10 AUGUST 1895, Page 26

Lancelot Andrews. By Robert L. Gilley, M.A. (Methuen and Co.)—Mr.

Oltley gives us here a sympathetic account of Bishop Andrews's life and work. It is clear that Andrews represents to him in his ecclesiastical position and in his theology, something like an ideal. But this does not make the biographer blind to his here's faults. It was the misfortune of Andrews that he had so much to do with the Court. He had not, so to speak, backbone enough for the times. "We must acknowledge," writes Mr. Oltley, "that in his degree he shares the responsibilities of the knot of time-servers, flatterers, and worldlings who surrounded the royal throne and hindered the intrusion into the royal presence of unpalatable facts." In the case of Lady Essex's divorce it requires all the charity and faith that one can com- mand to believe that he was blameless. But on the whole, there is more of the impression of saintliness about Andrews than about Laud. His learning was probably greater than the Arch- bishop's, though his, too, was considerable ; but Andrews was more of a student. Mr. Oltley's book is one of sterling merit.