the editor only claims that they 'contain much that is of interest to the general reader, as leading him to an exact knowledge of the social condition of the English gentry; but these groups of papers do not approach the Paston Letters in variety and extent, and are confined in their range of view. To appreciate the bearings of these on English history the general reader needs a sketch of the political events of the middle of the fifteenth century, into which shall be wrought, together with the great leading characters then successively treading the stage, and the great events brought about by their actions, the state of feeling among the people, and the influence which this, combined with local jealousies, had upon the fortunes of a private family like the Pastons. Such a sketch Mr. Gairdner provides, nor does he forget now and then to point out the constitutional aspects of questions that have forced themselves on his notice.

The loss of the English possessions in Normandy, the consequent unpopularity of the Duke of Suffolk, and his subsequent murder (for the account of which history is indebted to John Paston's friend Lomner), heavy taxation and general injustice, are placed in the sequence of the causes which led up to the rebellion of Jack Cade, 'a movement which we must not permit ourselves to look upon as a vulgar outbreak of the rabble,' and which is proved to have been countenanced by many of good position. The story of this movement and of its 'Captain of Kent,' and of two successive Captains' hitherto unnoticed by historians, with evidence of risings in different parts of the country, indicate the troublous times in which two at least of the letter writers were seriously engaged.

We have it put before us in a connected narrative how the weak

ness of the Government and the illmanagement of the revenues-which ended in the almost total loss in 1451 of the French possessions, and brought back from Ireland, to be ready to take his stand at the helm of affairs, the able and moderate Duke of York, the only man at this time who seems to have been fit to govern-were the cause of much miscarriage of justice in the country, as exemplified in the contest of John Paston with Lord Moleynes and his advisers, Tuddenham and Heydon. The riotous proceedings of Charles Nowell and his gang in Norfolk, too, were then possible, 'outrages which we are told 'were not the works of lawless brigands,' but 'were merely the effects of party spirit.' The controversy between York and Somerset-hated for his maladministration in Normandyin which, though York exhibited his detailed articles of accusation 3 against his opponent, Somerset gained the upper hand for a time, immediately precedes the extraordinary blank in our knowledge of internal affairs in 1452-3. the royal progress which it is known the King made in that year seems to have finished with a visit to the Duke of York at Ludlow; and Sir John Fastolf, to whom William Worcester, alias Botoner, was secretary, is found soon after lending money to York upon the security of some of his jewellery.

But

Then in August 1453 came the sad illness of the King, and later those two scenes which stand out from the old records with such pathetic interest, of the Queen presenting his first-born babe to the unconscious King, and of the grave deputation from the Lords in their anxious but vain endeavour to obtain recognition: 'they could have no answer, word ne sign, and therefore, with sorrowful hearts, came their way;' scenes only equalled by the touching interviews recorded

by Paston's friend Clere, when at Christmas 1454 the King recovered his faculties. The constitutional difficulties created by the imbecility of the head of the State were great, but the appointment of York as Protector in April 1454 brought something like order into the state of affairs, and a vigour unknown for years. It was soon after this that William Paston, writing to his brother in Norfolk of the intended visit of Fastolf, tells him that 'the Duke of Somerset is still in prison, in worse case than he was;' whence he was set free on the King's restoration to health, to be slain in the collision at St. Alban's, May 22, 1455.

We must not linger over the events of this unhappy period, which are worked out with care and minuteness, and upon several obscure points of which fresh light is thrown by the aid of new materials. The whole aspect of the civil war comes before us in the remarks on the claim of York to the throne. "Though the step was undoubtedly a bold one, never perhaps was a high course of action more strongly suggested by the results of past experience. After ten miserable years of fluctuating policy, the attainted Yorkists were now for the fourth time in possession of power; but who could tell that they would not be a fourth time set aside and proclaimed as traitors? For yet a fourth time since the fall of Suffolk, England might be subjected to the odious rule of favourites under a well-intentioned king, whose word was not to be relied on.' Through the alternations of health and sickness of the King, the dissensions between the great Lords and the Queen, the misgovernment of the country at home

and abroad, the wretched days of Ludlow, Bloreheath, and Northampton, the story winds its way, telling as it goes along the hopes and fears of the Pastons and their connections. Friar Brackley writes how my Lord of York has been written to, 'to ask grace for a sheriff the next year.' Master William Worcester studies French and grumbles at his master's stinginess, every now and then giving a sly hit at political affairs, while old Sir John Fastolf is preparing to make his peace with Heaven by the foundation of a religious college at Caister after his death. With that event, which took place on the 5th of November, 1459, this volume closes, leaving the hope that the tale may be taken up in like manner with the remaining letters.

We have but space to refer to one constitutional problem touched upon, on which Mr. Gairdner's words may well at the present day be suggestive. Speaking of the relative power of the Houses of Lords and Commons, when it became necessary to form a government in place of the imbecile King, he says, The influence which the House of Commons has in later times acquired is a thing not directly recognised by the Constitution, but only due to the control of the national purse-strings. Strictly speaking, the House of Commons is not a legislative body at all, but only an engine for voting supplies.' How is it then that (to name no other instances) in 1455 the Commons, having presented a petition or 'grievance,' would proceed to no other business till that was complied with? In this presenting of 'petitions' lies the kernel of the matter.

L. TOULMIN SMITH.

A

FTER making some acquaintance with St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nijni Novgorod, I left the latter port on August 18, 1870, with a through ticket for Petrovsk, on the Caspian. I had the services of a courier who had been twice with English travellers in Caucasus.

The right bank of the Volga is often picturesque, though never so high, broken, or wooded, as at Nijni Novgorod. The great towns at which the steamer stopped, though of course partaking of the unkemptness of all Russia and the Russians, possess handsome features, and promise well for the future. Astrakhan-one of the first names one learns in geographymarked so large and alone on the map, is far less in size and in interest than some of the river towns. Flat it is and sandy, among vast sand flats, which produce watermelons and cucumbers utterly innumerous for the vegetable-eating

Russian.

Government may make the mountain lines of Caucasus and Ural the boundaries between Asiatic and European provinces, and cartographers may colour their maps on a similar rule, but the traveller must feel himself quite in Asia when he sees the nomade Kalmuks with their skin tents on both sides the great river, when he meets their queer, flat, featureless faces on the steamer and in the bazar at Astrakhan, and still more when he finds himself immersed in Mahometanism in Daghestan, where every feature of life and civilisation is Oriental excepting the Russian soldier and the Russian post.

Near most of the Caspian ports

the sea is shallow and open, so that anchorage is impossible in windy weather. From Astrakhan all merchandise and passengers are conveyed some 70 miles across the delta between the river steamers and the sea steamers in vessels of lighter draught. Besides this natural detriment to Astrakhan as an entrepôt, any bad weather on the Caspian hinders commerce and restricts the navigation season, which begins among the ice-floes in May, and ends in autumn through shortness of water, fogs, or frost. A railway between the two seas from Poti to Tiflis and the good harbour of Baku will be an incalculable help to the commerce between East and West.

Tartars, Armenians, and Persians are numerous in Astrakhan. If the former continue successful in effecting a cross with the Georgians, may we not hope for fewer of the tiny eyes and almost imperceptible noses, and more of such high qualities as mark the Kazan Tartars in the offices and hotels of St. Petersburg and Moscow ? Since Persia ruled the countries west of the Caspian, the snivelling Persian merchant tracks the steps of trade, and the sturdy Persian labourer finds employ where the less able Russian or the less willing native often grumble and starve.

The voyage from Astrakhan to the sea steamer is most tedious. During the night the fiery tail of sparks from the chimney of the tug steamer leads the way, and the day reveals nothing but boundless swamps with banks of reeds. Pelicans, cormorants, and other seafowl occasionally pass; an outlying

island station requires a lengthy call; and then we steer for a speck on the horizon which in the course of time proves to be the Prince Constantine, a good paddle-steamer of perhaps 700 tons, which after some four hours' work receives her cargo. A glorious night on a gently rolling sea was followed by a fresh morning. The traveller from Russia looks out for the first sign of mountains-at the foot of brown craggy hills lie the white houses, the barracks and the pier of Petrovsk. The time of year was recommendable rather for convenience and health than with regard to the aspects of nature. Probably every part of the Russian dominions needs all of 'May' it can get to give it a charm to the Western visitor. I found throughout Southern Russia the steppe and all but the highest uplands alike brown and bare and void of the picturesque; but on the other hand the weather was for three months never unfriendly, and the roads and rivers never inconvenables. Petrovsk is mostly modern. The new harbour ought to become very useful, being the only one north of Baku; but from the style of progress in works and in trade the engineer may well be glad of all the compliments he gets. After looking over two neat old forts and a fine new lighthouse, I was anxious to be on the way to Temir-khan-shura, the capital of the district, there to present an introduction to the governor, and to learn what sort of a journey I could make to Tiflis. (I had utterly failed in seeking information about Daghestan, excepting from Ussher's London to Persepolis.) A diligence-a sort of omnibuswas assigned as a favour (instead of the renowned little boat on four wheels-telega-the representative vehicle of the Russian post, which figures in every English book on Russia), and the anticipated experience of urging the inevitable paraclodnaia over the interminable

The horn

steppe' was deferred. blew loud, and the four horses abreast galloped off.

For the first stage the route skirted the foot of the hills, their shadows then varied by a finelyclouded sky. To the right was a boundless level-the steppe. The driver goes where are the fewest inequalities in the ground, and where a track is made in the dried herbage. After passing some cultivated patches of the ungracious looking soil, Kumkurtale is approached. It is about fourteen miles from Petrovsk, and on a cliff overlooking the stream which flows down from 'Shura. The houses are all of mud - as in many Eastern countries-solid and durable as the 'cob' of Devonshire. Some corn was being gathered in small stacks by the homes or on their roofs; in another place oxen drawing a chair on wheels were being urged round the thickly. strewn threshing floor. With a fresh team a start was soon made, and novelties drew attention on either hand. The road here turned down into the valley, following it right up into the mountain country, stumbling along and across the rugged river bed. Here was a walled vineyard with its 'tower' in the corner, there a field of maize, a corn field, or a garden, with the life-giving irrigation, showing the native thrift of the sons of the soil. After an hour's jolting a plateau is reached, which commands striking panoramas of the peaky, rocky hills, and valleys which mark the approach to this mountain-land’— Dagh-estan. Sandstone is the prevailing formation, and sometimes very picturesque. A village-áúl— is passed every few miles, and one learns often to recognise its presence by the cemetery-hill, with its crowd of rude monuments and high upright stones, which may catch the eye long before the flat brown tops of the snugly-set houses. The

countenances and style of the people are the greatest contrast to either Russian or Kalmuk, recalling one's ideal of a race of mountaineers. One may feel it almost an honour to be looked at by the grand large eyes of the boys. Long strings of carts are passed on the road, the drivers generally wearing the massive cone of white, black or brown sheepskin-the hat of the Caucasians. The last áúl before reaching the town is perhaps as picturesquely placed as any in Daghestan, the old Tartar keep overhanging its village and its gardens; barest hills around, on which the sun is just setting, and one wonders what an evening was like up in that tower fifty years ago, when the levelling Christian Russ had not placed his foot on the land, and when feud and fight were the life of the people. Again the horn is blown, and we are impelled at the utmost speed of Russian etiquette, through the fortifications of the Russian town, up a street which seems a mixture of treetrunks, dried mud, and stones. Here it may be indeed well to try to make some virtue of the necessity of taking things as one finds them. The traveller's position in a diligence is really like that of a pea in a rattle.' He learns to hold on as the victim of the Russian post must do, especially when leaving or nearing a station.

6

In the darkness we turn out at the Hotel Gúnib-the chief tavern of the town-kept by an Armenian, as is usual in Caucasian countries; and the darkness inside renders an entry a matter of time. On reaching the first floor-where are generally the principal rooms, the chambers, billiard-room and dining-room -we find some little glass petroleum lamps (the same that do duty in doors and out anywhere within a thousand miles this side of the oil wells of Baku). Presently a waiter opens the tall, creaky, Russian-like doors of the better apartments; by

'strong representations' we obtain some leather mattresses to mitigate the boarded bedsteads or couches, which with a few stools are the sole furniture. Earthenware may be borrowed as a favour, though the Russian ablutions are usually done out of doors, the water being poured on the hands Oriental-wise. Thirty miles of very unaccustomed shaking indisposed one to criticise long or severely the circumstances of the new quarters.

The next morning was sunny, and I soon turned out to see if there might beanything pleasing or interesting in the little capital of Northern Daghestan. Temir-khan-shura numbers about two thousand souls, and a similar number of soldiers were stationed there under canvas on a hill-side. The residence of Prince George-adzi, the governor, the summer house of Prince Melikov, and the extensive barracks, are stonebuilt, white-washed, and roofed with the Russian sheet-iron or tiles. Nearly all the other buildings are entirely wooden (unless the roofs be in some cases thatched), painted white and green, or more often unpainted. The streets are quite unpaved, excepting à la corduroy near the town gates, with white lamp posts at the corners, and relieved by rows of Lombardy poplars. My servant ascertained that the governor was on a tour of inspection in his district, but was expected home in two or three days.

This delay was vexing. Though Gúnib-the celebrated stronghold of Shamyl-was my proximate object, I was dependent on Prince George-adzi for information and letters to help me to make such journey to Tiflis as might promise most of interest. And so necessity, added to courtesy, caused a stay of four days before making further progress towards the great mountains. In one of the chief shops were a few comestibles, doubtless supposed to be choice