The Making of Abbotsford, and Incidents in Scottish History. By
the Hon. Mrs. Maxwell Scott of Abbotsford. (A. and C. Black.) —These twelve essays exhibit the lady of Abbotsford's usual selective skill and command of materials, and they fascinate by
their "sweetness and light," beneath which ripples a perceptible current of the proverbial perfervid genius of her nation. She would, of course, be untrue to herself if her sentiments were not always Catholic and "particularist," and if she did not call the Pretender "the Chevalier." The "making of Abbotsford" is mainly described in her great-grandfather's and Lockhart's own words, aptly ending with the Laird's reiterated remark on his return from Italy, "I have seen much, but nothing like my am n home." Old Buchanan's malignant impeach- ment of Mary Queen of Scots, even as diluted by Hume and Fronde, to a generation which demands that serious history shall be founded on "the document," proves nothing.
Mrs. Maxwell Scott is only following such acute critics as the lawyer Hosack, when she ignores the Chatelard and Rizzi° scandals, and argues that the evidence for the Casket Letters having been forgeries "seems to be overwhelming." Here our own opinion is, "all that we know is, nothing can be
known," while it is plain that the indictment of Mary for privity to the chapter of the Babingtou plot which compassed the murder of Elizabeth has no tangible basis. It is difficult to rebut the suspicion that Walsingham did actually, as alleged, manipulate Mary's correspondence so as to make it supply the desired evidence of her guilt, and justify her arraignment and eventual execution as steps easily defensible on Machiavellian grounds. Our general sympathies are with Elizabeth ; but we recognise the extreme significance of the fact that at the Fotheringay trial no authenticated documents were produced, nor witnesses heard, while the final Court of Westminster was only furnished with copies of the letters implicated, the originals being rigorously withheld and no defence allowed. Strange to say, these important circumstances are eliminated from the appo- site articles of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and of the Dictionary of National Biography. This volume will suit all tastes ; to the theologically disposed the charming sketches of certain canonised Scots will be very attractive ; to the tribe of Monkbarns, the Runish " Ruthwell Cross ; " Messrs. Conan Doyle and Stanley Weyman may find hints for new novels in the account of "the Scots Guards in France," and in the appalling story of the "Chevalier de Feuquerolles," taken from French records nearly a hundred years old, which shows that our modern realism is not a firecie-siOele invention.
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