History of England. By J. A. Fronde, M.A. (Longmans.)—This is
a new edition of Mr. Fronde's "History" in twelve volumes, wonderfully printed and got up, far handier to hold than the first edition, and quite as pleasant to read. Its single defeat is one which is common to almost all works of the kind,—an index constructed on a plan which always suggests to us that it is intended to save paper. There is, first of all, prefixed to each volume a table of contents, utterly useless to anybody who wants to find anything without reading the table through, being arranged in order of subject as treated by Mr. Fronde, without alphabetical, chrono- logical, or other customary system. Then there is at the end of the twelve volumes an index of a hundred pages, very minute as regards names, not so minute as regards subjects, and terribly huddled by the form of arrangement adopted, that of placing all references to one thing in a continuous paragraph without further alphabetical division. Would it really cost too much to make a great work like this perfect by insert- ing, instead of the table of contents, and in addition to the general index, a clear index to each volume, with secondary alphabetical arrangement, so that the searcher would never have to read more than a line or two ? At present, supposing the reference to be "Elizabeth's parsimony," he may have to read pages of the closest type before dis- covering the observations he is seeking.
Previous page
