SOCIAL ENGLAND.
Social England. Edited by H. D. Traill, D.C.L., and .1. S. Mann, M.A. Illustrated Edition. 2 vols. (Cassell and Co. 26..)— Considerable success has been achieved in rendering uniform the treatment of various chapters, and diminishing the sense of broken continuity, in this illustrated edition of Sociai England. Unless it were possible to read half-a-dozen articles abreast, it would be im- possible completely to lose this feeling. It seems as if the illus- trations, admirably selected both from artistic and historical standpoints, have really helped the reader to carry combined or composite impressions of English life at certain periods. To read an article on English law under Norman and Angevin, and then retrace one's steps for a hundred and fifty years to the Conquest again and follow the military development of the nation, is to bring before one a new set of impressions. We must use the book for reference, and refer to law and the art of war separately as we want to. By distributing the burden of literary and pictorial illustration, which could not possibly be borne by one back, we get some very clear, incisive delineations of social life. Perhaps a few more cuts of dress would have been accept- able. It is not necessary to refer to the literary excel- lence of the articles as a whole. The two we have mentioned are as good of their kind as we may reasonably conceive. No one could do more to present the essence of English law in an easily comprehended form than Mr. Maitland has done. We are shown how it can be pictorially represented by a gruesome re- production of the peine forte et dare and the door-knockers some sanctuaries. Taking architecture and old MSS., the one easy, the other difficult, to illustrate clearly, we get some most satisfactory results. Mr. Hughes's sketch of the development of the Decorated Period, with concurrent styles of flowing and geo- metrical tracery, is in itself very lucid. It is to be regretted that while war could ' have been more amply illustrated, naval illustra- tions are so rare. Sir W. Laird Clowes has certainly clothed bones never really dry. Professor Oman varies, we observe, in his concep- tion of the essence of the English Army. The two new sections on the Jews treat of so important a part of the political economy of the period that we wonder at the shortness of the second article.
This section would have borne expansion. We understand that the Modern Period, from 1509, will be completed in four volumes. They will scarcely exceed these two in general interest.
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