Essays on Home Subjects. By John, Third Marquess of Bute.
(A. Gardner, Paisley. Is. 6d.)—The varied learning possessed by the late Marquess of Bute, which it is impossible to regret was not more systematically used, is curiously illustrated in this volume of articles. They are entitled "Essays on Home Subjects," and are, therefore, at once a supplement and a contrast to the previous posthumous volume which dealt with " foreign " subjects. They show Lord Bute's undoubted and great industry as an anti- quarian; they also exhibit his ecclesiological sympathies and political, or at least patriotic, bias. It may be doubted if any other writer of his time had the knowledge or the enthusiasm to write such papers as "Ancient Celtic Latin Hymns," "The New Light upon St. Patrick," and "Brendan's Fabulous Voyage." The best papers in this volume, however, are, to our thinking, "David, Duke of Rothsay," "The Scottish Peerage," and "Parliament in Scotland." The first is intended to rectify an act of injustice to "an unfortunate lad" which, in the author's view, Sir Walter Scott rendered in his "Fair Maid of Perth! The second is full of interesting details of a kind which even the careful historical investigator is apt to ignore or pass by. The amount of valuable out-of-the-way information which the third contains is such that the author may be forgiven the sentiment in favour of Home-rule for Scotland and the revival of the Scottish Parliament with which it closes. This volume includes the address which Lord Bute delivered on St. Andrews when he was Rector of its University. It demonstrates that if he had not lived a cloistered life and had cultivated public speaking, he might have been one of the most eloquent men of his time.
EDWARD AND PAMELA FITZGERALD.
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