Enylish History for the Use of Public Schools. By the
Rev. J. Franck Bright, M.A. Period I. Medimval Monarchy, from the Departure of the Romans to Edward III., with Maps and Plans. (Rivingtons.)—This is one of those manuals of history with which the Press teems at the pre- sent time. The great want under which schools and colleges have so
long laboured of tome interpreters to the youth of this country of the results of the investigations into the history of England which have rendered our old text-books almost wholly useless, seems at last to have given rise to a simultaneous movement on the part of historical students to supply the deficiency. Among the wcrks thus evoked, Mr. Bright's, of which the present volume is the first instalment, will hold a respect- able place, though we doubt whether it will command a very high or assured reputation. It is one of those works which approach being satisfactory so closely, that we perhaps perceive the shortcomings all the more keenly. Mr. Bright writes like a man of cultivation, and most of what he says is worth attention, if not approval His book is furnished with dates and genealogical lists, not only of the kings, but of the leading noble families, and with maps, &c., to an extent almost disproportionate to the scale of the whole work. We doubt whether he has not made too large a demand on the memory of his young readers in this respect. But his style is not a very good one, being neither stdootb nor graphic, and he is sometimes wanting in distinctness in his exposition of character. We doubt, for instance, if his readers will carry away from these plges any very clear idea of the moral position assumed by Dunstan, who is undoubtedly one of the greatest figure-pieces in the Anglo-Saxon portion of this volume. Mr. Bright also seems somewhat uncertain in the line which be takes up in the struggle between King and Church during the reigns of the Princes of the Norman and early Plantagenet periods. His real sympathies are, we should imagine, with civil rights, and intelligent and moderate ecclesiastical authority, but be seems to have a hankering after the enthusiastic bigots of the Roman party which obscures sometimes his expression of opinion on this sub- ject. As far as we have been able to test the work by special examina- tion, he appears to be accurate in his facts and intelligent and trust- worthy in their arrangement, and in the weight and significance assigned to them respectively. Perhaps a careful revision of the book in a second edition may remove some of the objections above stated, and render Mr. Bright's work more useful and acceptable than it is likely to be in its present form.
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