ‘ Notes and Queries’ ”-Advertise- ments and Business Letters to “The Publisher”- at the Office, Bream’s Buildings, Chancery Lane, E. C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications _which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.