Three Centuries of Modern History. By C. D. Yonge. (Longmans.)—
This book has two obvious faults. First, it has no index, a convenience, we ought to say a necessity, the place of which is by no means supplied by a tolerably copious table of contents. Secondly, it is written in what is, without exception, the most extraordinary style that we ever saw in a book of real merit and bearing the name of a properly qualified person. It is hardly to be believed that "a Professor of Modern History and English Literature "—such are the chairs which Mr. Yonge occupies in Queen's College, Belfast—should have written such a sentence as the - following. It relates to Maurice, Prince of Orange :—" Though deserted by England, whose new King (for Elizabeth had died in 1603) pre- ferred the alliance of Spain, and of France, whom Henry IV., in spite of the promises of substantial aid which he had at first held out to him, was tempted to a similar union with Philip, in hopes of obtaining pos- session of the whole seventeen Provinces for himself as a dowry of the Infanta, who was to marry the Dauphin, the promised bride and bride- groom being, as yet, scarcely out of their cradles, he was still able," &c. Mr. Yonge positively rivals Thucydides ; oven he never surpassed the total forgetfulness of the beginning "whom Henry IV." 'Whatever our anther may say about the English literature which he professes, we trust that he does not lecture upon style, or if he does, that he shows himself as a "horrid example." That a man should have studied models of English for years, and involved himself in such a labyrinth of anacoloutha as we have quoted, is simply amazing. Let schoolmasters, waxing angry over their pupils' composition, note it, and have mercy. The historical value of the manual, as far as concerns the putting together of the materials, and the managing of the " perspective " of the historical facts, is, we should say, considerable.
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