Life of William 'Wilberforce. By his son, Samuel Wilberforce, D.D.,
Lord Bishop of Oxford. Revised and condensed from the original edition. (Murray.)—The "original edition" was published in 1838; there were five volumes of the Life, and they were soon followed by two volumes of letters. Of course few general readers could be expected to wade through seven volumes, and though there was a large and tolerably rapid sale for the book it never became popular. The Bishop of Oxford has done wisely to issue a revised and condensed edition in one volume, and to give the public a cabinet portrait of his father, in place of the full length which could only hang in a large gallery. At the same time we think it would have been better for him to curtail the extracts from the Wilberforce diary, and to supply their place by narrative and description. It is evident that the diary itself was never meant for publication. The merest jottings were often made in it, and these, though enough to satisfy the writer, and enable his memory to recall every detail of the scenes in which he mixed, are not of equal service to others. In the larger Life, whore almost everything connected with Wilberforce was published, his own notes might bo valuable as authentic materials. But even these diaries and memoranda occupied too much space, and in the present edition they might have been utilized to greater advantage. What we mean is, that we should have preferred to see the former Life used as a basis for building upon, than as a work to be reduced to a smaller scale.
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