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VII.-1. The Buke of John Maudeuill, being the Travels
of Sir John Mandeville, Knight, 1322-1356.
hitherto unpublished English Version from the
unique copy in the British Museum. Edited, to-
gether with the French text, notes, and an introduc-
tion, by George F. Warner. Printed for the Rox-
burghe Club. Westminster, 1989.

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2. A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan
States. By Holt S. Hallett. Edinburgh and
London, 1890

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VIII. The Bishop of Lincoln's Case. A Report of the Pro-
ceedings in the Court of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury. By E. S. Roscoe. London, 1891

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431

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IX.-A Plea for Liberty. An Argument against Socialis
and Socialistic Legislation, cousisting of an Intro-
duction by Herbert Spencer and Essays by various
Writers. Edited by Thomas Mackay, Author of
"The English Poor.' London, 1891

X.-1. Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute. Vols.
1-21. London, 1869-1330.

2. Canada: Statistical Year Book of Canada for 1839.
Government of Canada, Ottawa, 1890
And other Works.

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489

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NOTE ON ART. VII. IN THE QUARTERLY REVIEW,' No. 343.
In an article on the Education Question which appeared in
our last number, we said, in commenting on Mr. Morley's speech
in the House of Commons: The Jews were no doubt named
in the hope of hiding the bid for the Roman Catholics, for
out of London we imagine they have no schools.' In the
Government Returns Jewish schools are included under the
healing British, Undenominational, and other Schools:' we
had therefore no authority to which to turn for the number of
schools belonging to that religious body, and so spoke in the
indefinite manner just quoted. A correspondent at Birmingham
sends us word that the Jews have a school in that town in
which more than 400 children are being taught; that in
Manchester the Jews' school teaches from 1200 to 1500 children,
and in Liverpool over 400 children, and that there is scarcely
a town of any size where there are not Jewish children sup-
ported by the love and faith of the people.' We regret that we
were not aware of this when the article was written, as it helps
to sustain our contention in favour of denominational schools,
and we gladly insert this correction.

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THE

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

ART. I.—A History of England in the Eighteenth Century. By W. E. H. Lecky. Vols. VII. and VIII. London, 1890.

MR.

R. LECKY has reached the conclusion of his great work. Three years ago, in presenting to the public the fifth and sixth volumes of his narrative, he promised to devote the concluding volume to a history of the closing years of the Irish Parliament, of the great rebellion which it encountered, and of the Act of Union by which it was finally destroyed.' Mr. Lecky has been better than his word. The two portly tomes before us contain the fullest, the most accurate, and the most exhaustive account, that has hitherto been laid before the world, of any period of Irish history. Never before have Irish affairs been the subject of such minute investigation and ¡detailed narrative. Exclusive of the last twenty pages of the work, which are occupied with a sketch of post-Union history, upwards of one thousand large octavo pages are given to the story of eight eventful years. The peculiar importance of the affairs of Ireland in the last century properly demanded that, in any History of England in the eighteenth century, Irish politics should be accorded a full share of the historian's attention; and the circumstance that Mr. Lecky is an Irishman, combined with the prominence assigned to Ireland by contemporary statesmen in the party struggles of to-day, Las not tended to diminish the interest with which the author regards the sister island. We are inclined to think that, had Mr. Lecky foreseen at the outset of his labours how fully he would be obliged to deal with the affairs of his native land, he would have entitled his work not a History of England,' but a 'History of the United Kingdom.'

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Although the time has now come for forming a judgment upon Mr. Lecky's work as a whole, we prefer, in an article Vol. 172.-No. 343.

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which refers, like the two volumes that have suggested it, solely to Ireland, to express no final opinion upon the general result of his labours as a study in the art of history. But of his qualifications and characteristics as an Irish historian we may venture to give our estimate, before entering upon the discussion of some of the many interesting episodes described and dilated on in these concluding volumes. The first word must be one of grateful acknowledgment of the thoroughness and perfectior of detail with which the story has been told. Only those who have had occasion to explore a few of the many sources o information, which Mr. Lecky has visited, can fully appreciate the vastness of his labour, or the ability he has displayed in sifting from among the materials at his command the essen tially important particulars. The correspondence betweer the English and Irish Governments at the Record Office, the immense collection of State papers and semi-official confidentia documents preserved in the Birmingham Tower at Dublir Castle, which have never been thoroughly examined by any other writer; the Fane, Pelham, and Abbot papers, have all been digested with the most complete and patient care In addition, a voluminous mass of published literature, in the shape of memoirs, correspondence, speeches, and pamphlets has been thoroughly assimilated by the writer. The enormou pains, which Mr. Lecky has evidently taken at every step to secure full and accurate knowledge, joined to his scrupulou: avoidance of anything savouring of extravagance of style renders his work an absolutely trustworthy repertory of the facts of Irish history during the period with which he has dealt Considering that heretofore they were without any authoritativ account of these events-for Mr. Froude's more graphic nar rative does not purport to give the story in the same detail— the public owe a deep debt to Mr. Lecky for thus placing befor them in connected sequence the history of the Grattan Parlia ment, around whose doings so much divergent criticism ha gathered. So deeply are we impressed with the excellenc of his work in this respect, that we feel some reluctance to hin at what strike us as the defects of his method.

These defects are, perhaps, the inevitable counterpart of th conspicuous merits that outweigh them. Clear and coheren narrative of events, patient and laborious investigation of little known or disputed episodes, passionless and discriminating criti cism are much; and in a history of the affairs of Ireland they ar of even more than ordinary consequence, because they are mor than ordinarily rare. Inquiry cannot well be over-elaborate, an patience can scarcely be too carefully exercised; but it is no

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