The Reformation in Prance. By Richard Heath. Part II. (Religious
Tract Society.)—In this volume Mr. Heath relates the history of the Reform movement from the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) down to the incorporation of the Protestant Churches into the State (1802). We have, therefore, the story of about a century of persecution. The execution of Jean Cities on March 10th, 1762, marks the virtual end of the period of active persecution. But it was not till twenty-five years later that the Edict of Toleration was passed. Voltaire, whatever his demerits, must have the credit of at least preparing the way for a better state of things. In 1768 there were still fourteen galley-slaves, the sur- vivors of a large number of victims, who were suffering simply for their belief. These the Prince de Beauvers, newly appointed In- tendant of Languedoc, ordered to be released, and he carried out his purpose in spite of opposition at Court. The clergy remained true to their principles. Their general assembly in 1780 demanded a return to the system of the Dragonnades. Mr. Heath gives an account of the slow progress of better ideas, and writes with as much moderation as the subject allows.
The annual issue of Good Words, edited by Donald Macleod, D.D. (Isbister and Co.), may be best reviewed by giving a brief notice of some of the good things which it contains. The long serial stories are contributed by Mr. David Christie Murray, who writes "The Weaker Vessel," and Miss E. M. Marsh, whose story is entitled "Saved as by Fire." These, we suppose, will be separately published, and may therefore be reserved for some future occasion. Among the shorter papers we may mention two admirable little essays, full of a just and kindly criticism, on Dickens and Thackeray, from the pen of Mr. Andrew Lang; biographical notices of Frederick Walker, C. H. Bennett, and (1. J. Pinwell, under the title of "Artists I have Known," by Mr. Joseph Swain ; and a short account of Bishop Ken by Archdeacon Farrar. Popular science is represented by two "Studies from Life," by Mx. Grant Allen, and four chapters entitled "Among the Birds," by Mr. Charles Dixon. We have two papers on natural history by the Rev. J. G. Wood, while Dr. Gordon Stables enlarges on a theme which we have seen, we think, treated before by his pen, "Caravan Life for Pleasure and Health." We must not forget to mention three papers, as sensible as they are entertaining, by the Rev. Harry Jones, which he has named "College and Clerical Reminiscences." One excellent story we must quote. It may possibly be useful, though there might be some hesitation in giving it a practical application. It relates to a visitation of cholera :—" Another man (he was a potman) lay in extremis. A doctor was called in, who mid, 'Turn him on his face, and I will put a thick strip of flannel soaked in spirits of wine down his spine. We will see what that will do.' A Sister brought a store of flannel ; the doctor soaked it in spirit, and prepared to apply it to the patient. First, however, he placed the smoking mass in a heap (almost as big as a small hassock) in the middle of his back. Meanwhile, the Sister leant forward with a candle (it VMS night), and accidentally set the hassock on lire. This woke the potman up, and not very long ago the doctor told me he had seen him in a street near the Oxford Circus."—From the same publishers we also receive the companion volume of the Sunday Magazine, edited by the Rev. Benjamin Waugh. Here we have three serial stories,—" Toilers of Babylon," by Mr. B. L. Farjeon ; "The Elect Lady," by Dr. George MacDonald ; and "Stronger than Fate," by Mr. Bradford Whiting. Leaving these for the present, we may mention some of the shorter papers. "Christ's Refusal," an application of the words, "Who made me a judge and a divider over you ?" is the subject of a paper, delivered as an address, we believe, to a political club by the Bishop of Rochester, and which is distinctly effective. Archdeacon Farrar contributes eight papers on "Scenes from Early Church History." The "Philanthropical, Missionary, and Travel Papers" are a speciality of the Sunday Magazine. The editor's hand is seen here, and again, where it always is shown to great advantage, in the series of "Sunday Evenings with the Children." We need not say more than that this magazine is well worthy to be classed with Good Words.—Two similar volumes, bearing much the same relation to each other, are published by the Religions Tract Society. These are the Leisure Hour and the Sunday at Home. It is very difficult to differentiate one magazine from another, and still more difficult to institute a comparison of merit. The distinction be- tween the sacred and the secular is perhaps more strongly marked in the two periodicals just named than in the pair previously noticed. And perhaps we may add that they contain a greater choice of miscellaneous reading, while they do not command such an array of well-known literary ability. We may mention, in the Leisure Hour, as specially interesting papers, "William Barnes," the poet who has given to Dorsetshire dialect something of the immortality of Doric ; "Toynbee Hall and Oxford House," "Leaves from an Australian Journal," and a series of "The Queen's Homes." The first of these last, dealing with "The Queen's Household," gives a quantity of information that we do not remember to have seen collected before about the Royal officials. In the Sunday at Home we have, among other things, papers on "Mission Work," including labours both at home and abroad, a sketch in four parts of that remarkable man, Peter Cartwright (it would be better, d propos of biographies, to exclude memoirs of the living), and some historical essays on "Paris at the Time of the Reformation," by Mr. Richard Heath, a writer who has made the subject of the reformed communities of France peculiarly his own. Magazines that better perform the end for which they are intended than these two, it would not be easy to find.
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