200
NOTES AND QUERIES. cio- s. u. SEPT. 3, 1904.
poet of some power, though not equal to some of
Ms contemporaries. On this matter the modern
student who examines his writings carefully will
probably see no reasons for reversing the judgment
of his own time, though he will frequently find him
not a little dull. He was long resident in Ireland,
but never severed his connexion with the English
Bar. He was counsel for the Crown in the trial
of the Countess of Somerset for the murder of Sir
"Thomas Overbury (not Lord Overbury, as the
writer calls him). He was also for a time Speaker
of the Irish House of Commons. Though not a
^politician in advance of his age, he was a great
-administrator, who, if a free hand could have been
given to him, would have ruled with justice, and
^we believe with clemency. His death was tragic.
He was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England,
l)ut died the very day on which he should have
taken his seat. The second volume of the 'Cam-
bridge Modern History,' which relates to the
period of the Reformation, is analyzed with great
-care. Very little partisan feeling is shown. We
regard the estimate of the character of Charles V.
as among the fairest we have ever seen, but cannot
speak so highly of that of Luther. The writer,
however, points out that " of toleration Luther had
as little idea as Charles V. himself." The view
taken of the Council of Trent is not so wide and
elastic as was to be desired. 'The Life in the
Universe' is a review of Dr. Alfred Wallace's
volume that attracted so much attention a short
-time ago. The writer is, on the whole, in sympathy
with Dr. Wallace, his criticisms are always fair,
and he points out with great ability and force the
strong objections which may be taken against there
Toeing life in any of the heavenly bodies except the
one we inhabit. Until, however, we know in what
life consists, a question which is as obscure to us
to-day as it was to the mediaeval schoolmen, we
can never do more than guess as to whether it has
limitations, and if it has, in what they consist.
4 The History of Magic during the Christian Era'
- is a paper which will be of interest to folk-lorists,
as it is based on a wide knowledge of occult phe- nomena. * The Pathway of Reality ' is a review of the Right Hon. R. B. Haldane's Gifford Lectures. It is hard reading, but will be found instructive by those who can follow the argument.
IN the English Historical Review for July Prof. Firth has issued the third section of his papers on Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion.' He takes a somewhat more favourable view than we do of the historian, although he fully realizes Ms limitations. For example, he points out his unfairness to Goring. No one in these days, we -imagine, who is acquainted with his character could become a partisan of Goring. His private life had many defects, and as a soldier very little can be set down to his credit; but justice is due to all men, and in awarding this Clarendon has failed. The account of the escape of Balfour and the Parlia- mentary horse at the time of the catastrophe in Cornwall, when Essex's infantry were compelled to surrender, is attributed by Clarendon to Goring's negligence, or something worse. Walker, however, who is commonly trustworthy, tells us quite a different story, showing that Goring was stationed so that it was impossible for him to obstruct the Parliamentarian cavalry. "The truth is," Mr. Firth says, " that he [Clarendon] and Goring had quarrelled in 1645, and he could believe anything to
the discredit of his enemy." Dr. Garnett gives
some interesting letters, hitherto unpublished,
which passed between Herring, Archbishop of
York, and Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, during the
Jacobite rising of 1745. They were great friends,
and expressed their feelings to each other in the
most open manner. The archbishop was loyal to
Protestantism and the House of Hanover, and
seems to have had something beyond a political
regard for George II. On 7 September he says,
"town I am frightened at our present position,
and it looks like a demonstration to me that we are
now, as to the health of the body politic, in the
condition of a man who does not ask his doctor
whether he may recover, but how long he thinks he
can hold out." Prof. Bury contributes an im-
portant study of certain early documents relating
to St. Patrick. To appreciate his arguments fully,
it is necessary to be master of the Celtic language.
Miss Bateson has discovered and printed an English
Court Leet record of Peterborough for 1461. It
differs from the Latin text, and is fuller also. It
is important as showing how public records did not
on all occasions give the whole of what was sworn
in court. Mr. Robert S. Rait contributes an excel-
lent paper on the late Prof. Powell. We perhaps
need hardly say that the reviews, which occupy
a considerable space, are written with the usual
ability.
TIIK first folk-lore postcard is issued by Mr. R. R. Edwards, of Castle Street, Salisbury, and shows the Wiltshire moonrakers, " down 'Vizes way," striving to rake the moon out of the river.
tor
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