and witness his return to the platform either to repeat his delicious strains, or simply to bow his acknowledgments, but never have I heard and seen him on these occasions without my thoughts flying back, and this picture springing up before me--Sivori daintily holding my

precious red-painted shilling-fiddle, trying to draw some sort of tone from it with the scratching little bow, and with the fun beaming in his dark eyes, crying, 'Oh, scrape, scrape! What stoff! what stoff!

F. J. M.

TW

WENTY years ago the herculean labours and studies of Henry Thomas Buckle found vent in the publication of three introductory volumes, bearing the title of the History of Civilization in England.* The design of the author was stupendous, his conception was magnificent, and scholars everywhere stood amazed and bewildered at the tremendous mass of material the historian brought to bear on his subject. Had the author been spared to finish his work it would have been the completest and most brilliant thing of its kind ever written, but Buckle died early, leaving behind him this fragment of a work destined itself to be magnificent. Buckle was not a genius, nor a florid wordpainter. He was a close student, a scholar who delved deep among the treasures of half-forgotten and almost extinct lore, and a brilliant essayist. He had some faults of style, however, and his reasoning was not always sound, and Macaulay once called him an anticipator whose book perpetually reminded him of the Divine Lega

tion,' a work which a critic says 'dazzles while it is unable to convince.' Buckle instructs, but he sometimes

History of Civilization in England, by Henry Thomas Buckle, in three volumes, new edition. Toronto Rose-Belford Pub. Co.

puzzles only; and many of his queries are merely clever paradoxes, couched in an elegant phraseology which de ceives the reader at first into a mistaken notion as to the author's real meaning. This much criticism only may we offer about a work which has stood the test of years, and withstood many a vigorous assault on the secrets which it teaches. It continues to hold its own among the scholarly books of the world, and all students still point to it as a marvel of erudition and as a safe guide to historical study. The plan of the author was an exceedingly good one. It embraced a wide range of thought, great skill in the grouping of matter, and powerful analysis of human character and motive. He was not permitted to do more than write the mere introduction to his work, but what he has left us-though called a fragment-is sufficient to enable the reader to grasp the meaning of the author, and learn, to a large degree, the scope and manner of the work which grew in his mind. It does even more than this, for it is complete as far as it goes, and every page exhibits a wealth of learning, research, and examination which must commend it to all thoughtful and studious men. The copy before us is the first Canadian edition of Buckle's Civilization

ever issued. It is in three handsome volumes, uniform with Greg's Creed of Christendom and a Modern Symposium. The publishers have placed the price at a low figure, in order that copies of this famous work may find a place in every well-selected library in Canada.

If Dr. Holmes were not a brilliant essayist and a most charming poet, he would still be a delightful biographer. His recent Memoir of John Lothrop Motley,* the eminent historian of the Netherlands, is a conscientious and generous study of that able man. In it Dr. Holmes has done for Motley what Mr. Pierce has, in a measure, done for Charles Sumner. He presents the subject of his biography in a most effective and true light, and the social, professional, and political part of his career is described with great warmth and power. Dr. Holmes knew Motley intimately for many years. He knew him at College when a boy, and during the last twenty or twenty-five years of their lives, the intimacy formed in youthhood ripened into friendship of the most marked and strongest kind. In common with other distinguished Americans, the author of this Memoir felt that the recall of Mr. Motley from England in November, 1870, was an indefensible outrage, a wholly unjustifiable proceeding and an action of the most contemptible character. And Dr. Holmes has found no reason to change his mind since then. In the volume before us this portion of the subject is treated in a masterly and scathing manner. The fickle Government then in power is denounced in terms of great bitterness, and its littleness and narrow-minded prejudices are displayed in a way which will send its memory down to well-deserved contempt. The biographer deals with his subject in an admirable spirit. He

*John Lothrop Motley. A Memoir. By DR. OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co. Toronto: Hart & Rawlinson.

He has

has no revengeful feelings. no strong political predilections to advance. He does not strike with a bludgeon, but with the weapon which he knows how to use so well, he lays. bare the hypocrisy of the Cabinet at Washington, and in a trenchant sentence or two he disposes of the miserable and petty jealousy which led to the recall of one of the ablest ministers who had ever represented his country at the English Court of St. James. It is now a well-known fact that Mr. Motley owed his removal from office to the childish jealousy which existed at the capital between President Grant's Cabinet and Senator Sumner America's greatest statesman since Henry Clay. Achilles was invulnerable save in the heel. Charles Sumner was invulnerable save in the heart. The Government knew of the warm love which the two great men of the nation bore to each other, and when General Grant quarrelled with Sumner about the Treaty of San Domingo, he aimed a direct blow at the statesman's heart, and the biographer of John of Barneveld was dismissed in the thoroughly cold-blooded manner in which these things are oftentimes done. Of course, there was an excuse urged by the Government for its action, but the flimsy pretext had been disposed of long before the letter asking Mr. Motley to resign had been written and despatched, and was only revived again when the Treaty question came up and Sumner refused to yield his point. The coincidence was too great and the pretentious excuse availed little. The insult hastened Sumner's death, and preyed upon and rankled in the sensitive mind of the historian. In placing on record the truth of this disgraceful proceeding, Dr. Holmes has paid a generous tribute to the memory of his dead friend as well as presented to all peoples a splendid contribution to the political history of the United States. Many will thank him for this. His own will add tremendous great name

weight to his clear and succinct narrative, and the future historian will find materials here in plenty for a brilliant chapter of stirring events.

Of the life and times of Motley, Dr. Holmes, of course, writes very fully and charmingly. He traces the career of the spirit-minded youth from his early boyhood to manhood, and lets in much light concerning his college days, his literary life and habits, his diplomatic trials and his domestic happiness. Motley's method of composition, his extraordinary industry and diligence, his wonderful command of language, his delicious epistolary correspondence, his habit of thought and his strong friendships and warm-heartfulness, are all described with a loving and tender hand. Not the least interesting part of this pleasant volume are the kindly letters which the historian wrote at intervals to the author himself, to Prescott, to Amory, to Edward Quincy and other friends, which Dr. Holmes here inserts and edits with such gentle care.

It is almost too soon to write the biography of such an active man as John Lothrop Motley, but Dr. Holmes has managed to do it without causing offence to living persons. The utmost delicacy has been bestowed on the work where delicacy of touch was necessary and where sensitive minds might suffer. But with public events and political men, and the affairs belonging to politics, the biographer has pursued a widely different course.

The Memoir is based on the biographical sketch which the author prepared at the request of The Massachusetts Historical Society,' for its proceedings, and contains, besides a steel portrait of Motley, Mr. Bryant s beautiful sonnet, and the tender poem which Mr. W. W. Story wrote on the death of the historian.

Bankers and merchants, as well as all students of political economy, will find in Mr. Poor's Money and its

Laws '* a work of great value and im portance. It is not too much to say that no completer treatise on the subject of the law and uses of money and monetary theories has, up to this date, been published. The author is a gentleman who has given the best years of his life to the study of what may not inaptly be termed one of the exact sciences. His name is familiar in every bank and monetary institution as an authority of high character, and his extensive researches and erudition have rendered his reputation unassailable. In the large work before us there is abundant evidence of the usefulness of Mr. Poor's labours. His book is a history of money and its theories from the days of Aristotle down to our own times. The ideas of Locke, of Macaulay, of Adam aulay, of Adam Smith, of John Law, of David Hume, of Dugald Stewart, of Thornton, of Huskisson, of David Ricardo, of Thomas Tooke, of James R. McCulloch, of John Stuart Mill, of H. D. Macleod, of James W. Gilbart, of Henry Fawcett, of W. Stanley Jevons, of Bonamy Price, various eminent continental writers, Francis Bowen, Wm. G. Sumner, A. R. Perry and David R. Wells are given both in the text and in notes. A very able chapter treating on cur rency and banking in the United States concludes the book. Mr. Poor

is particularly severe on the late Chief-Justice Chase, whom he convicts of falsehood and political dishonesty. The volume is a perfect mine of wealth. It is apt in quotation, rich in illustration, and written in an attractive and readable manner. There is no index to the book, but the table of contents has been most carefully prepared, and that always useful appendage, the index, may in this instance be dispensed with. The hints and suggestions which crowd the pages will prove very valuable to all practi

Money and its Laws. By HENRY V. POOR. New York, H. V. & H. W Poor. London: Eng., Henry S. King & Co. Toronto: Hart & Rawlinson.

cal dealers in funds, as well as to the speculative theorists who regard the money question as a vast problem merely.

Mr. Poor has just sent out a small companion volume to his greater work, entitled 'A Hand-book for the Times."* It treats in a concise way of the irreconcilable distinction between currencies of banks and banks and other questions arising out of commercial affairs, and monetary transactions. It is really a short book about funds generally, a text-book which every counting room should have, and with which every bank should be supplied. The Silver Question, Legal Tender currencies, Specie Payments, the American Greenbacks, and the coinages of Europe and America are severally discussed in this little book. It may well be commended for its usefulness.

Mr. H. W. Richardson has also some thoughts on the money question, and in a brochure, entitled Paper Money, he presents a number of interesting facts, bearing upon the current financial discussion. He takes up the Resumption Act, the Greenback theory, the Continental Question, the National credit, cheap money, Interconvertible Bonds, the American system of Finance-a most valuable and useful chapter-John Law's Legaltender Notes, &c., &c. Though specially designed to meet the present needs of the United States capitalists and people, the little volume will be found quite beneficial to the Canadian reader. It is full of information of a very desirable character.

Poets?* In several respects it is a disappointing book. There are poems in it quite unworthy of type and the handsome setting which they receive. There are others again which are good in places-good enough to make us wish they had been better. And then there are some real gems-poems which will live and bear frequent quotation. With the wide field open to him, we must wonder how the editor failed at all to furnish a really splendid book in every way. There was surely no lack of material, and the freshness of the idea and general plan of the work as foreshadowed some months since, led every one to expect something very rare and unique in poetry. We must take what we can get, however, and may safely recommend the book as the first of its class, and as the repository of some really excellent bits of verse. The publishers invite us to guess the authorship of the poems furnished, and this would be a very difficult thing to do. When poets write anonymously, they generally take every means in their power to conceal their identity, to throw the reader off his guard and perpetrate other minor offences against the well-being of the society of letters at large. We have read the book and we are afraid to hazard a guess. We do not wish our readers to witness our humiliation, should we offer a wrong opinion. It would not require a very prophetic eye or mind, however, to discover the share Mr. Fawcett, and Mr. Aldrich, and Mr. Trowbridge, and Celia Thaxter and some others have had in this work of writing with a masque over their faces. 'Starlight,', and a 'Mood of Cleopatra,' are clearly by Edgar Fawcett, and our readers will recognize the manner of the poet at a glance, in this quotation from the latter piece :

"Then would she clap her small swart hands,
And soon the obeisant slaves would bring
Rare cups and goblets oddly wrought
With sculptured shapes in circling bands,
Or many a strange hieratic thing
Whereof these latter times and lands

*A Masque of Poets, including Guy Vernon, a novelette in verse. No Name Series.' Boston, Roberts Bros.; Toronto, Hart and Rawlinson.

'Give me that one whose temperate mind
Is always toward the good inclined,
Whose deeds spring from her soul unsought-
Twin-born of grace and artless thought;

Give me that spirit, -seek for her
To be my constant minister!"

'Dear friend,-I heed your earnest prayers,-
I'll call your lovely wife downstairs.'

We are not sure that Mr. Aldrich did not write The Angler too. It seems good enough to be his.

Lowell, if he contributed at all to this collection, must have written Red Tape. It is in his mood at all events. Guy Vernon-an exquisite thing by the way, and full of the rarest conceits and most delicious touches-is unquestionably the work of Mr. J. T. Trowbridge. H. H., and no other, could have written A Woman's Death Wound, and Nora Perry must have done The Rebel Flower. Husband and Wife cannot fail to remind the reader of Christina Rossetti, and there are some things in A Fallen House, such as

'Behold it lies there overthrown, that houseIn its fair halls no comer shall carouse

Its broad rooms with strange Silences are filled; No fire upon its crumbling hearth shall glow, Seeing its desolation men shall know

On ruin of what was they may not build;'

which point to Mr. Marston as the author. H. C. Bunner, who is pretty well known as the writer of some really excellent things of character and power, doubtless furnished the rondeau on the 154th page, entitled 'I Love to dine.' It is not as good as some of his other work, though striking and novel