Portuguese affairs (Vol. VI, pp. 86-104) is hardly in proportion, and the whole of Chapter XVIII is devoted to operations in which no British troops took part. Similarly one gets a good deal more detail as to the diplomacy of the period than is essential to the understanding of it. Mr. Fortescue has of course been working through original authorities and has plenty of new stuff to give us, but one would have done without most of it gladly, if only he would have given us more of Moore and the camp at Shorncliffe where the Light Division was trained, more of the strength and distribution of the army from year to year, fuller accounts of such things as the raising of the King's German Legion, the foreign regiments in our service, the beginnings of scientific military education, and the organisation of the various arms. He gave more of this side of the story in his earlier volumes, and one's gratitude to him for the splendid work he is doing would be increased if only he would let us have more of it again. Finally, the maps are extremely good. C. T. ATKINSON.

SOME SUPPOSED SHAKESPEARE FORGERIES. An Examination into the Authenticity of certain Documents affecting the Dates of Composition of Several of the Plays. By Ernest Law, B.A., F.S.A. With Facsimiles of Documents. London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. 1911. MR. ERNEST LAW, the historian of Hampton Court, has joined the vigorous band of Elizabethan scholars who, in the space of a few years, have added more to our knowledge of Shakespeare's career than was added during the whole of the last half century. Some twenty years ago he pointed out to Halliwell-Phillipps at least one fact which was used in the sixth edition of the Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, but only in the last year or two has he made in his own name contributions of first-rate importance to Shakespeare scholarship. His Shakespeare as a Groom of the Chamber (1910) reproduced a document which proves that when in 1604 the Constable of Castile was sent on a special mission to this country to draw up and ratify terms of peace, Shakespeare and the other members of the king's company of players attended on the Spanish visitors at Somerset House during their stay of eighteen days. The document appears to have been known to Halliwell-Phillipps, but this indefatigable scholar, who had the foible of keeping to himself more than a scholar should, preferred that its contents and whereabouts should remain his own secret. Now Mr. Law has given us an even more interesting volume, in which he does not present any new document, but proves that a document which has long been rejected as a forgery is authentic.

Peter Cunningham edited for the Shakespeare Society in 1842 Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I., and his extracts concluded with the Revels Book' for the winter of 1604-5, and for the winter of 1611-12. These two books were the only part of the volume which had direct bearing on Shakespeare. In the former there was record of "The Moor of Venis,' 'The Merry Wives of Winsor,' 'Mesur for Mesur,' 'The Plaie of Errors,' 'Loves Labours Lost,' 'Henry the fift,' and 'The Martchant of Venis'; and in

the latter of 'The Tempest' and 'The Winters Nights Tayle.' But these records were unwelcome to a considerable body of critics who had other views on the dates of some of Shakespeare's plays. Suspicion was thrown on them the more readily as the originals had passed illegally into the hands of Cunningham, who, in the sad circumstances of his closing years, had endeavoured to dispose of them by private bargain. And Cunningham was the friend of Collier. Suspicion became conviction, and Cunningham, now dead, was branded as a forger. Under this stigma his memory has remained. Even those who believed in the accuracy of the information were content to distrust the genuineness of the documents. Mr. E. K. Chambers in his Notes on the History of the Revels Office under the Tudors, 1904, p. 21, a work of much first-hand research, says of them, without any qualification: These are forgeries, but may be based upon genuine originals among the Records.' And Sir Sidney Lee-who has lost no time in welcoming the correction-had included them in the catalogue of forgeries in his Life of Shakespeare.

Mr. Law has rehabilitated the name of Cunningham, and he has proved to those who, like Sir Sidney Lee, accepted the theory of forgery, but did not assert Cunningham's share in it, that the documents which were impounded and handed over to the Record Office in 1868 are none other than the genuine originals. He has given full details of his inquiry, in which he had the collaboration of officials of the Record Office, the British Museum, and the Government Laboratories. Not content with the evidence of handwriting, Mr. Law persuaded Sir Henry MaxwellLyte to permit a chemical examination of the ink. The Government analyst found nothing to support the suggestion that the writing on the suspected pages of the book of 1604-5-the pages which contained the list of the plays, of which seven are Shakespeare's-is of a different date from the writing on the remainder of the document. It was not thought necessary to subject the corresponding pages of the book of 1610-11 to a chemical test.

Mr. Law's work has many points of interest. Its value to the student of Shakespeare lies in the new and unassailable certainty that Othello was performed in the Banketinge house att Whithall' on 'Hallamas Day being the first of Nouembar,' 1604. And the genuineness of the 1611 reference to the Tempest disposes at once of the theory that the play was written for the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine in February, 1613. But Mr. Law inadvertently claims too much for this reference when he says that it fixes the date of the play. It fixes only the later limit.

The stages in the Cunningham calumny are described by Mr. Law with much spirit. There is, however, one criticism which should be passed on his excellent account. It does not give sufficient prominence to the beginnings of the reaction in favour of Cunningham. The question of authenticity was not quite dormant when Mr. Law started his conclusive investigation. The following passage, for instance, will be found in Mr. D. H. Lambert's Shakespeare Documents, 1904, p. 52: 'I have carefully, with gentlemen at the Record Office thoroughly competent

to pronounce an opinion on such a subject, examined these documents, and it is only fair to state that at least, with all deference to the weighty opinion of the late Mr. Bond, views on the point are divided. The pages could not have been interpolated, and the character of the writing which contains the references to Shakespeare's plays, though open to question, tallies in many respects with that of the preceding entries.' Mr. Law will always have the credit, not of reopening the question, but of having caused it to be settled once and for all.

And justice was already being done to the excellence of Cunningham as an editor in his earlier and happier days. On this no one is so well qualified to offer an opinion as M. Albert Feuillerat. In his Documents relating to the Office of the Revels in the time of Queen Elizabeth, 1908—a great piece of editing, of which Mr. Law's praises are none too highM. Feuillerat has given this note: "I am glad to say that in the part of Cunningham's Revels included in this volume (I leave the 1605 and 1612 Books out of the question at present) I have found no forgery; on the contrary, it is but just to say that his publication is most accurate, and that I have counted no more than five or six serious misreadings. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same of Collier.'

M. Feuillerat and Mr. Law have given us new faith in the 'Revels Extracts' printed for the Shakespeare Society in 1842. It cannot vie with the massive tomes which M. Feuillerat is publishing at Louvain. But so far as it goes it is good; it is adequate to most purposes; it is, unlike the Louvain books, convenient to use. It is, above all, to be trusted. D. NICHOL SMITH.

HISTOIRE DE L'EXPANSION COLONIAL DES PEUPLES EUROPEÉNS-NEERLANDE ET DENEMARK (XVII et XVIII Siècles). By Charles de Lannoy et Herman Vander Linden. Brussells, 1911.

Two Continental scholars, Prof. de Lannoy and Prof. Vander Linden, have planned an imposing work on the development of colonisation from Europe. The method of treatment which has been adopted is to take related countries together-thus a previous volume dealt with the colonial expansion of Spain and Portugal, while the present one is concerned with that of Holland and Denmark, Prof. de Lannoy having written the Dutch portion and his colleague the part relating to Denmark. The authors have conceived the subject of their investigation in no narrow spirit. They begin by presenting an able outline of the social, political, and commercial position of the countries dealt with at the time when they began to make settlements over-sea; and, in describing the nature of those settlements, factories for foreign trade (but not for colonisation in the English sense of the word, such as trading factories in India during the seventeenth century) are included. The reader obtains a general picture of the causes which caused Holland and Denmark to expand beyond their respective borders, and then the main aspects of the particular kind of settlements established are described in each case. Further, certain of the chief characteristics of the colonies are selected for a special and detailed treatment; as, for instance, the methods of administration both in the

home country and in the colony, the economic relations between the dependency and the mother country-what, in fact, Adam Smith called "the colonial system'-the persistence of the feeling of original nationality in the settlers and the reaction of the colonies of the mother country. Finally there is a series of maps and a good bibliography.

This work is a valuable one from several distinct points of view. It brings together the results of a great number of monographs, and it is an advantage that the work of co-ordination should be expressed in French-a language which lends itself readily to the statement_of_the_tendencies which the authors aim at establishing. Thus the Dutch East India Company is summed up as influenced by the characteristics of its founders -it had a democratic foundation, a decentralised organisation, and an aristocratic directorate (p. 162). Moreover, it is to be hoped that finally the authors will provide a comparative treatment of the different methods of the various countries at varying periods. In this way, though the study is in the main historical, it should yield valuable light on some modern problems in colonial administration.

The whole field covered by the present volume is surveyed with great lucidity and insight. Thus the importance of sea-power is fully recognised in connection with the prosperity of colonies. At the present time one is perhaps inclined to forget how important the Dutch colonial empire was at one period, and the pages which trace its rise as the navy of Holland grew and its decline as the navy waned in efficiency are instructive, especially as coming from Continental critics. It is an instance of critical acumen that the matters in dispute between the English and Dutch East India Companies, which led to the tragedy of Amboyna, are fairly stated. With regard to the former body M. de Lannoy has followed English authorities in describing it as conforming at first to the regulated rather than to the joint-stock type of organisation; but this is now known to be an error-in England the spokesmen of regulated companies were very vociferous, and this has occasioned the undue prominence given to these companies. Also, it might be noticed, in connection with the colonial métayage of the Dutch West India Company, that a similar system existed earlier in the land-system of the Virginia and other English companies.

The combined treatment of foreign trading with colonising venture, suggests the reflection that colonisation, like Hedonism, has its paradox. Most of the enterprises which aimed directly at the acquisition of over-sea possessions sooner or later came to grief; while on the contrary, in several cases, undertakings, which aimed severely and consistently at commercial operations only, ended by having acquired large or even immense territories. The Dutch West India Company was an instance of the former tendency, the Dutch East India Company of the latter. The joint-authors of this work are to be congratulated on having advanced so far in an investigation which involves great research and unusual powers of exposition. The book will be essential to all students of the development of colonisation.

W. R. SCOTT.

THE RULERS OF STRATHSPL A HISTORY OF THE LAIRDS OF GRANT AND EARLS OF SEAFIELD. By the Earl of Cassillis. Pp. xii, 211. With Illustrations. Demy 8vo. Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing Co. 1911. 6s.

THE knowledge of the family pride of the Grants [we all know the story, 'and there were Grants in those days'], which has already produced one of Sir William Fraser's monumental family histories, has been, we are glad to say, the reason for the compilation of this work, which, from the care taken in its preparation and its wealth of references, cannot fail to become an important book of genealogical reference.

Sir William Fraser's Chiefs of Grant, on which it is rightly very largely based, extends to three enormous volumes, valuable to historians, but both difficult to obtain and awkward to transport. With the sympathy of the widow of a late chief, Caroline Countess of Seafield, Lord Cassillis has undertaken the task of making the history of the Chiefs of Grant who ruled in Strathspey accessible to the clan, and this book is the result.

It is worth noting that the chiefs of so northern a clan sprung, it is believed, from a family of Norman origin, Le Grant or Le Grand, and it is likely that they came to the north only on the return of Walter Bysset from exile about 1249. Sir Laurence le Grant was Sheriff of Inverness in 1263. The first known Grant who possessed land in Moray was Robert le Graunt, and John le Graunt of Inverallan was an adherent of John Comyn elder of Badenoch, circa 1297. Early Grants were connected with families bearing Norman names like 'Pylche' and 'Seres,' so it is interesting when one finds a daughter of the house marrying a Mackintosh before 1400, and John Grant in 1434 being already known as 'Ian Ruadh.' Sir Duncan Grant, knighted about 1460, was the first to be styled 'of Freuchie,' and his daughters and grand-daughters intermarried with chiefs. of other Highland clans, such as Macdonalds, Camerons, Frasers, Mackintoshes and Mackenzies. It is not our design now to follow the history of the family and how they became Earls of Seafield. We shall only say that it can be traced and fully traced here, that the deeds of the heroes of the past are well narrated, and that the cadet families are not neglected by the compiler. A. FRANCIS STEUART.

IS. nett.

HOME LIFE OF THE HIGHLANDERS, 1400-1746. Pp. viii. 140. Demy 8vo. Glasgow: Scottish National Exhibition. 1911. THE executive of the Highland Village at the Glasgow Exhibition have done a real service in publishing this account of life in the Highlands before 1746. The work is really more comprehensive than the title suggests, and amounts to a summary of the social and economic condition of the people in the most fascinating period of their history. Some of the writers have found it impossible to draw any arbitrary line in sketching the development of the subjects with which they deal and have traced their growth from very early times.

The first contribution is an admirable essay upon the fundamental question of the clan system, and clearly describes the different causes which