SOME JUBILEE BOOKS.* To review in detail the collection of
essays to which Mr. Ward has given the title of The Reign of Queen Victoria, would be to repeat in substance, with or without recantations, a large part of the articles and reviews which have appeared for a generation past in this journal. In view of this impossibility, it must suffice to give a summary of its contents, and to remark on a few points that suggest themselves for notice. The first of the two volumes may be roughly described as dealing with politics, the second as treating of "social science," science, properly so- called, literature, and art. It would be presumptuous to attempt to rank in any order of merit the thirteen essays (including the introduction) which compose the first volume, or the fourteen which are contained in the second ; but we may indicate those which seem to us to be most effective in producing the definite impression which a work of this kind seeks to make upon the ordinary reader. Mr. Leonard Courtney is, we think, second to none in the precision and lucidity of his exposition of "Finance." Occasionally there is not wanting to this exposition a sub-humorous touch, as, e.g., in that part which treats of the schemes which have been at work of late years for the reduction of the Debt. " A strenuous debate arose," says Mr. Courtney, a propoe of Sir Stafford Northcote's proposed variation of Mr. Gladstone's original method, "remarkable because both sides shirked the time test of relative merit,—viz,, which plan hest concealed from the ordinary politician, and beat prevented the ordinary politician from explaining to the ordinary elector, that a large and increasing sum was annually applied to the redemption of debt which might at any time be shifted to the reduction of taxation." And he appends a note which explains the financial mystery in an unprecedentedly small number of words. On the whole, Mr. Courtney's view of our national finance is favourable ; but he does not conceal his apprehensions of difficulties ahead in respect of the finance which may be described as "local." There has been " progress " here; but it has too often been almost a "rake's progress" in indebtedness. There are indications that the state of things which in some places preceded the abolition of the old Poor. Law may recur. As there then were parishes which were going out of cultivation on account of the enormousness of the rates, so now there are parishes where numerous houses are standing empty because the rates add so vastly to the rental. This difficulty would not be relieved, at least for the present, by the plan of a "reformed house-duty as the best auxiliary of local finance," to which Mr. Courtney gives a hesitating preference.
Lord Wolseley, in writing of "The Army," has the advantage of treating of changes with which he has had mach to do. He is emphatic in his commendation of the short.service system. "It is an undoubted fact," he pointedly puts it, "that after a private has been about twelve to fifteen years in the ranks, it does not pay the State in any way to retain his services." Apart from the question of his military efficiency, there is the important consideration of his civil usefulness. Lord Wolseley's conten- tion is that you have in the short-service man as good a soldier and a better citizen. But the short-service system clearly neeessi- tates, in his opinion, a careful keeping up of the home strength of the Army. If this is neglected, we have what he very rightly calls the "cruel and foolish" practice of sending out lads of eighteen and nineteen to the many trying climates which are included within the boundaries of our world-wide responsibilities. Other highly interesting matters are discussed ; but we must be content with quoting a statement which is as striking as any of the comparisons of which a Jubilee is so suggestive. Briefly it may be put thus, that in 1837 the strength of the military forces of the Crown was 119,500, and that it is now 611,600. After this, Lord Braseey's figures in his article on" The Navy," seem almost insignificant. The ships in commission in 1837 were 196; the number in 1886 was 234. The increase, however, in the "men voted for the Fleet" is more striking,- 26,500 to 61,400, while the tonnage figures, if they could be given, would heighten the impression. The largest " displace- • 1. The Reign of Queen Victoria: a gamey of Fifty Fairest Program. Edited by Themes Humphry Ward. ILL 2 vols. London: Smith, Elder, and Co. lir The Story of the life of Quern Vestorto. By W. W. Tulloch. London : Nisbet and Co. 1887.-3. Life of Queen Vittoria. London: Nelson and Sons. 1837.-4. Her Hajaty her driceiters and her Faintly. By J. Swing Ritchie. London: Charles and 0,-5. Vittoria R.I.: her lofe and Reim By Dr. Macaulay. London: Religious Tract Society. 1887.-6. Ti'. Qusen her Endo We and Beige. By L. Valentine. London Frederick Warne and Co. 1887.---7. The Nineteenth Century Ti111011 of Owen Vudorta. By Robert Mackenzie. London : Nelson and Sons. 1887.-8. Two Royal Liven By Dorothea &starts. Leaden: T. Fisher Untwin. 1687.---9. The clusen's Birthday.. Book. By Mary F. P. Donbar. London, Griffith, nano, and Co. 1897.-10. Th. Jubilee 4. George 111. Compiled by Thomas Preston. London Whittaker sad Co. 1887.-11. Jelnles Year of George III. Lsndeso Doman, and Co. 1897. meat" fifty years ago was 4,600 tons; now it is 12,000, and "the average is out of all proportion in excess of that of 1837." The other articles in the volume we can but enumerate. After an introduction in which the editor, as Coryphms, moderates the song of triumph with a judicious note of warning, we have "Legislation of the Reign "and "Foreign Policy" and" Colonial Policy and Progress" from his own pen ; "Constitutional Development" (in one sense the gloomiest in tone of all), by Sir W. R. Aneon ; "The Administration of the Law," by Lord Justice Bowen; "Religion and the Church," by Dr. E. Hatch; "India," by Sir H. S. Maine; and "Ireland," by Sir Rowland Blennerhassett.
In the second volume, many readers will turn at once to what Mr. Matthew Arnold has to say about schools. One sentence may be taken to sum it up
"The first year of her Majesty's reign found English elementary education a chaos ; the fiftieth finds it, with whatever imperfections of detail, at any rate a national system. But English secondary ednoa- tion, likewise a chaos when her Majesty's reign began, remains a chaos still."
How the system grew up, why the chaos remains, how order may be introduced into it, are the subjects of an article in which we do not expect to find anything new, but which is an admirable re'sumg of facts and views with which it is not Mr. Arnold's fault if we are not already familiar.
Mr. Fyffe, in treating of "The Universities," is often brilliant, if he is sometimes paradoxical. He pays a high compliment to the way in which the University of London has fulfilled its function of examining, though he goes on to deny that "there is occasion to attribute to the newer University any innate intellectual or moral superiority over its elders," and remarks characteristically that "it can no more suffer from the peculiar infirmities of Oxford and Cambridge than a skeleton can suffer from gout." This is as true as it is humorous ; but is it fun or earnest when he suggests a short Bill, "requiring that every under- graduate of Oxford or Cambridge should have passed the Matriculation teat at the University of London " ? The process of modifying the Matrioulation test by reducing its latitude has already commenced, and might, in the opinion of some good judges, be carried still further. Professor Huxley deals with the vast subject of "Science" with a clearness and comprehension which, it is probable, no other writer could surpass, or even equal. Five essays, in which experts of acknow- ledged eminence deal with social or economic topics, may be enumerated :—"The Growth and Distribution of Wealth," by R. Giffen; "Industrial Association," by Messrs. Mandella and E. Howell ; "Agriculture," by Sir J. Caird ; "The Cotton Trade and Industry," by Mr. J. Stagg; and" The Iron Trade and Allied Industries," by Sir Lowthian Bell. The editor takes the some- what diverse subjects of "Locomotion and Transport," and "Art;" Mr. R. B. Carter writes of " Medicine ;" Dr. R. Garnett of" Literature," in an essay which we can but simply commend to our readers ; Mr. W. Archer, of "The Drama ;" and Mr. W. Parratt, of "Music." As a whole, Mr. Ward's enterprise is happily conceived and admirably executed.
If the personality of the Queen scarcely appears in Mr. Ward's volumes, the deficiency is amply supplied by the other books which we have to notice. There is the less difference between them because of the copiousness of the details which are authentically known of her Majesty's life. She has been, as no Royal personage has ever been before, her own biographer, and those who Wilber story have an easy task. For this reason, perhaps, first place is due to Mr. H. W. Talloch's Story of the Life of Queen Victoria (2), which claims, for all but the last chapter, to have been revised by the Queen. It is told in a simple style for children, and should suit them well. We glean from it a story of what is perhaps a solitary instance of a pun made by a Master of the Horse in answering a Royal question. The occasion was the Queen's visit to the Mansion House in the first year of her reign. "I wonder," she said to Lord Albemarle, "if rnygood people of London are as glad to see me as Ito see them?" He replied by pointing to the letters "V. R." woven into all the decorations, and saying, "Your Majesty can see their loyal cockney answer,' Vs are." The Queen's own youthful joke, when she remarked that Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, speaking of her sons as " My jewels," should have said, "My Cornelians," was certainly better than that of her subject. Another book for young people, nicely got up and prettily illustrated, and generally fulfilling its function satisfactorily, is the Life of Queen Victoria, which stands third on our list. Mr. J. Ewing Ritchie, in his Her Majesty, her Ancestore and Family (4), extends his subject by taking in the lives of Royal per- sonages connected with her, as, for instance, the seven sons of George lit. Mr. Ritchie has gathered his materials from varying sources, besides what the Queen has her- self supplied. Lord Albemarle's Recollections, for instance, furnish some interesting pages. The result is a really entertain- ing book. The author cannot, however, be complimented on his illustrations, which one is inclined, if it is not too severe, to compare to the new coinage. In Dr. Macaulay's book (5), on the other hand, the illustrations are a pleasing feature. Some of the interiors and landscapes are particularly good, as the "Grand Staircase in Buckingham Palace" and "Coburg Castle." Two sketches which will cause general interest, though they do not lend themselves very readily to art, are the interior and exterior of the rooms in Kensington Palace where the Queen was born. Dr. Macaulay, with his practised pen, tells the story well, with just as much reference to history as the circumstances require. There is nothing particularly distinctive about Mr. Valentine's book (6) ; but it seems carefully put together, and claims to contain both additions to the story of the Queen's life and rectifications of it as it is commonly told. We do not remember to have seen before the anecdote of the pilot who saved her life (when she was in her fifteenth year) by drawing her out of the way of a falling mast. Mr. Robert Mackenzie's book (7) is a well-known history which has now received the well-deserved honour of a tenth edition. We must give a word of special praise to the eighth volume on our list, telling as it does the story of the Crown Prince and Princess of Germany. It is, indeed, an admirable record of good service in all good causes that Miss Roberts has to give, and she does ft with a simplicity of style and a sympathy that are eminently appropriate to the subject. Much has been drawn from German sources to complete the information given in the volume, and it is illustrated with some peculiarly interesting photo- graphs of persons and places. The Queen's Birthday- Book is a handsome volume, adorned with thirteen full- page photographs of Royal personages, and containing a great many more records of their births, dee. It is probable that many persons have a certain satisfaction in finding them- selves linked accidentally with eminent people, and the Birth- day-Book, apart from its other claims, should thus have a success. The two books which describe the Jubilee of George III. (10 and 11) appear to be drawn mainly from the same sources,—the newspapers of the time. For appearance, the palm must be given to Mr. Preston's book. On the other hand, its rival gives some additional items,—an account, for instance, of the celebration at Bombay; and, for any one who cares to read them, aome verses by "hoarse Fitzgerald," a poet who is commonly indebted for what remembrance still is left of him to Byron's satire.
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