CURRENT LITERATURE.
History of the People of the Netherlands. By Petrus Johannes Blok. Part II., 'From the Beginning of the Fifteenth Century to 1559." (Putnam's Sons, New York. 2 dolls. 50 cents.)—Miss Ruth. Putnam's translation of Professor Blok's monumental history of the Netherlands has now reached its second part, and brings us down to the period of the great Dukes of Burgundy. We see ' the gradual transference of Holland. Zealand, and Hainaut to the great Southern Power, the Burgundian attempts upon Guelders, Utrecht, and Friesland, and the efforts of John without Fear and his successors to erect Burgundy into a kingdom, till the end came with the death of Charles the Bold at Nancy, and Mary of Burgundy carried the realm to the house of Austria. It is a history with a few great figures in it,—Charles himself, Louis XL, and the Emperor Charles V. overshadowing all their contemporaries. Bat so far as it was possible with what is mainly a chronicle of obscure wars, Professor Blok's narrative Is clear and interesting. He is at his best in his chapters on social life, art and letters, and the administration of justice, and he has done much to elucidate that difficult subject, early Nether- land commerce.
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