'The Parson of Spott,' who, red-handed from hanging his wife, preached a moving sermon. The baiting of the murderess, Lady Warriston, by the ministers, throws a curious light on the days of James VI. Major Weir the warlock's trial follows, and then the ordeal of Philip Stanfield, which deals with the bleeding of the corpse at the murderer's touch. Among those which are included we may mention the well-known trial of Katherine Nairne (the editor wants more information still about her fate), the less familiar Keiths of Northfield, and the wife of Denside.' The two last, the Dunecht mystery, and (specially well told) the Goatfell murder, belong to our own time.

GELDWERT IN DER GESCHICHTE :

EIN METHODOLOGISCHER VERSUCH. Von Andreas Walther. Pp. 52. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer. Mk.

1.20.

THIS is primarily a criticism of current methods of estimating money values in earlier times, showing their failure to combine the data necessary for a correct calculation. The author's own solution is a difficult but not wholly unattainable counsel to interpret medieval values by a co-ordination of elements based on comparative social conditions, and local prices, rents, and wages, as well as on numismatics and metrology. There is no royal road to the formula.

THE DEATHS OF the Kings of ENGLAND. By James Rae. Pp. viii, 152. Crown 8vo. London: Sherratt & Hughes. 1913. 4s. 6d. net. VIEWED from the medical side, the sad stories of the deaths of kings acquire an exceptional interest. But Dr. Rae's authorities are inadequate and sometimes uncritically selected, without sufficient regard to the dates of the chronicles cited. For instance, Baker's Chronicle (seventeenth century) is cited alongside of Gervase of Canterbury and William of Newburgh (twelfth century) for the illness of King Stephen in 1154. For Henry II. the first author cited is Higden (fourteenth century); the second is Matthew of Westminster' (there was no such person): for Henry III. Walsingham (fifteenth century) is cited in spite of his obvious blunder in date. For Edward I. Walsingham (fifteenth century) is misquoted. For Henry V. better authorities are cited, but Fordun was dead nearly forty years before Henry the Scotichronicon is mistranslated, for the immunity' of St. Fiacre was the privilege of sanctuary. Dr. Rae's task was interesting, and would have been work worth doing well.

JOHN PENRY, THE SO-CALLED MARTYR OF CONGREGATIONALISM, AS REVEALED IN THE ORIGINAL RECORD OF HIS TRIAL AND IN DOCUMENTS RELATED THERETO. By Champlin Burrage. 8vo. Oxford University Press. London: Henry Frowde. 2s. 6d. net.

Pp. 43.

1913.

THIS edits for the first time the indictment and sentence on Penry for treasonable defamation of Queen Elizabeth in 1593, devised and written at Edinburgh. In defending himself Penry wrote that he had taken particular

note of opinion in Scotland. For the gentlemen,' he says, 'ministers and people of Scotland who are not acquainted with the state of this land [England] think by reason of the prelacy heere maynteyned the yoke whereof they felt overgreevous within these few yeeres by reason of the multitude of dumb ministers that are tollerated and dayly made in this land, and because they heare that preachers are suspended, silenced, emprisoned, deprived, etc. they have thought (I say) and have spoken yt unto me that little or no truth is permitted to bee taught in England.... Wherunto I answered that the gospell is in my conscience as much beholding unto hir majestie as unto all the princes in Europe besides.' This answer, however, came too late, and in spite of it Penry, a Welshman (whom the AngloScottish historian Johnstone, no doubt with an eye to his race as well as his individual character, calls ‘Camber vir natura vehementior"), was hanged for his freedom in ecclesiastical criticism. Mr. Burrage by his introduction and notes throws the clearest light on this important and painful judgment. LES CORSAIRES DUNKERQUOIS ET JEAN BART. I. Des Origines à 1662. Par Henri Malo. Paris: Mercure de France. Pp. 461. 3.50 fr. OUR annals so often tell of the plague the Dunkirkers were to our shipping that this capable study is specially welcome. A reptile' pamphleteer of Richelieu's was very near the mark when he styled Dunkirk the Algiers of the North. M. Malo gives a solid yet lively narrative of the piratical system and exploits of these Ishmaelites of the sea and 'gueux de mer,’ bringing down the narrative in volume one to the period of Louis XIV.'s acquisition of the port and his announcement that its piracies had ceased. A second volume, in which the daring Jean Bart will have his place on the deck, may be expected to show what kind of 'cessation' this was.

ATHENAE CANTABRIGIENSES. By C. H. Cooper and Thompson Cooper.

Vol. III. 1609-1611. Pp. 163. Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes. 1913. THIS Supplement embodies additions and corrections by Henry Bradshaw and others; completed by Mr. G. J. Gray, who has also furnished an index to the whole work. Of the seventy-eight minor celebrities of Cambridge dealt with at large, some were Scots and some had adventures in Scotland; e.g. William Bowes, ambassador, 1597-99, associated with one of those kidnapping episodes so curiously distinctive of Scottish history. There is a great deal of subordinate biography of value beyond college bounds. All who are interested in the history of Cambridge owe much to the enterprise of Mr. Bowes, and this volume adds to their indebtedness.

In his outline History of Europe (Longmans, Green, & Co., 1913; pp. xvi, 674; 7s. 6d. net), Professor A. J. Grant of Leeds University has succeeded admirably in producing a concise, accurate and interesting introduction to European history considered as one whole. Discarding the attempt to pack his pages with as many facts as they could hold, he has shown a fine sense of proportion in selecting and arranging crucial events and tendencies. His unobtrusive little book is remarkably free from serious errors (the date of the Bull clericis laicos appears, however, on p. 313 as 1299). Its crowning merit is that it succeeds in the difficult task of preserving the sense of

unity; so that European development, from the days of ancient Greece to the present century, appears as one connected tale. It is a book fitted to attract students to a more detailed study of history, in marked contrast to many manuals that repel youthful enthusiasm by learning that outweighs judgment.

Essentials in Early European History, by Samuel Burnett Howe (Longmans, 1913, pp. xvi, 417, 7s. 6d. net.), is an American manual and picture-book of history, and will serve the purposes of secondary schools reasonably well by its rapid survey of Europe from the days of Greece and Rome down to the age of Louis XIV. Each chapter has an appendix of historical works (not the original authorities) recommended for further study, pleasantly interesting to British readers from the prominence of American books on the lists. The work is a creditable general sketch and the illustrations are very numerous.

The Romance of British History, by Josiah Turner (Methuen & Co., pp. vii, 150, 1s. 6d.), is a respectable sketch of events from the arrival of the Romans till the present time. Why people call such summaries 'romance is a mystery.

In the Life of Sir Henry Vane the Younger, Statesman and Mystic, 16321662 (pp. xxi, 405, with fifteen Illustrations, demy 8vo. London: St. Catherine Press. 1913. 10s. net), Dr. Willcock continues his Charles II. monographs, abandoning Scotland for England in this book. It is a good (though rather heavy) life of the 'statesman and mystic' who was so wrongly treated by Charles II. Unfortunately, in the author's eyes, the cavaliers could never do right. He is correct, however, in pointing out that Vane was greatly in advance of his age, and perhaps this put him on a different pinnacle from his enemies.

The Ancient History of the near East from the Earliest Times to the Battle of Salamis (pp. xxiii, 602, with 33 plates and 14 maps, demy 8vo. London: Methuen & Co. 1913. 15s. net) is a learned book by Mr. H. R. Hall, dealing with the histories of the older civilizations of Greece, Egypt, Babylonia, the Sumerians, the Hittites, Assyria and Israel. It covers a vast tract of time, and is a work where too great scholarship is condensed into too small a space. The account of the settlement of the Jews in Palestine is exceedingly interesting.

The Harvard University Press, Cambridge, has issued The BarringtonBernard Correspondence, edited by Edward Channing and Archibald Cary Coolidge (pp. xxiii, 306, demy 8vo. 1912. 8s. 6d. net). This is mainly the correspondence of Sir Francis Bernard, Governor of Massachusetts Bay, with his cousin-in-law, Lord Barrington, 1759-1774. It is the more interesting as it is mostly family letters which trace his doings as governor, which did not altogether gain him much credit or success.

The Growth of Modern Britain, by B. H. Sutton (London: Methuen & Co., pp. ix, 198, 2s.), though a trifle homiletic in style, is a brisk illustrated

narrative of British progress from the days when the locomotive was a miracle till the time when the aeroplane has almost reached the commonplace level.

Messrs. G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., have added to their English History Source Books (cr. 8vo, Is. net each) the following: The Angevins and the Charter, 1154-1216, editor, S. M. Toyne. War and Misrule, 1307-1399, editor, A. Audrey Locke. The Reformation and the Renaissance, 1485-1547, editor, F. W. Bewsher. Peace and Reform, 1815-1837, editor, A. C. W. Edwards. Imperialism and Mr. Gladstone, 1876-1887, editor, R. H. Gretton. They maintain a high standard of apt selection. Mr. Toyne should, however, have known that Geoffrey de Vinsauf' is no longer regarded as author of the Itinerarium of Richard I.

Mary Queen of Scots and the Prince Her Son, edited and published by Robt. M'Clure, Glasgow. 4to. Pp. 12. Is. net. This is a transcript from a contemporary Venetian MS. in the editor's possession-a 'Relatio brevis de statu serenissime Mariæ Reginæ Scotia,' dated 1578, of the wellknown type of such ambassadorial Relazioni.' Despite several corrupt renderings, the text, naturally hostile to the 'sectaries' who had subverted the Faith, gives an interesting view of events in Scotland from 1542 until 1578.

To the Notes on the Diplomatic Relations of England with the North of Europe, edited by Professor Firth, Mr. J. F. Chance contributes a List of English Diplomatic Representatives and Agents in Denmark, Sweden, and Russia, and of those_Countries in England, 1689-1762 (Oxford: B. H. Blackwell. 1913. Pp. 52. 1913. Pp. 52. 2s. 6d. net). It is a laborious compilation of particulars of diplomatic missions, of the ambassadors sent from and received in Great Britain, and of the general sources where the acts and correspondence are to be found. Though small in bulk, the pamphlet is invaluable as an aid to the political study and historical chronology of the period.

Messrs. D. Wyllie & Son, Aberdeen, have reprinted from the Annual Burns' Chronicle of 1913, a little essay, chiefly bibliographical, John Burness (Thrummy Cap') (pp. 7), vernacular author, 1771-1826.

Aberdeen University Library Bulletin, No. 6, April 1913, will be specially valued by students and lovers of Aberdeen for its skilfully selected Concise Bibliography of the History of the City and its Institutions, drawn up by Mr. J. F. Kellas Johnstone. An appendix to the article consists of a dozen historical subjects suggested for future work. First and chief of them is a collaborative and illustrated collection of the Historic Annals of the City. Other themes prepared include work on the dialect, on Quakerism, on the clipper-ship and on journalism.

We have received a reprint from the Numismatic Chronicle of Dr. George Macdonald's article, Two Hoards of Edward Pennies recently found in Scotland (pp. 62, with three plates of coins). The hoards consisted (1) of 2067 pieces found in 1911 at Blackhills, Parton, Kirkcudbright, deposited probably circa 1320 A.D.; and (2) of 896 pieces found also in 1911, at Mellen

dean, near Kelso, deposited probably circa 1296 A.D. The opportunity has enabled Dr. Macdonald to establish fresh grounds for chronological classification of the coins of Edward I. and II. Generally his results confirm the classification in Fox's Numismatic History of the Reigns of Edward I., II., and III., but as that work was not yet available, when the first hoard was under examination, the independence of the investigations offers additional guarantees for the accuracy of the joint conclusions. Forty-eight of the coins, photo-typed with great success, illustrate the astonishing uniformity of the pennies of the first two Edwards, a similarity which made classification a task of extraordinary nicety.

Among the Scottish coins, which were all single long-cross pennies (chiefly of Alexander III.) there were five varieties of John Balliol's pennies, one of Robert the Bruce's, and—a special curiosity- the thin skin of the reverse of what had evidently been a plated coin of Alexander III.'

Such work as this shows how well bestowed was the Numismatic Society's medal, conferred recently upon Dr. Macdonald.

Bulletins of the Departments of History, etc., in Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, have reached us. No. 6 (Jan., 1913), by Mr. W. B. Munro, decides strongly for the negative on the question Should Canadian Cities Adopt Commission Government?' This sort of elective dictatorship, resorted to in some towns of the United States as a substitute for normal municipal rule, has found foothold in rare instances in Canada, and Mr. Munro finds good reason to condemn the institution. No. 7 (April, 1913), by Mr. D. A. M'Arthur, on 'An Early Canadian Impeachment,' deals with a remarkable but abortive experiment in accusation directed against Chief-Justice Sewell in 1814 for attempting to introduce an arbitrary tyrannical Government' in Canada.

The Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society for the year 1912 (Vol. lviii. Pp. xi, 134, 206, 85, with several Illustrations. Demy 8vo. Taunton : Barnicott & Pierce. 1913. 10s. 6d.) include Mr. Bligh Bond's fifth report on the discoveries made during the excavations at Glastonbury Abbey (in this case at the western end of the church), and a paper by Mr. Hamilton Hall, entitled 'A Third John de Courcy.' Mr. Hall seeks to justify the statement of a late annotator in a MS. of Robert of Gloucester, now in the College of Arms, that king John was the father of John of Courcy, lord of Ulster. Although, as he points out, this particular John of Courcy was born some years before the future king, he argues that the story points to a truth. The argument is based upon the slenderest foundation, and seems to us worthless. There is no other evidence that such a John of Courcy ever existed. Mr. Hall suggests that the probability of his story is confirmed by an entry in the Close Rolls (Rotuli Litt. Claus. i. 285 b) by which the king on 2nd Sept., 1216, gave the manor of Down Ampney in Gloucestershire to Alice of Courcy, wife of the well-known Warin Fitzgerold, for her maintenance. Now, between 28th May, when Warin attests a royal charter (Rotuli Chartarum, p. 222), and 12th July, when John ordered his castle of Stoke Courcy to be destroyed (Rotuli Litt. Patent. p. 190 b), Warin Fitzgerold had deserted his