A Book of the Rhine from Cleves to Mains. By
S. Baring'. Gould. (Methuen and Co. 6s.)—Mr. Baring-Gould's book is, as all the admirers of his genius would wish it to be, eminently characteristic. He has a keen eye for Nature, and a keener for objects of interest, archaeological and historical, and also a considerable gift of satire, for which, it must be allowed, Germany affords not a few occasions. It would not be easy to match in any other Christian and civilised countries-- Prussia, it is true, resisted Christianity long after every other European country had yielded—such extraordinary developments as the robber castles of the Rhine, the Prince-Bishops with their aggressive secularism, and such individual examples of audacious villainy as Schinderhannes. Mr. Baring-Gould gives this worthy's career at some length, and we are privileged also to see his portrait. It would serve well enough for the soberest of Quakers. This amazing story is no fiction of a credulous age. It is all written down in black-and-white in the notes of the trial of this fellow and his band in 1803. But when we remember how the illustrious Prince, the Elector of Mainz, had behaved some ten years before, we are not inclined to be severe, even on .Schinderhannes. Mr. Baring-Gould is scarcely fair to the Protestants when he happens to come across them. Luther and his friends used very hard language, and did not a few foolish things. The violence and the folly might be matched, and more than matched, among his antagonists. This would be an unprofitable task. It would be more to the point to name an anti-Protestant of that time who was his equal as a great man and a good German.
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