The Struggle with Puritanism. By Bruce Blaxland, M.A. (Methuen and
Co. 2s. 6c1. net.)—In this volume, one of the "Handbooks of English Church History" Series, Mr. Blaxland does his best to supply a fair and impartial treatment of the subject. Ho gives, for instance, a statement of what the Puritans wanted at the time when his story begins, and admits that much of it was " obviously reasonable." Whether he allows sufficiently for the fact that there were Puritans and Puritans is not clear... That there were men who desired assimilation to the Calvinistic system is true; there were others who thought that the dominant party in the Church were not faithful to Reforms. tion principles. They were overpowered by Laud and his friends, with the result, first, that for many years the Church of England was more hateful to the majority of English people than it had over been before ; and next, that it fell into such a condition of torpor that it almost ceased to live. However this may be, Mr. Blax. land's book may be studied with advantage. It is a very careful and moderate statement of one side of a great question.
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