Ten Centuries of European Progress. By Lewis Jackson. (Samp- son
Low, Marston, and Co.)—This work may be described as com- bining the qualities of a chronicle and a history. The author gives us a record of events arranged under centuries with the subdivisions of countries, and a general survey and examination of the condition of these same countries. For the chronicle part we are very much obliged ; it has been very carefully put together. (But surely there is an error in the arrangement of the centuries. The twelfth century, for instance, includes 1101-1200, not 1100- 1190.) Is a historian, Mr. Jackson does not altogether commend himself to us. Ile is, we gather, a Protectionist. We "taught the world commerce," we read, "without keeping a fair share of it." This presumably refers to the Navigation Laws. But is not the British proportion of the carrying-trade of the world greater than it ever was before ? But we cannot spare space for the dis- cussion of such questions. He is a fanatical vivisectionist, men- tioning without a word of disapproval that "in France and Switzerland the bias to [the practice] is strongly in favour of it as interesting ; apart from results to science." This, we presume, means that Mr. Jackson sees no objection to torturing animals for the sake of curiosity. Naturally, after this, we are not surprised to hear of "the horrible ecclesiastical curriculum of mispro- nounced dead languages and bad theology." Phi e language is not, it is true, uncommon in certain classes of people ; but what are we to say when we find the maxim, a propos of " Jesuits and Jews," that "benevolence is not due to human wolves "?
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