6 JULY 1889, Page 31

A Queen among Queens. By Cameron Macdonald. (Swan Son- nenschein

and Co.)—The "Queen among Queens" is Zenobia of Palmyra. In this volume Mr. Macdonald tells, in a somewhat inflated style, the story of her fall. He follows the usually accepted narrative pretty closely, though he departs from it when he seeks to acquit the Queen of having laid the blame of her resistance to Rome upon Longinus. Zosimus is express on this point. It is somewhat curious to find in dialogues of the third century the phrases, "Not an inch of our land, not a stone of our fortresses ;" and, "A glorious charge, but it was not war." When Mr. Macdonald ventured to coin a word, " ullula- tion," from ululare, he should have spelt it right. And it would have been as well if he had not dragged in by head and shoulders the vivisection controversy. The people whom he politely calls "anti-vivisection maniacs" have more to say for themselves than he seems to think.