18 MARCH 1865, Page 19

The Victoria History ef England. By Arthur Bailey Thompson. (Routledge,

Warne, and Routledge.)--This work can only be corn- ended as an elementary school-book. The narrative itself is meagre, then at the conclusion of each reign follow a series of paragraphs de riptive of the characteristic events of the reign, or quite as often telling the old fabulous stories of the chroniclers. This gives an utterly disjointed airto the whole book, but-of course if read as a task-book in daily-portions it might be rather an advantage. The novel and valu- able features are the numerous illustrations of costume, farniture, coin- age, &e., which are really profuse, and being exact copies of the originals, have far more value than if they had been modernized.