SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1889.

CONTENTS.

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LIBRARY TABLE-LIST OF NEW BOOKS
THE LATE CAPT. MAYNE REID; THE BOOK SALES
OF 1888; DOUAI COLLEGE AND THE BRIGHTON
PAVILION

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PAGE

141

142

143

144

145

145

146-147

SCIENCE - BOTANICAL LITERATURE: 'OUR RARER BIRDS'; GEOGRAPHICAL NOTES; SOCIETIES; MEETINGS; GOSSIP

149

150-153

FINE ARTS-THE STUART EXHIBITION; HANS MEMLINC; NEW PRINTS; M. ALEXANDRE CABANEL; GOSSIP

153-155

MUSIC-WEEK: RECENT PUBLICATIONS; GOSSIP; CON-
CERTS NEXT WEEK
DRAMA-ARCHER'S MASKS OR FACES; WEEK; GOSSIP

LITERATURE

155-156

156-157

Histoire du Peuple d'Israël. Par Ernest

Renan. Tome II. (Paris, Calmann Lévy.) In this his second volume M. Renan traverses the period between the definite establishment and consolidation of the kingdom of David and the commencement of the activity of Isaiah. Before calling attention to particular passages, such as may serve to exhibit what is peculiar in M. Renan's general treatment, we may reproduce in barest outline the political events of the period as they are depicted by M. Renan.

The closing years of the reign of David were troubled by the question of the succession to the throne a question which to Eastern potentates, with whom polygamy is the rule, has seldom failed to present itself in a specially acute and complicated form. The king looked upon Solomon as his successor; but in the hearts of the people Adonijah, the eldest now that Absalom was dead, was a powerful rival. The latter had actually contrived a sort of informal proclamation of himself, when Bathsheba, whose influence preponderated in the harem, joining at this critical moment her solicitations to those of Nathan the prophet, roused the failing David to proclaim Solomon his successor in orthodox form. Immediately upon his assumption of supreme power Solomon took the necessary precaution of ridding himself of rivals possible as well as actual. The last dying instructions of his father were of great service to him as a guide in the selection of his victims, though he displayed on his own account a quite peculiar combination of political sagacity and sacred sophistry, which well deserves to have become proverbially associated with "wisdom." Having thus

his name as

strengthened the basis of his authority, Solomon devoted himself to the task of organizing his kingdom. His taste for pomp and luxury was gratified without stint; and under his influence Israel commenced that movement in the path of secular progress which the conservatism of the puritan party soon succeeded in arresting. For the peculiar historical significance of the reign of Solomon lies in the fact that Israel was then, for the first and last time, drawn by deliberate policy into the wider and deeper current of national life around her. Solomon was the friendly ally of the king of Tanis, whose daughter held a place of special privilege in his crowded harem.

air, as the patriarchs had done before him. Moreover, the burdens and exactions necessarily involved in the maintenance of government and the support of public works were deeply resented by a proud people, who were, on the one hand, firmly persuaded of the dignity of idleness, and, on the other, saw in such an obvious institution as taxes nothing but the king's irresponsible method of gratifying his tastes and paying for his caprices. Accordingly, upon the death of Solomon the discontent which had long been smouldering burst out fiercely into open revolt. The conduct and bearing of the legitimate successor only served to fan the flame. Of the twelve tribes Judah and Benjamin alone remained faithful to the house of David, while the rest proclaimed Jeroboam king, and the ancient line of division between Israel and Judah broadened and deepened into an impassable gulf. The political decadence of the two divisions, separated by mutual jealousy and antipathy, was henceforth swift and sure. Five years after the death of Solomon, Sheshonq, founder of the twenty-second dynasty, passed through Palestine on a marauding expedition, taking Jerusalem on his way; and neither of the little kingdoms could make the least show of resistance. In the North, Samaria, under the house of Omri, reflected for a brief period the splendour of the Solomonic epoch at Jerusalem; but, as usual, the first signs of progress in the direction of profane civilization provoked indignant protest on the part of the prophets, whose influence is still visible in the sombre and lurid colouring of the story of Ahab. The danger which constantly threatened from the side of Damascus brought Ahab into temporary alliance with Jehosaphat, king of Judah. Though the issue of their joint enterprise was disastrous, Jehu and his successors were able to defend themselves against the same enemy, until, on the apparition of Assyria, local strife becomes merged in the common struggle for national existence. The curtain falls upon a tragic scene - upon the Northern kingdom ravaged and ruined, and the flower of her people carried away into slavery, while Judah, not more than half animated, half consoled by the voice of Isaiah, trembles before the threatening of a similar fate.

has dominated for centuries the thoughts of men, we must allow M. Renan himself to speak in his own brilliant, if occasionally flippant way.

Of the reign of David the religious significance was, according to M. Renan, immense, though the current idea of the tribal god was still in a large measure crude and material:

"La profession de foi de David se résume en ce mot: 'Iahvé qui a sauvé ma vie de tout danger...' Iahvé est une forteresse sûre, un rocher, d'où l'on peut défier ses ennemis, un bouclier, un sauveur. Le serviteur de Iahvé est en toute chose un être privilégié. Oh! combien il est sage d'être un serviteur exact de Iahvé. C'est surtout en ce sens que le règne de David eut une extrême importance religieuse."

The story of Solomon, in the familiar form in which it has reached us, is, M. Renan thinks, the outcome of an attempt to combine and exhibit in one picture two discordant im

pressions of the same scene. Much has been done in the way of toning and blending ill

matched tints; but the general effect, though undeniably gorgeous and varied, is a proof that the difficulty was not overcome :

"Le charmant épisode-probablement légendaire de la reine de Saba servit de cadre à cette première édition des 'Mille et une Nuits.' L'homme, devenu vieux, aime à se reporter vers un état d'imagination où nulle philosophie n'est encore venue troubler ses goûts d'adolescent. Un roi, en même temps sage et voluptueux, un mondain favorisé des révélations célestes, une reine qui vient des extrémités du monde pour voir sa sagesse et lui dire tout ce qu'elle a sur le cœur, un sérail hyperbolique à côté du premier temple élevé à l'Éternel, tel a été, avec le Cantique des cantiques, le divertissement et la part du sourire, ce grand opéra sombre qu'a créé le génie hébreu. Il y a des heures, dans la vie la plus religieuse, où l'on fait une halte au bord de la route, et où l'on oublie les devoirs austères, pour s'amuser un moment, comme les femmes du sérail de Salomon, avec les perles et les perroquets d'Ophir."

On the other hand :

"La réalité historique qui se cache derrière ces récits merveilleux fut à peu près ceci: Un millier d'années avant Jésus-Christ, régna, dans une petite acropole de Syrie, un petit souverain, intelligent, dégagé de préjugés nationaux, n'en

rien à vraie vocation de sa race, sage

selon l'opinion du temps, sans qu'on puisse dire qu'il fût supérieur en moralité à la moyenne des monarques orientaux de tous les temps. L'intelligence, qui évidemment le caractérisa, lui valut de bonne heure un renom de science et

de philosophie. Chaque âge comprit cette science et cette philosophie selon la mode qui dominait. Salomon fut ainsi tour à tour paraboliste,

naturaliste, sceptique, magicien, astrologue,

"Le temple fut une idée personnelle de Salomon, une idée toute politique, dont la conséquence devait être de mettre l'arche et son oracle dans la dépendance du palais royal. Au point de vue israélite pur, le temple devait sembler une déchéance. Cette localisation de la gloire de Iahvé était si peu dans le vrai développement d'Israël, que, le temple à peine achevé, nous verrons les parties les plus vivantes de la nation

s'en séparer, et attester par leur schisme que cet édicule n'appartenait en rien à l'essence du iahvéisme...... Tous les abus du judaïsme viendront du temple et de son personnel. Pas un prophète, pas un grand homme ne sortira de la caste lévitique. Le dernier mot d'Israël sera une

After the division into two kingdoms, the spirit of the Northern Tribes vexed and confined under Solomon, found room to expand and develope in a freer air. It is to this activity that we must assign the reduction to literary form of the patriarchal and heroic legends, of which fragments in some cases, probably, retouched-are still preserved in the composite body of the present Hexateuch :

"Une race vit éternellement de ses souvenirs d'enfance, ou de ceux qu'une adoption séculaire lui a en quelque sorte inoculés. Le livre des patriarches eut sur l'imagination d'Israël une influence incalculable. Cet écrit primitif donna le ton à ceux qui suivirent, un ton qui n'est ni celui de T'histoire, ni celui du roman, ni celui du mythe, ni celui de l'anecdote, et auquel on ne peut trouver d'analogie que dans certains récits arabes antéislamiques. Le tour de la narration hébraïque, juste, fin, piquant, naïf, rappelant l'improvisation haletante d'un enfant qui veut dire à la fois tout ce qu'il a vu, était fixé pour toujours. On en retrouvera la magie jusque dans les agadas de décadence. Les Evangiles rendront à ce genre le charme conquérant qu'il a toujours eu sur la bonhomie aryenne, peu habitués à tant d'audace dans l'affirmation de fables. On croira la Bible, on croira l'Évangile, à cause d'une apparence de candeur enfantine, et d'après cette fausse idée que la vérité sort de la bouche des enfants: ce qui sort, en réalité, de la bouche de l'enfant, c'est le mensonge. La plus grande erreur de la justice est de croire au témoignage des enfants. Il en est de même des témoins qui se font égorger. Ces témoins, si fort prisés par Pascal, sont justement ceux dont il

faut se défier."

Upon the way in which the heroic legends have permeated the more recent strata of the literature, M. Renan makes the following remarks:

"C'est pour ne s'être pas bien rendu compte de l'importance de cette première étape littéraire d'Israël, que des critiques, plus habiles aux découvertes du microscope qu'aux larges vues d'horizon, n'ont pas eu d'yeux pour voir, en sa grosseur capitale, ce fait que les plus anciens rédacteurs de l'Hexateuque citent un écrit antérieur, savoir le livre du Iasar ou des Guerres de Iahvé, composé d'après d'anciens cantiques. Nous trouvons les membres épars de ce livre dans les parties dites jéhovistes du

originel a été une invention du jéhoviste. Le mal pour lui est 'la voie de toute chair....... L'explication de toute l'histoire humaine par la tendance au mal, par la corruption intime de la nature, est bien du jéhoviste, et elle a été la base du christianisme de saint Paul. La tradition juive garda ces pages mystérieuses, sans beaucoup y faire attention. Saint Paul en tira une religion, qui a été celle de saint Augustin, de Calvin, en général du et qui certes a sa profondeur, puisque des esprits très éminents de notre siècle en sont encore pénétrés."

On the other hand :

sa première

"L'ouvrage qui résulta du travail hiérosolymite était plus court que celui du Nord. Le caractère en était plus simple, moins mythologique, moins bizarre...... C'est par page que cet écrivain a marqué sa place en lettres d'or dans l'histoire de la religion, et en lettres beaucoup moins lumineuses dans l'histoire de la science et de l'esprit humain......On peut dire que le narrateur hierosolymite, par son début, a créé la physique sacrée qu'il faut à certain état d'esprit où l'on tient à n'être qu'à moitié absurde. Cette page......a répondu à ce rationalisme médiocre, qui se croit en droit de rire des faibles parce qu'il admet une dose aussi réduite que possible de surnaturel; puis elle a sensiblement nui au progrès de la vraie raison, qui est la science...... Les cosmogonies hésiodiques sont plus loin de la vérité que la première page de l'élohiste; mais, certes, elles ont fait moins déraisonner. On n'a pas persécuté au nom d'Hésiode, on n'a pas accumulé les contresens pour trouver dans Hésiode le dernier mot de la géologie."

Of the prophets whose labours extend over the latter part of the period before us, we have space to refer only to Isaiah :

"Quoique Isaïe n'ait pas inventé les belles formules religieuses qui remplissent ses écrits, sa place dans l'histoire du monde n'est nullement usurpée. Il fut le plus grand d'une série de géants......Il n'est pas le fondateur du judaïsme; il en est le génie classique...... Il est le vrai fondateur (je ne dis pas l'inventeur) de la doctrine messianique et apocalyptique. Jésus et les apôtres n'ont fait que répéter Isaïe. Une his toire des origines du christianisme qui voudrait remonter aux premiers germes devrait commencer à Isaïе."

Josué; selon nous, il fait le fond du livre des Juges, et il a fourni les plus beaux éléments des livres dits de Samuël. Le livre des Juges, en effet, et les livres dits de Samuel nous offrent à la surface la couche de terrain que, dans les plus anciennes parties de l'Hexateuque, nous ne rencontrons qu'en filon et en sous-sol."

Passing to the beginnings of a sacred his tory, properly so called, M. Renan finds that the earlier and more original redaction was the work of the North:

"La rédaction du Nord fut sûrement la première en date et la plus originale...... Ce que le rédacteur jéhoviste eut surtout de personnel, ce qui le distingua essentiellement de ses devanciers, ......ce fut une profonde philosophie, recouverte du voile mythique, une conception triste et sombre de la nature, une sorte de haine pessimiste de l'humanité...... Ce qu'on appelle le fatalisme musulman n'est, en réalité, que le fatalisme iahvéiste. Jaloux de sa gloire, susceptible sur le point d'honneur, lahvé a en haine les efforts humains. On lui fait injure en cherchant à connaître le monde et à l'améliorer. ......Le jéhoviste, comme on l'appelle, est sûre

ment un des écrivains les plus extraordinaires qui aient existé...... Il égale presque Hegel par l'usage et l'abus des formules générales...... Une pensée profonde, bien que selon nous erronée, remplit ses pages en apparence les plus enfantines...... On peut dire, en effet, que le péché

In conclusion, the present volume will be tory than its predecessor. M. Renan stands on firmer ground. His task has been to deal not with the mists of conjecture hovering upon the margin of history, but with the solid and assured conclusions of critical science. Of the qualities of the book as a

specimen of French prose it would be superfluous to speak in detail. We need only say

that it is replete with signs that M. Renan is still in full possession of his unrivalled powers. We note the same delicacy of insight, the same breadth of sympathy, the same mastery of the varied resources of reflection and illustration.

The Career of Major George Broadfoot, C.B., in Afghanistan and the Punjab. By Major W. Broadfoot, R.E. (Murray.)

To rescue from oblivion the brilliant ser

vices of a gallant soldier, who fought hard, field, is certainly a fitting task for an officer endured much, and died bravely on the retired from the more active duties of his

records brings to light certain errors and omissions in the accepted history of the military operations in which he was engaged.

Major W. Broadfoot, therefore, has done well to revive our somewhat hazy recollections of the operations directed by Sir Robert Sale and General Pollock subsequent to the disasters which disgraced the annals of the first Afghan wars, although it might be thought that Sir John Kaye, and more recently Sir Henry Durand, had well-nigh summed up all that was to be said on this much vexed subject indeed, thirty-seven years ago we stated in this journal that the topic was nearly worn out (Athen. No. 1254).

The presence of accredited newspaper correspondents at the headquarters of armies in the field nowadays, first, we believe, commenced before Sebastopol, has in some degree destroyed the old trustful confidence in the euphemisms of a general's despatches published in the Gazette; but the secret and "strictly confidential" communications which so often reveal the real history of events usually only see the light when those to whom they refer have long passed away. Major George Broadfoot's journals and letters have been found to contain much of such unrecorded history, and, although the extracts now printed may prove caviare to the multitude, to the military student of the battle-ground of the Indian frontier they may afford instructive lessons.

The time dealt with in this narrative extends only over the last few years of Broadfoot's career, commencing in 1841, when he was thirty-four years of age, and ending with his death at the battle of Firozshah in 1845. Previous to this time Broadfoot's life had been comparatively uneventful since he joined the 34th Madras Native Infantry as a cadet; for he had performed ordinary regimental duty, acted as orderly officer at Addiscombe, and latterly engaged in departmental work with the commissariat. Both his younger brothers saw service before he did, and both died in action, one in rallying his men against Dost Mahomed's other in the subsequent massacre at Kabul. famous last charge at Parwan Dara, and the

George Broadfoot, although not an engineer officer, was ordered to raise a regiment of sappers for Shah Shuja's service at Kabul, then occupied by General Elphinstone; and his first duty was to convey to that capital, across the Punjab, the zenana, treasure,

and impedimenta of the Shah. The difficulties of this march beyond the Sutlej to

Peshawar were aggravated by the turbulent attitude of the Sikh troops encamped on the route, who acknowledged no control but that of their panchayats, or regimental committees. Owing to his coolness and tact the young officer accomplished his mission without firing a shot, and brought his party safely to its destination. Warmer work was soon to follow. In the autumn of 1841 Capt. Broadfoot and his sappers fought their way with the rear-guard of Sir Robert Sale's brigade during the march to Jalalabad. all but a rout, and foreshadowed the awful The passage of the Pari Dara was, in fact, fate that was to befall the army of Elphin

stone:

"The panic-stricken companies of the 13th and 35th hurried forward in confusion to get out of the pass. The Ghilzis, occupying the fugitives, and the villagers pressed up the pass after them, knife in hand. At this juncture and amid this confusion 'most fortunately a few intrepid British were found to face the enemy, headed by Capt. Broadfoot: these were Capt. Wyndham and Lieut. Coombs of the 35th, Lieut. Cunningham (son of the poet) and Sergeant-Major Kelly of the Sappers, with five or six sepoys of the Sapper corps, who had remained with Broadfoot and Cunningham as orderlies; these ten or twelve charged the Ooloos, or villagers above referred to, and held them in check until they reached the exit of the pass...... During this scene of terror all who fell wounded were, of course, abandoned; the enemy as they came up falling upon them in heaps, and, as Capt. Broadfoot describes it, 'like hounds on a fox.' Our men were rallied * by the dispositions made at the outlet by Capts. Backhouse and Fenwick, and covered by the bold front ever maintained by Capt. Broadfoot." Lieut. Cunningham, we may observe, is known to literature as Col. Cunningham, the accomplished editor of Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

Next comes the portion of history which should be rewritten. Speaking of the first week in January, 1842, Kaye writes:

"The Jellalabad garrison were not in a temper to be easily cast down. On they went from day to day, working cheerfully at the defencesnever fearing for themselves, and in spite of the evil prophecies of a few among them, hoping the

best for their miserable comrades."

We now learn from the journals of Broadfoot and Backhouse not only that doubt and despair were rife in the garrison, but that General Sale and Capt. MacGregor, the political officer, had resolved to yield up Jalalabad; for after the arrival of Dr. Brydon, the sole survivor of the Kabul army with the exception of Akbar Khan's prisoners, on the 13th of January, and after Wilde's defeat in the Khaibar on the 19th, Sale summoned a council of war to approve a scheme for the evacuation of the town under a convention with the Afghans. Unfortunately, Broadfoot's diary of this very critical period has been lost :

"From January 10th to February 1st the leaves have disappeared, and all endeavour to trace them has been fruitless. When Major Broadfoot was killed in 1845, the diary was in the hands of the late Sir H. Havelock, who sent it to Broadfoot's successor in office, Sir H. Lawrence, from whom it was received some years after by Major Broadfoot's family without the pages referred to."

Surely Major W. Broadfoot does not imply that Sir H. Lawrence could have had anything to do with the disappearance of these pages; for on p. 62 a letter is quoted, written by Major G. Broadfoot to Havelock (April, 1843): "You remember......your telling me of your having been deprived somewhat suddenly of all the documents relating to our Jellalabad parliaments." This deprivation evidently included the missing pages. It must be kept in mind that the important memoir on the several councils of war which ensued (the "jackdaw parliaments," as Havelock termed them) is avowedly based on recollection, backed up, however, by Havelock's reminiscences in confirmation of the main points at issue. The notices of Henry Havelock's noble bearing and sterling worth are, by the way, not the least interesting reading in the book. These councils of war are not even alluded to by Sir John Kaye, although he mentions

earlier ones that took place at Gundamuk and Jalalabad. Throughout Kaye leads his readers to suppose that Sale was the leading spirit in the defence of Jalalabad, whereas we now learn how weak the "poor" general was-how Broadfoot and Havelock urged him to do this, persuaded him to do that.

Capt. Oldfield, of the Bengal Cavalry, and Broadfoot were the only two members of the council who withstood the scheme of surrendering, for Havelock had not a vote; but later Capt. Backhouse joined the opposition. Nevertheless, the letter offering to surrender was actually forwarded to the enemy, who returned it that the seals of the subscribers might be affixed. This delay happily enabled the minority to gain over Cols. Dennie and Monteath, who, with Abbott, were able to carry the day. It was fully determined by all, except Sir R. Sale and his political officer, to hold out, and Jalalabad | was saved.

During Pollock's march on Kabul after the raising of the siege, Broadfoot and his sappers maintained their reputation for gallantry, and on the arrival of the armies at the frontier Major Broadfoot was appointed Commissioner of Tenasserim by Lord Ellenborough as a reward for his services. After a successful administration of that province for a short period, Major Broadfoot was posted as Governor-General's Agent of the North-West Frontier, where trouble with the Sikh Khalsa was now impending.

When Raja Lal Singh crossed the Sutlej, Broadfoot had fully arranged for the supplies of the British forces when the regular commissariat had collapsed, and he was the first to announce the approach of the enemy before the action at Mudki, where he accompanied the Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, who, to his eternal honour, sinking his rank and position, fought as second in command to Sir Hugh Gough. At Firozshah Broadfoot was shot in the thigh, but, remounting, cheered on his men in the attack on the entrenchments till he fell with a bullet through his heart.

We have only to add that there is a good index, with maps of Jalalabad and the Sutlej. The value of the work would have been increased by a map to illustrate the passes between Kabul and the besieged town; whilst some views of the walls before and after the earthquake, reduced, say, from Walton's large lithographs, would better enable the student to realize the work performed by Broadfoot and his native sappers during their heroic defence of Jalalabad.

a

patient weighing

of authorities which

Side-Lights on the Stuarts. By F. A. Inderwick, Q.C. (Sampson Low & Co.) THIS is an amusing, but most unequal book. Some parts of it show considerable research, and does the author great credit; other portions have been compiled in a haphazard manner, which can by no means be commended. Mr. Inderwick is not an admirer of the Stuart family, but he is more careful than some others of his contemporaries. deavours to do justice to James I., a person whom it is the custom of many who are fair to his son to calumniate recklessly. Nor does Mr. Inderwick quite do justice to Henrietta Maria. There is very little about ❘

He en

her, it is true; but what there is indicates that her history has not been approached with a full understanding of her unfortunate surroundings. Why Mr. Inderwick has reproduced the old engraving of the queen doing penance at Tyburn it is hard to imagine. He calls it an engraving of the seventeenth century. We do not know its date, but judging from the style it seems to us to be a Dutch production of about the year 1700. Mr. Inderwick does not tell us what event in the queen's life it relates to beyond the fact that Penant says that in 1626 her confessor ordered her to do penance at Tyburn, at which her husband was so disgusted that the priest was sent out of the kingdom. The tale looks so exceedingly like a calumny that it is impossible to accept it without proof. Penant was an acute observer and an industrious compiler, but had no very clear notions as to the boundary line between truth and fiction. Grotesque penances were sometimes imposed in those days, but we do not think anything so offensive and dangerous could have been inflicted on the queen consort without absolute proof having been preserved. The engraving, whatever be its date and origin, is no evidence whatever.

By far the best part of the book is the portion devoted to Monmouth's rebellion, for the terrible details of the legal vengeance taken on the defeated party are given in detail without any of that picturesque writing which, while it heightens the effect, deprives all but careful people of the power of comparing those unhappy proceedings with similar events in early and later history. We should be sorry to appear as apologists for the butcheries in the West, which can hardly be denounced in too strong language; but we apprehend that they in no way bear comparison with the deeds of blood which followed on the suppression of the rising in the North, or the similar atrocities which took place during the Puritan conquest of Ireland. The great value of the article consists in Mr. Inderwick having printed in full the Gaol Book of the Western Circuit for 1685 and 1686. Here are given the names, crimes, and sentences of all those concerned in the revolt. It is a terrible catalogue, occupying twenty-nine pages of compact print.

The portion devoted to Arabella Stuart contains, as far as we have observed, nothing new. It is picturesquely written, and is rendered valuable by containing an appendix of letters written by and to that unfortunate woman. Many of them have not, as far as we are aware, ever been printed before. It may not be out of place to mention as an example of the lax manner of spelling names in former days that Arabella signs indifferently Steward, Stewart, and Stuart.

The paper on witchcraft contains a mass of curious information. The extracts from the Gaol Books of the Western Circuit from 1670 to 1712 with regard to this supposed crime will be new to students. It is a long catalogue, but it is some consolation to find that only about one-tenth of the criminals were found guilty. Much has been written about witchcraft, every volume on folk-lore deals with it, and most persons when they wish to have a fling at their ancestors are in the habit of discoursing on this cruel and stupid form of superstition. There is,

however, no book in the language which deals with it in an exhaustive manner. As Mr. Inderwick points out,

"There is every reason to believe that the actual consort of evil spirits with human beings was more implicitly accepted by the Calvinists during the seventeenth century than by professors of any other form of religion."

Though terrible details reach us from France and the Catholic parts of Germany, the fact no doubt is as Mr. Inderwick has stated. It would occupy far too much space were we to endeavour to explain the reasons for thisthey are extremely complex; but it must be remembered that, although comparatively inconsiderable in the Middle Ages, there is a stream of witchcraft tradition coming down to us from very early times.

There are few mistakes in matters of fact in Mr. Inderwick's pages. One of them is, however, extremely grotesque. He accepts the story of James I. knighting the loin of beef, and lays the scene at Houghton Tower. One cannot but wish that Dr. Murray's 'Dictionary' had reached the letter S, that the surloin superstition might be sent to join witchcraft, the divine right of kings, and other such like misconceptions of which Mr. Inderwick discourses.

History of South Africa, 1691-1795. By George McCall Theal. (Sonnenschein & Co.)

ALL persons for whom the progress of South African colonization has more than a superficial interest will feel grateful to Mr. Theal, to say nothing of that smaller number to whom it may be a very substantial gain to find at a moment's notice definite information concerning the march of affairs in the Cape Colony during those centuries of European occupation before the English flag was hoisted on Cape Town Castle.

Mr. Theal's first volume embraced the course of events from 1486 to 1691. He has now finished his laborious task of evolving, chiefly from manuscript official documents, a connected story of the Dutch East India Company's relations as a governing power with South Africa. These documents are, he says, so voluminous that an ordinary lifetime would be too short to read those bearing on the period covered by the volume now under notice. Therefore he does not profess to have examined them all, but he declares that he has shirked nothing that seemed essential to the completion of his purpose; and though he lays no claim to have produced a history in the larger sense of that term, he maintains that "the general tenor of events as recorded in this volume must remain undisturbed" by any future work of a similar kind upon a more extensive scale. In truth, the fact that nearly a hundred years have elapsed since that memorable 16th of September, 1795, when "the Dutch troops marched out with colours flying and drums beating, passed by the English, and laid down their arms, surrendering as prisoners of war," and yet this is the first attempt to place a history of the Dutch occupation of South Africa in the hands of English readers, would seem to show that our national egotism has not greatly concerned itself with what happened previous to that capitulation; and it is scarcely probable that even this result of

Mr. Theal's laudable researches will whet many appetites to the extent of demanding a fuller examination of the Dutch East India Company's dryasdust materials. To know something of how those years (1486 to 1795) brought about the condition of things found when South Africa was first taken in hand by the English Government is, or should be, highly and widely interesting; but this solid and conscientiously compiled work, comprising some eight hundred closely printed pages, would appear to furnish sufficient for these days of high pressure and over-many books.

That "history repeats itself" is a truism of which the reader of these chapters is again and again reminded. It is the same whether the topic be the beginning of collisions with the original possessors of the soil; or the venality of the Dutch Company's ill-paid servants, who were permitted with disastrous results to eke out a living in the African dependency by perquisites gained at the expense of hard-working colonists; or the strictly protective and prohibitive system of trade and agriculture, undergoing perpetual alteration and continually failing to give satisfaction all round; or the question of slave labour, regarded in early days as a trifling detail, but growing to large and embarrassing proportions long before its perfect consistency with religion and good morals was gravely doubted in any part of Christendom. We find, moreover, that the value of intoxicating drinks as a source of revenue was understood and utilized at a comparatively early period in Cape history, and that the device of boycotting an unpopular or arbitrary official personage was occasionally practised by the sturdy Africanders of old times. Wilhelm Andriaan Van der Stel-who owed his appointment as governor to the reputation of his father, one of the best and most honoured of Dutch colonial officers-proved unworthy of the name he bore. He gave himself over to self-aggrandizement, evaded the law that forbade a governor to hold land on his own account, and was, according to the popular voice, guilty of many malpractices, including the taking of bribes. He became aware that a number of the burghers, aggrieved by his acts of oppression, were taking steps to appeal to the directors, and among other high-handed measures intended to stay such a proceeding he sent a military force to the disaffected neighbourhood of Stellenbosch, charged with arresting the most notable malcontents by night. But the burghers designed for seizure were forewarned and absent, and the soldiers, after rambling about through the dark hours with the local Landrost at their head, found when morning came that no one in the village would sell them a morsel of food or answer a single question. Ultimately the governor was judged guilty on all counts and virtually banished from the Cape; and it is a curious punitive feature in his case, as well as a sign of those semi-patriarchal times, that the big house he had built for himself was pulled down as out of keeping with the habits proper to an industrious colony of freemen, in which it was inexpedient to encourage great differences of rank and style. Even as late as 1755 a regulation was passed forbidding any one save the governor to ride in a gilded coach,

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and limiting the use of large umbrellas to men holding rank as senior merchants and ladies wedded to members of public boards. But this kind of legislation, however well intentioned, did little in the long towards creating a permanent love of simplicity and frugality at the Cape as people grew rich and the office of governor became a more splendid appointment. The last Dutch governor, Cornelius Jacob Van de Graaff, was installed in 1785, and we are told that he kept upwards of one hundred and thirty horses for his own requirements, together with an immense assortment of vehicles, and that he constituted his own son master of the stables, with unchecked power to waste and spend. The French, while ripening at home for the Revolution, which was an important though indirect factor in the eventual downfall of Dutch supremacy at the Cape, are credited with the development of luxurious tastes and love of lavish display among the colonists. Their vessels came laden with tempting fancy wares that created a demand for more. Cape Town, we are told, was nicknamed "Little Paris," and the generation succeeding those simple burghers who had submitted to restrictions upon the size of their umbrellas crowded their dwellings with sumptuous articles brought from all parts of Europe, and were served by swarms of household slaves. Mean time the Dutch East India Company was drifting to insolvency. Paper had nearly superseded silver pieces; and the farmers hardly cared to send produce to market, for cash down was rarely forthcoming, and they refused credit because accounts could be legally settled by notes, to which they objected partly from natural dislike to such currency, and partly because forgeries were common and difficult of detection.

Van de Graaff, the last Dutch governor, would seem to have been deservedly hated by the colonial bourgeoisie, and an amusing story is told of one of his many quarrels with individuals, which is delightfully suggestive of colonial amenities in those days as well as of his arbitrary disposition. He affirmed, it is not stated with how much show of reason, that a certain clergyman who delivered a sermon upon Jezebel's career had Madame de Graaff rather than Ahab's queen before his mind's eye while preaching, and chose this means of holding "the Governor's Lady" up to public opprobrium. To punish the reverend offender a board indicating that the name of the street where it stood was altered to Venus Street was fixed the front of his parsonage, and was kept in that position, in spite of much remonstrance, until Governor Van de Graaff had left the Cape, when the original name, Berg Street, was restored.

Van de Graaff was recalled in 1791, but, being a favourite with the Stadholder of Holland, was allowed to retain his salary and title. Thenceforward the Cape Colony was ruled by commissioners, of whom the last, Abraham Josias Sluysken, has been handed down to Dutch posterity as a traitor on account of his share in the surrender of Cape Town to the English. Mr. Theal's chapter on this transaction is one of the most spirited in his volume.

It is worth noting that in 1716 the expediency of permitting the employment of