54S Reviews of Books b_-tter to have left the subject alone than to have dealt with it so. Take lor example the difficult case of the galleon, around the development of which hangs the whole history of the genesis of sailing tactics. In the century or so with which he is dealing the galleon grew from being a modified galley or mezzo-galera into the ship of the line. It is hardly too much to say that in form, armament and tactical value galleons of 1475 could differ as much from galleons of 1575 as the steam frigates of the fifties differed from the cruisers of to-day. Yet in the single page which he deems the subject merits he deals vaguely with the galleon of the time and to explain what it was cites at random from authors and examples extending over the whole period as if they were contemporaneous. The same must regretfully be said of his chapter on " L'Artillerie de la Marine." Here again in the period under treatment naval ordnance de- veloped from a crude and impotent infancy up to nearly what it continued to be in Nelson's time, and yet to explain any given nature of gun M. de la Ronciere can quote with perfect indifference from authorities ex- tending from the end of the fifteenth century far into the seventeenth. For such work the world is too old and France has given us the right to e.xpect something better from one of her most distinguished scholars. Still it is pleasant to be able to say that if the defects of the work seem glaring it is partly due to the real excellence of the bulk of it. They become conspicuous by contrast with the ungrudging and persistent labor the writer continues to disclose, the wide range he covers, and the mass of unsuspected sources of information he opens out. For the stu- dent of naval history, no matter what his nationality, the book must re- main indispensable, a well from which he may draw inexhaustibly, a gazetteer which will seldom fail to direct his steps. Nor can it ever be denied a high place as having rescued from oblivion a teeming mass of history, and as affording a solid contribution to knowledge in a field that has been unaccountably neglected. As special examples of the value of the work may be mentioned the section on Jean de Vienne, on the at- tempted invasion of England in 13S6, on Jacques Coeur, on the maritime policy of Louis XI. with the exploits of Coulon, and on the constitution and jurisdictions of the Four Admiralties ; while for those who would study such widely different subjects as for instance the early attempts of France at maritime domination in the Mediterranean and the influence of the sea power on the Wars of the Roses material will be found in equal abundance. Julian S. Corbett. The Council of Constance to the Death of John Hits. Being the Ford Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in Lent Term, 1900. By James Hamilton Wylie, M.A. (London : Long- mans. 1900. Pp. 192.) If there was one man of English speech from whom we had a right to hope for a fresh readable book on the Council of Constance, it was Mr. James Hamilton Wylie. For a quarter-century he has been engaged
