198
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. SEPT. 7, 1907.
NOTES ON BOOKS &c.
The History of England. By T. B. Macaulay.
Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by T. F.
Henderson. (Routledge & Sons.) THE reduction of Macaulay's 'History' to one volume necessitates here the use of small type and double columns ; but doubtless many readers will
to be popular. Macaulay's
shall cheerfully bear the reproach of having de-
scended below the dignity of history, if I can succeed
in placing before the English or the nineteenth
century a true picture of the life of their ancestors."
This represents one great merit of his ' History '
the fact that it is not a mere "drum and trumpet"
record of battles and kings, such as was put before
us in our own early days. Macaulay was, as Mr.
Henderson says in his lively Introduction, a " con-
ventionalist," and was too fond of "emphatic
rhetoric " ; but he is supremely readable, and that
is a rare merit in an historian. We are in danger
of supposing that history is a science which can
neglect the claims of art. But it is writers like
Macaulay and Froude, with gifts of style, who
make history more than a dismal subject to the
average man, and create an interest which may be
intensified later by the study of learned mono-
graphs. Of course, Macaulay was a "party his-
torian"; but we have never heard of an historian
who had not some bias. If such a narrative, with-
out colour and prejudice, could be produced, we
doubt if it could ever be read with pleasure or even
profit. After all, motives must be largely guessed
at by every writer of history, however many facts
he has to go by ; and the detection of motives is a
delicate process in which strict veracity can hardly
be said to count for much.
There is, we are pleased to^note, an index of some length to the volume.
Dublin : a Historical and Topographical Account of
the City. By S. A. Ossory Fitzpatrick. Ancient
Cities Series. (Methuen & Co.)
MB. FITZPATRICK has attempted a difficult task.
In a small volume of 350 pages he has undertaken a
survey of the political and social history of the city
of Dublin from the period of the Scandinavian
invasion to the present time. This in itself would
be no inconsiderable piece of work ; but when he
tries to combine with it a kind of handbook which
will serve as a guide to the principal objects of
interest in the city, not omitting even the electric
trams, it may well be imagined that the ensuing
congestion of material leaves little room for the
display of literary graces, or even for the apprecia-
tion of anything like historical perspective.
The few opening pages in which the author sketches the nistory of the Danish settlement on the banks of the Liffey are some of the most in- teresting in the book ; for the significance of the
circumstances of the rebellions of 1798 and 1801 are-
inadequate. f
In dealing with social life in Dublin in the eighteenth century the author is more successful : it would be, indeed, difficult for any writer to treat of that brilliant period of the city's history without in some degree interesting his readers. In a sub- sequent chapter on Dublin theatres Mr. Fitzpatrick falls into a curious error. He states that " on 27th December, 1904, the Abbey Theatre, erected at the cost of Lady Gregory, was opened for the production of plays by Irish writers. It is surely sufficiently well known that it was Miss Hornimari,. an English lady, who undertook the cost of rebuild- ing and redecorating the Abbey Theatre. Mr. Fitzpatrick's mistake is probably due to the fact that Lady Gregory has taken an active part in the management of the Irish Literary Theatre Com- pany, and that many of her plays have been per- formed at the Abbey Theatre.
On the whole the book will be useful to the- tourist who wishes to learn a few facts about the city during a short visit. From the point of view of the student of the history and antiquities of Dublin, however, it cannot be regarded as satisfactory.
The Nineteenth Century is largely occupied with- articles on current politics, but the most interest- ing article we have seen this month is that con- tributed by Mr. Stephen Paget on ' The Man in the Street,' which compares the thoughts of the middle- aged man with those of the young. This is a cleverly expressed and, at the same time, original article. Mr. Arthur Bourchier reprints a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution this summer on 'The Future of the Drama.' He declares that the public is so hard worked that it only wants to be entertained in the evening, and cannot think. That an increasingly strenuous life has produced such a state of things we find it difficult to believe. He points out that many columns of the newspapers are now devoted to theatrical matters; but the- general run of such gossip is merely of the beauty or motor-car or clothes of the actor and actress ; there is nothing about their art. This adulation is; doing great harm to the stage. Mr. Bourchier cries out for " training, training, training," in which, no- doubt, he is right. He wants the old system of fctock companies revived, for without it the standard of acting will not be raised. He says that "no man can
- ell what play will be a financial success," but we
really think that some managers are very poor judges of the pieces they put on, and might easily secure better advice than that they rely on. In ' The Trial of Elizabeth, Duchess of Kingston,' Mr. Hugh Childers revives the history of an im- pudent eighteenth-century beauty. Mr. Henniker Heaton in ' A Morning with the Postmaster- General' gives the popular notion of that official at work answering queries and complaints. Several oddities and inconsistencies of practice are, as might be expected, disclosed, and Mr. Heaton describes himself as possessing "a sort of talent for inventing postal grievances, which he brings the public to believe they are suffering from." ' School
Norse occupation of Dublin (to which, by the_ way,
the city owes its modern name) as a factor in the
subsequent development of the city has hardly been
sufficiently recognized. The history of the Anglo-
Norman, Tudor, and Stuart periods is loosely
handled; while the allusions to the causes auc
Hygiene ' is treated by the Marchioness of London-
derry, and ' The Educational Ladder and the Girl'
by Miss Florence B. Low. The latter says that
"the education given in the present secondary
schools is not suited for the elementary scholar whi>
finishes her school education at sixteen or seven-
teen." Many girls become clerks in consequence of
