1921 SHORT NOTICES 4H1 in the full sense, is undoubtedly the right one. It is perhaps going too far to say that ' the inhabitants of the town, as far as we know, were contented under monastic rule ' (p. 48) after recording on an earlier page that they joined with the customary tenants in an attack on the abbey in 1381 (p. 32). J. T. We think that the majority of persons who consult Mr. Hubert Hall's Repertory of British Archives, Part I, England (Royal Historical Society, 1920), will be frankly puzzled by it, even if they lay to heart the warning in the preface that it ' is not intended to serve as a " Guide " to the Records, central or local, public or private '. ' The object of the work', Mr. Hall explains, ' is to assist historicaUstudents in locating such docu- ments as may be useful for their studies.' Records may be classified, as he points out, either on a ' structural ' or a ' proprietary ' basis, that is, either by reference to their form or by reference to their ownership, and the former ' has the advantage of bringing together many related docu- ments which are now scattered under various departmental references.' We would submit that there is yet a third method, less scientific but more generally intelligible, and therefore of greater practical utility than the
- structural ' method which is adopted here, and that is classification by
subject-matter. Mr. Hall's scheme, although the natural one for the archivist and the student of diplomatic, involves the use of categories with which most historical workers are little familiar. Consequently many of his readers may fail to appreciate the usefulness of a classification scheme constructed on lines that are novel to them. They are likely to be further prejudiced by a looseness of statement and still more of reference that is distinctly provoking. If so, Mr. Hall will have little justice done to him ; for his work is the most important summary survey of public records that has appeared^since the third edition of Scargill-Bird's Guide, and, as it embraces departmental and local records as well as the contents of the central Record Office, it breaks new ground. It forms a valuable key to the three reports of the Royal Commission on Public Records. It contains a considerable amount of up-to-date information, not to be found else- where, regarding the archives in Chancery Lane. The directory of local archives with which it closes, though necessarily imperfect, is easy to consult ; and it contains excellent accounts of the general character of certain classes of records, such as those of towns, counties, and parishes. But it is essential that the book should be treated as an experiment in classification, and not as the guide which it disclaims to be. Y. The principal change in the well-known arrangement of the Annual Register (London : Longmans, 1921) caused by the events of last year is the appearance of a new chapter, ' The League of Nations ', at the head of the section on foreign and colonial history. The other chapters of the same section include also some new headings, and the brief, clear narratives of events in the new states of the world will be found widely useful. The public documents include the texts of the Italian Treaty of London of 1915 and five other texts and summaries. The volume as a whole sustains the high reputation of the series. Z.
