HISTORY FOR YOUNG READERS.
Few writers have been more assailed for inaccuracy than Creasy, yet his best-known book is probably still a favourite with prize-givers, and is perhaps still read by prize-winners. It has the merit of being based upon the skeleton of a comprehen- sive historical scheme. We cannot say the same for Mr. R. H. Miles's Wars of the Olden Times (Stanley Paul and Co., 54 But war is a subject for which there is now an insatiable appetite ; so perhaps some boys will like history in this form. The book gives an account of wars from the battle of the four Kings against five in Abraham's days down to the battle of Worcester. But the wars are not happily strung together. For instance, it is unsatisfactory to begin with Bible history, just because it is the oldest, and then to drop Jewish wars without any account of the Maceabean struggles. Greek and Roman wars are described simply and without any particular distinction of thought or writing. The illustrations are gathered from many sources.—Whatever may be the future of Germany's history, there is no reason for not studying her past. Miss Florence Aston has written a fairly continuous history, though she calls it Stories from German History (Herren and Co., 3s. (3d. net). She begins with the early days of barbarism, and gives accounts of Alario and Attila. The history of the confused fighting, dynastic politics, and Papal intrigues during the period of the Holy Roman Empire cannot be fully worked out in a volume of this size. Luther properly occupies a considerable space, and the "Manners and Customs" are interestingly treated. The story ends with the devastation of the Thirty Years' War, which has so often been referred to lately as showing the nearest likeness to many scenes of to-day. The illustrations are reproduced from pictures ; some of the most attractive are those of Mr. Wierter's painting rl in monochrome of buildings in famous towns.—We can pass to the other side of the world and still find bloody fighting the main theme. The Romance of the Spanish Main, by N. J. Davidson (Seeley, Service, and Co., 5s.), begins with the earliest bucoaneers of Hispaniola, and goes on to the more serious fighting of Hawkins, Drake, and other Elizabethan Englishmen, whose deeds in the Spanish Main were not mere piracy, but were bound up with the religious and political strife of Europe. Several chapters are devoted to the ruffian, Henry Morgan, and then we come to the smaller
fry of the eighteenth-century pirates. It is all exciting enough. —It is not too soon, perhaps, to include as history A Boy's Life of Lord Roberts, by A. J. Costain (C. H. Kelly, 2s.). His own Forty-one Years in India is a still better book for boys; But this, the latest of several small biographies of Lord Roberts, includes the South African War and his (loath. It touches very briefly upon his religious and domestic sides and upon National Service. It is almost entirely concerned with his military career, and is an honest, simply told, and inevitably stimulating account of the lovable hero.
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