HISTORY OF FRANCE.
History of France. Told to Boys and Girls by Mary Macgregor (T. C. and E. C. Jack. 7s. 6d. net.)—Miss Macgregor has accom- plished a difficult task with the success which her previous work had led us to expect. Of course there are in a narrative of some two thousand years various occasions for criticism. In the account of Comes Gallic campaigns the dates are somewhat confused. Julius, born in 100 s.c., was sent, we are told, to aid the Gauls against Ariovistus the German when he was thirty-eight years of age, i.e., in 62 B.c., in which year we read great hordes of the Germans poured across the Rhine. But in 62 Caesar was Fleeter at Rome ; his campaign with Ariovistus was four years later. A more serious matter is to be found in some of the sketches of character. It was quite right to give credit to Louis XIV. for his industry, but the reader should be made clearly to see that he did more mischief to France than any other of her kings. Henry IV. appears to be more of a hero than he really was, but it is not easy to tell the truth virginibus puerisque. The encomium of Voltaire is somewhat exaggerated ,• here, too, the truth is not easily told. But as a whole the book is decidedly good.
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