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strued so as to strain too much "his tender zeal for his subjects." Anne did not please him; he called her "a great Flanders mare"; nevertheless, "reluctant," he was married to her on Tuesday, the 6th of January, 1540, and on Saturday, July 10th, of the same year he was released, not reluctant, from the bonds; a convocation of two archbishops, seventeen bishops, and a hundred and thirty nine clergy declaring the marriage "null and void."

Urged again by the Privy Council, for reasons of state, again the patriotic and magnanimous Henry consented to wed, and in this instance Catherine Howard was the elect lady. It is a special relief to know that when, after a year of uninterrupted and unsuspecting domestic peace to the King, Catherine Howard was accused of the foulest dishonor, both before and after her marriage, and tried, and pronounced guilty, and executed, it was impossible to doubt that there was some truth in the charges. That indiscretion before her marriage was proved against her, both Catholic and Protestant believed. It is also probable Henry believed all that was alleged as to her misconduct after she became his wife, and it is quite certain that the parties who so vehemently accused her had the strongest possible personal motives for their conduct, to wit, a very earnest desire to keep their own heads on their shoulders. Henry was growing old, already past fifty; evidently there was no longer any room for reasons of state; the Privy Council afflicted his long-suffering soul with no more importunities; he might now indulge in solitude to the end of his days the grief which his matrimonial mishaps had occasioned. Nevertheless he married, making Catherine, widow of Lord Latimer, his sixth and last wife. She outlived Henry, although she very narrowly escaped the block, for once venturing to express an opinion in a religious conversation with her husband. Of this Mr. Froude makes no note. It would not be convenient for him to note that, and sundry other little incidents, as he would have his readers believe that Henry was not only one of the most chaste of princes, but justified in all his treatment of his wives.

How many things of grandest import happened during the eleven years of which these two volumes treat; events which have largely shaped the history of the civilized world through the following centuries to the present time, and whose results are only partially seen as yet. Amid cloud and tempest, fierce animosities and struggles, religious and political and social, plots and counterplots, persecutions, banishments, gibbets, and fires of martyrdom, the star of the Reformation was steadily rising, and Henry was made the instrument, in the hand of God, of blessings to England and mankind which he never honestly intended. He broke the power of Rome;

he gave the Bible to the people; he exalted men of humble birth to a high place in his kingdom, thus impairing the ancient prescriptive rights of the nobility, and initiating a reform which was to reach no finality until the House of Commons should become the controlling power in the British government, and the rising tide of democracy should threaten to plough the parks of the nobles as a field, and to overturn the throne itself. Some of the greatest, best, most heroic men that the world ever saw, lived and acted their illustrious part, and died during that dreadful, stormy, bloody period, sealing their testimony, as patriots and citizens, with their blood. What magnificent pictures does Mr. Froude give us of Hugh Latimer, the dauntless Christian preacher; of William Tyndale, to whose incomparable genius and great learning and apostolic piety, faith and love and courage, we are mainly indebted for our version of the English Bible; and even of Reginald Pole, of whom he would fain have his readers think only as a vain, ungrateful man, returning evil for good to the most generous of friends and most forbearing of monarchs, which he declares Henry to have been. We must ask Mr. Froude's pardon, nevertheless, for professing a sentiment very like admiration in listening to the faithful Reginald while he addresses to the haughty King such words as the following: "Was it indeed your conscience which moved you? Not so. You lusted after a woman who was not your wife. You would make the word of God bear false witness for you; and God's providence has permitted you to overwhelm yourself with infamy."

That Henry was a prince of magnificent powers has never been questioned. His contest, single-handed, with Rome in the height of her supremacy, was such a feat of daring as the world has not often witnessed; and its momentous issues impart to it great moral sublimity. That the world is still reaping immeasurable benefit from the measures he carried, is equally true. That his age was barbarous; that he offended both Catholics and Protestants, the two great contending parties for the empire of the world; that all men were warped by prejudice; that every European court was full of intrigue and lies; and that Henry was maligued: all this must be admitted. It is also true that the wrongs he did to women have brought upon him fiercer execrations than all the wrongs to man that have ever been laid to his charge. That Mr. Froude's labors have set some things in a new light and will secure a truer appreciation of Henry, we are glad to believe. This history is a masterly work, and deserves to be not only read, but studied; and it will be studied. We deliberately affirm, nevertheless, that, with only these pages from which to glean evidence for a verdict, we are pressed directly to the conclusion that,

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with whatever great and noble and statesman-like qualities, the stalworth Tudor was the incarnation of cold, cruel, remorseless selfishness, with whom a fancied personal wrong was as the greatest of state crimes, and who shed the purest and best blood in his kingdom as lightly as that of the "great, goodly and fat hart," sent by the hand of his servant to Cardinal Wolsey on his way to France to discuss, in a convention of cardinals, the affairs of the church.

6.-The Life of John Brainerd, the brother of David Brainerd, and his successor as Missionary to the Indians of New Jersey. By Rev. THOMAS BRAINERD, D. D. 12mo. Philadelphia: Presbyterian Publication Committee. 1865,

"ALTHOUGH not so great a man, John Brainerd was as holy as his brother David.". This was the judgment of their contemporaries, and it was doubtless just. John lacked his brother's genius-that ineffable spirit, part mental and part, we had almost said, divine, which, aside from his pious single-heartedness, gave him power like a living magnet. David Brainerd had a large suffusion of this etherial aura. John had none of it. But he had all the rest. He was a most faithful missionary, toiling on, for a generation of years, with great sagacity, earnestness, self-sacrifice, and good success in the work which his brother had begun. David's rapid course had been like a three years' flight of an angel. John followed on foot, like any apostolical mortal. The transition of this history of evangelization from the one to the other of these brothers, forms one of the strong attractions of the volume.

The ditor has fairly exhausted his subject; and the picture he draws of primitive missionary toil and hardship is very instructive. Valuable information is given concerning our early relations to the aborigines of this country, and some reproofs are administered on the selfishness of our public policy toward this race, which are righteous. It is a lamentable and shameful record. The author deals rather too much in exhortation to his readers, to improve the general run and tenor of the story for personal stimulation to duty; tells us oftener than is needful, where to stop and admire his hero's excellences. He forgets, perhaps, sometimes that he is not writing a

sermon.

There is some carelessness, moreover, in the authorship. We do not know the authority for writing President Samuel Davies' name, Davis, as it is here uniformly given. Nor is there any adverb, "repetitiously." The adjective form of this word, which seems to be a favorite with the biographer, is awkward enough. We protest against its being turned into the still worse adverbial state.

The notes and appendix contain much curious antiquarianism. We honor the author's diligence and loving spirit in fulfilling this task. It reminds us of Old Mortality chiselling out the epitaphs of the Scottish Martyrs on their moss-grown headstones. 7. An Explanatory and Pronouncing Dictionary of the Noted Names of Fiction; Including also Familiar Pseudonyms, Surnames bestowed on Eminent Men, etc., often referred to in Literature and Conversation. By WILLIAM A. WHEELER. 12mo. Boston: Ticknor & Fields. 1865.

OUR literature has become so laden, rather than always embellished, with allusions to famous personages and events, real and fictitious, and it is so easy to describe a thing by this sort of personation, that a work explaining such references, under an alphabetical arrangement, is as necessary as an ordinary vocabulary of the language itself. How vast an amount of this material lies along the track of English authorship alone, for a century or two gone by, is shown by the size of this volume which has been limited to but a part of this general field. The labor of selecting the topics for this book, must have been about equal to that of preparing these explanations. The author announces, in his well written Preface, the principles which have guided him in this extension of the Appendix which he furnished for Webster's last edition. The favor with which that experiment was received, has amply justified him in thus continuing his labors, and we doubt not the present volume will find a ready sale. To the younger class of readers, it must be invaluable.

With the difficulties so obvious in the path of such a compilation, we are not disposed to criticize the volume for omissions which every one will be easily discovering, since there is no end to the subjects which might seem as much entitled to a place here, on the plan explained by the author, as others which are admitted. Thus, it is not apparent why "Tam O'Shanter" shonld not be noticed as much as "Ichabod Crane"; why the "Doctor Dubitantium" should not be found along side the "Dulcifluous Doctor." We think the Scripture allusions might very well have been omitted, as they are found explained in so many common books. Almost every one knows what "Azazel," "Gabriel," "Baal," "Moloch," signify; while one might not readily find a key to the "Diamond Necklace," or the "Ring of Amasis," or Carlyle's "Ship of Fools," or the "Blarney Stone" legend, unless he happened to have an Appleton's Cylopadia: perhaps not even then. But the author proposes to give us another volume, for which he can not lack abundant subjects.

The Pronouncing apparatus is a useful feature of the work, and its

whole style is neat and convenient. We have not looked to find errors in the explanations given, and have not found any, though the author presumes there may be some, which will doubtless in due time be discovered. We shall put this book within easy reach beside Mr. Wheeler's Manual of English Pronunciation, which for years we have found a really valuable work. Such labor-saving digests are indispensable in these days of much to do in a short time.

8.-Elements of Political Economy. BY ARTHUR LATHAM PERRY, Professor of History and Political Economy in Williams College. 8vo. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1866. [Boston: Lee & Shepard.]

PROFESSOR PERRY here gives us a plain, practical, substantial treatise with no ambitious style, but trusting to the ideas to retain and interest the reader, he unfolds his subject symmetrically, and if not exhaustively yet fully. The questions of value, production, labor, capital, money, credit, etc., are so discussed as to give new light and a deeper interest in their study. It would do some of our uneasy working men great good to examine here the relations between capital and labor. The Professor shows, in most unexpected ways, how mutually dependent the various interests in political economy are. If one suffer, all must suffer with it. So the men of each interest have an independence and kind of sovereignty of their own. This is a book that a free, voting, legislating people, like ours, should study earnestly.

9.- Plain Talks on Familiar Subjects. A Series of Popular Lectures. By J. G. HOLLAND. New York: Charles Scribner &

Co. [Boston: Lee & Shepard.]

MR. ALEXANDER SMITH somewhere puts the rather utilitarian query: "But does the production of a questionable book really surpass in merit the production of a field of unquestionable turnips?" If so sensible a suggestion had taken root and borne fruit, these many years gone by, it would certainly have made a great change in the vegetable market, however it might have affected the book trade. Some may think that even Mr. Smith himself might have made a better investment, at times, in turnip-seed than in types. We incline to much the same opinion in the present case. Dr. Holland had better have left his well worn manuscript lectures on the shelf, satisfied with having been "royally paid for" them both in dollars and popularity. They answered well enough for ears predisposed to like them they do not read so well as they doubtless sounded. It is a literary vice of the day, that authors, who have made a hit,

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