23 APRIL 1870, Page 21

Old Stories Retold. By Walter Thornbary. (Chapman and Hall.)— These

"old stories " are drawn from the annals of the last hundred and fifty years. Some of them, we cannot but think, it would have been better to have loft them in such oblivion as had happily come over them. What is the profit of digging up again the hideous details, so horrible, yet so common-place, of "The Murder of Mr. William Wearo." Others are worth preserving from forgetfulness; such, for instance, is the curious "Life of a Methodist Preacher," though the "preaching" part of his life is hurried over, as compared with his unregenerate experi- ences; such, too, though it does belong to the Newgate-Calendar class, is on account of its intrinsic interest, "The Wager of Battle," in which Abraham Thornton being accused of the murder of Mary Ashford, pleaded "Not guilty; and I am ready to defend the same with my body." The narrative will remove what is, we fancy, a common miscon- ception. Thornton had been already acquitted of the murder ; quite rightly, it would seem, from a review of the evidence. By an obsolete statute he was put upon his trial again, and the ingenuity of his counsel in using another obsolete statute to secure his escape was not, after all, a hindering of justice. Among matters of present interest we find the "Battle of Vinegar Hill." Lord Granard should read it. Like most of the incidents of " social " wars, it is not a matter for either party to speak of with pride. The Irish race have not had many moments of triumph, but these they have made conspicuously horrible in the midst of a horrible history.