Historical Documents of the Middle Ages. Translated and edited by
Ernest F. Henderson. (Bell and Son.)—It is an excellent idea to publish an English translation of some of the most important historical documents of the middle ages. The selection made by Mr. Henderson is judicious. The laws of William the Conqueror, especially the ordinance which separated the courts of the Bishop and Archdeacon from the secular courts, the Con- stitutions of Clarendon, and the manner of holding Parliament, are documents of first-rate importance in English history, and it was quite time they made their appearance in the vulgar tongue ; and the "Dialogue of the Exchequer" is certainly more likely to be read in English than in Latin. We are not sure the book would not have been more useful if it had been confined to Eogland ; but if it was to be European, the Salle Law, the Capitularies of Charlemagne, and the Pope's Letter to the German Princes after Canossa, with the Rule of St. Benedict and of St- Francis—the founders of the Benedictine Monks and the Grey Friars—are well chosen. The translation, however, leaves some- thing to be desired. The translator is an American, and may therefore, perhaps, be pardoned for translating " archi-diaconus " into "arch-dean," though it makes one sceptical as to his authority on any matter connected with the Church; and no one ought to handle such subjects who can translate the" service of Lauds" into the "service of praises ; " and when we find him writing of "a memoranda," and "let there be none within a city or burroughs or castle," we begin to wish that the book had, at all events, been revised by some competent hand. Before becoming a translator, it is well to know both the language from which you translate and that into which you translate.
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