OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER.
Historical Essays by Members of the Owens College, Manchester. Edited by T. F. Tont and James Tait. (Longmans and Co. 12s. 6d. net.)—This volume of essays by a variety of writers is published in commemoration of the Jubilee of the College (1851- 1001). It is a bulky octavo of some five hundred and fifty pages, got up in a singularly unattractive style, which is to be regretted, since, being of the nature of a Festschrift, one naturally compares it with such works as the Furnivall " Miscellany " or the Taylorian Lectures issued by the Oxford Press. The print of the volume. however, is respectable and some of the essays are interesting. An unfinished biography of Sebastian Griphius bears witness to the intimate knowledge of Lyonese bibliography possessed by the late Dr. Christie, who held the Chair of History at the Owens College from 1854 to 1866. From the pen of his successor, Dr. A. W. Ward, now Master of Peterhouse, we have a study of Elizabeth, Princess Palatine, granddaughter of James I. and sister of Prince Rupert. The present occupant of the chair, Professor T. F. Tout, writes on the part played by Wales and the Marches in the struggles of Henry III. ; Mrs. Tont contributes an interesting paper on the legend of Saint Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins. Mr. Tait, the Lecturer in Ancient History, throws some new light on the question of the murder of the Duke of Gloucester by Richard II. Among others are essays on the first and the last phases of Napoleon's career by Mr. Spenser Wilkinson and Mr. J. H. Rose, and on the teaching of history by Mrs. Alfred Haworth and Mr. Thomas Bateson. More local themes of municipal and civic history are dealt with by Mr. H. W. Clemesha and Mr. Ernest Broxap in papers on " The Preston Gild Merchant " and " The Siege of Manchester" ; while finance is touched on by Dr. W. A. Shaw in connection with the seeds of the National Debt sown by Charles II.
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