30 DECEMBER 1899, Page 25

Bmcmarnies. —Elizabeth Pease Nichol. By Anna M. Stoddart. (J. M.

Dent and Co. 4s. 6d. net.)—Mr. R. F. Horton remarks that "we could wish that all the saints had belonged to one Church," because such a fact " would have furnished strong evidence of the exclusive truth of the denomination in which they were found." As it is, they are found in all Churches, and in "communities which the Church, as a whole, agreed to bar." Elizabeth Nichol was a Friend, though on her marriage she formally ceased to belong to that body. Her early philanthropic impulses were in the cause of emancipation, in which the Friends had always taken a leading part. As time went on she threw herself into various good works, a comrade and helper of kinsfolk who were active on the side of righteousness. It is a fine inspiriting story that we read, but we are bound to say that Miss Stoddart tells it in a very aggressive way. We must be excused fer saying that she "shrieks" from time to time. Does she seriously menu that emancipation would have been a nobler policy if the nation had refused to pay compensation to the slaveholders ? Slavery was a system for which the nation was distinctly respon- sible. Of course she has her say about opium. "The voice is still for Revenue versus Righteousness," she writes. Said of an individual statesman that would be slander. Is it anything else when it is said against a nation ? This is not our idea of the way in which a "saintly life" should be written. "The greatest of these is charity."—A biography to which we would gladly give an extended notice did circumstances permit is Charles A. Berry, D.D., by James E. Drummond (Cassell and Co., 6s.) Dr. Berry, who died prematurely, worn out by overwork, was President of the Congregational Union in 1897, and occupied a most distinguished position in the Nonconformist world. This memoir is written by his col- league in the pastorate, and is highly appreciative of his great gifts and qualities.—Pilkington of Uganda, by C. T. Harford Battersby (Marshall Brothers, 3s. 6d.), is a cheaper edition of a most interesting biography first published a little more than twelve months since.