A Concise History of England to the Death of William
IV. By E. J. Howell. (Blackwood and Sons)—He is a bold and confident writer who, without a single allusion to authorities, or a word of introduction to his readers, sits down to write a Concise History of England. Such an one is Mr. E. J. Howell. His history, wherever he may have gathered it, bears evidence of work among the latest investigations, and seems in its broader features to be accurate, though we have noticed several mistakes, such, for instance, as saying that Isabella (of France), the Queen-mother, fell in love with Owen Tudor and married him ; that Henry, Earl of Richmond (Henry VII.), was son of Jasper Tudor; and that Ferdinand of Spain was Katharine of Aragon's grandfather. The writer lays down his history as he might do the law, quietly and steadily even to monotony, at the same pace and with the same assurance from end to end. He does not moralise, nor go into raptures, but he does not omit, while keeping his thread of history well in hand, to connect with it incidental traditions and associations. A work of this kind is very incomplete without a good index, and without some genealogical tables, such, for instance, as those Dr. Smith has introduced into his " Smaller History of England." It requires a vast amount of confidence to take on trust a work of this nature, without one reference or authority to support its statements; and the arrangement of lengthy paragraphs, sometimes of seven or eight pages each of small print, is rather wearisome. We are not told for, what readers the book was prepared, and the writer preserves an absolute silence about its aim and object ; but it might with careful revision make a fair cram-book, and students might find it useful before an examination in English history.
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