A FRENCH LIFE OF QUEEN VICTORIA.
Victoria : sa Vie, son Rate, son Regne. Par Abel Chevalley. (Ch. Delagrave, Paris. 3 fr. 50 c.)—It was not, we think, a happy thought in M. Chevalley to combine in this volume the two subjects of Queen Victoria's personality and the history of English politics. Of these politics he has but an imperfect com- prehension, and this defect confuses his estimate of the Queen's character. Here is an example: " Soutenus par la faveur publique, la reine et le gouvernement oserent exercer stir l'Irlande le despotisme le plus terrible." What could be more absurd? We might be reading how the Emperor Hadrian and his lieu- tenants, availing themselves of the popular feeling against the Jews, exercised the most cruel severities on the nation. And a little further on we have : "Le silence de In mort tomba sur impuissante." "The silence of death"! And it is thus that our lively neighbours write history ! In summing up the character of the Queen, he writes : "La sensibilite de la reine etait, en effet, tres viva a. la foia et superficielle." And to prove this, he says, among other things : " Elle plaig- nait lea souffrances des Irlandais, mais elle n'habita jamais l'Irlande." That absence from Ireland may have been, and very likely was, a mistake, but it is simply ludicrous to take it as proving the superficiality of the Queen's feelings. There is some- thing like spite when, in relating the intense interest taken by the Queen in the South African War, he writes that the valour of the Irish regiments caused transports of enthusiasm, "et de regrets, pent-etre, ou de remords." Apart from this consideration, serious as it is, there is much in the book that will interest, and even instruct, the reader. Whenever there is a canonisation, there must needs be an advocatus diaboli. M. Chevalley does not always keep to this role. Not unfrequently he expresses a genuine admiration for Queen Victoria. Early in the volume he says that Royalty became "grace a In reine Victoria, comme une symbol° d'honnetete devant has yeux de in nation." Starting from this point, he could not fail to be fairly appreciative of the Queen's great qualities.
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