The Impeachment of Mary Stuart, and other Papers, Historical and
Biographical. By John Skelton. (Blackwood.)—We had almost thrown this volume aside. "Mary Stuart" is a hopeless subject, on which argu- ment, such are the causes which determine mon's judgments about it is wholly useless. One might almost say that the Tweed divides her partisans from her enemies, as far at least as the literary class is con- cerned. There are many in Scotland who doubtless think of her as John Knox thought ; only they are mostly inarticulate, except in the matter of theology. But we found that "Mary Stuart" does not occupy more than a third of the book. The rest is occupied with miscellaneous essays, which are written with a brilliancy of style which is as delight- ful as it is uncommon. Lord Macaulay is no favourite with Mr. Skelton, but he will probably pardon us for saying that we have not read any- thing in modern English so bright, so vigorous, so incisive, out of the pages of the great Whig essayist and historian. The motto which Mr. Skelton puts on his title-page is "In Defence 1" and he defends Dryden and Bolingbroke, as well as the Queen of Scots. He makes out we think, a better case for the statesman than for the poet, whose offences are Indeed hard to pardon. No vileness in his contemporaries excuses him. His genius should have raised him out of their mire, as Milton's raised him out of that of Carey and Herrick. How deep he sank in it may be judged, by seeing not only how he travestied Shakespeare, but how he actually made Ovid more foul. The third part of the volume con- tains essays on Charles James Napier, and Robert Lee, the minister of Grey Friars' Church. The latter of these two is peculiarly interesting, but Mr. Skelton must pardon us for doubting whether the large-miuded man of whom he writes would have spoken of another form of faith as "a system of sacramental mystification and sacerdotal pretences," would have talked of "a slippery roll of anointed bishops," or have allowed that his Church had "unapt the chain which bound them to aneient Christendom."
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