It is now close on forty-three years since John Nicholson, the 'Lion of the Punjab,' received his death-wound after leading the assault on Delhi, and was buried in the newly formed graveyard near Ludlow Castle, opposite the Kashmir Gate, and the breach which he had been among the first to crown. Since then numerous sketches and notices of him have appeared from time to time from the hands of those by whom he was loved and admired. Captain Trotter's, however, is the first formal biography which has been written of him, and it will in all probability be the last. He has had access to numerous private documents, and has made such excellent use of them, as well as of whatever has appeared in print respecting his hero, that, though further editions of his volume may be required, it is not likely that another biography will be deemed necessary, or that any one will attempt to improve upon the narrative which is here so simply yet brilliantly told. It is no wonder that Captain Trotter's volume has been through so many editions. A better subject he could scarcely have had. Nicholson was of a heroic build both in body and mind. A born soldier and administrator, he knew exactly what to do and when to do it, and toiled, as he fought, magnificently. Wherever he was known he was loved or feared, and the better he was known the more he was loved. Few men in India have left behind them so deep an impression. Twelve years after his death, Captain Trotter tells us, Younghusband was in the Shahpur district, south of Rawal Pindi, talking to a towâna, or chief, about John Nicholson's doings in that district during the second Sikh war. He said, "To this day our women at night wake trembling, and saying they hear the tramp of Nicholsain's war-horse."' Like many of the best officers of the British army, Nicholson was an Irishman, though of a family which was originally English. His father was Dr. Alexander Nicholson of Dublin. On his mother's side he was related to Sir J. Hogg, or, as he then was, Mr. J. W. Hogg, a leading director of the East Indian Company, and subsequently an influential member of the Queen's Indian Council. Through him Nicholson obtained an appointment under the old East India Company in 1839, when he was sixteen, and reached Calcutta about the middle of July in 1839. Long before leaving home he had shown what sort of stuff he was made of. One day Mrs. Nicholson found him, when but three years of age, furiously flicking a knotted handkerchief at some imaginary foe. "What are you doing, John?" was her wondering question. "Oh, mother dear," he gravely answered, "I'm trying to get a blow at the devil. He is wanting to make me bad. If I could get him down, I'd kill him."' In this the 'child was father of the man.' In after life nothing roused Nicholson so much as the sight of injustice and evil. He was always fighting against it, both in himself and in others. In the Bannu district and elsewhere his name was

a terror to evil-doers. If any evil had been done, the sight of his wellknown horse was a sign to those who had done it that their hour was come. Few men, indeed, have ruled the wild border tribes of Northern India with so firm or so sure a hand. By the time the Mutiny broke out he had already made his mark, and was trusted by such men as Sir John and Sir Henry Lawrence, by Edwardes and Neville Chamberlain. Captain Trotter relates what Nicholson did, along with most of those just named, to preserve the Punjab, and the magnificent work he did in connection with the siege of Delhi. The lapse of time does not in any way dim the brilliancy of his actions. There can be little doubt that his victory at Najafgarh did more than aught else to bring about the fall of Delhi, while his feats with the 'movable column' have never been surpassed. Captain Trotter speaks of Nicholson, however, not only as a great soldier and administrator; he has much to tell also as to his relations with others,

and of the gentler side of his character. Many anecdotes are told of him, some of them amusing, and one closes the volume with the feeling that by his death the army lost one of the gentlest, truest, and bravest of men.

The Life and Works of Dante Alighieri. Being an Introduction to the Study of the Divina Commedia.' By the Rev. J. F. Hogan, D.D. London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1899.

From Dr. Hogan's preface we learn that in the main this volume consists of a series of lectures delivered to the students of Maynooth College. It does not profess to contain an exhaustive treatment of its subject; nor does it profess to be written for specialists. It is intended rather to serve as an introduction to the study of the Divina Commedia for those who have neither the inclination nor the time to become specialists, but wish to obtain an intelligent understanding of Dante and his writings. Introductions of the kind are numerous, many of them being written from different, and some of them from conflicting points of view. Written originally for students in Theology, the predominant tone of Dr. Hogan is theological. Of the numerous controversial passages which occur in the volume some are better suited for a polemical treatise than for a calm and dispassionate introduction to the study of writings even as theological as Dante's. Their delivery to the students of Maynooth College may have been right and proper, but their presence in the volume rather detracts from the pleasure of its perusal, and will have the effect, we should say, of narrowing the circle of its readers. Dante belongs neither to a party nor to a Church, but to the race, and what is wanted in a work of this sort is not polemics, but a clear statement of the ideas of the poet, and precise indications of his method and art. The larger part of the volume is taken up with an analysis of the Divine Comedy, with here and there translations or references to the finer passages. The analysis is accompanied with a commentary for the most part historical. Dr. Hogan mentions the various senses in which the text is to be interpreted-the literal, moral, allegorical, etc.-but does not, of course, attempt to bring them out, though here and there he refers to one or more of them. The analysis, though, as is necessarily the case, is not original, but it is always clear and accurate, and will unquestionably prove of use to the student. As may readily be supposed, that of the Inferno is much the most interesting. The biographical notes to the other parts as well as here are excellent, but with some of the expository passages in the third part of the Commedia the student not well versed in theology may have trouble. The references to the writings of others on Dante both in the analysis and throughout the volume are ample, and to those who wish to go beyond Dr. Hogan's introduction will be welcome. The 'Life of Dante,' which forms the first part of the volume, though not entirely without its faults, may on the whole be commended. No doubt the invasions 'from beyond the Rhine, under the Othos, the Conrads,' etc., brought much misery upon Italy, but it can scarcely be said that the Popes resisted steadily and persistently the encroachments of these foreigners.' The statement that when 'on the death of Henry VI., Innocent III. supported the claims' of Otho, though he did afterwards excommunicate him, shows that at least at one time Innocent had no very strong objections to the Germans. Nor can it be said that with the fall of imperialism the brightest epoch of Italy's history began.' Dr. Hogan, indeed, scarcely appreciates the political condition of Italy at the time, and the student will require to study the subject for

himself, or at least to check the statements contained in the Life. On Dante's minor works Dr. Hogan's notes, which are not extensive, will be found helpful, as will also the section on Dante's commentators. Chapters are devoted to Dante's views on the temporal power of the Pope, and on the poet's theological opinions. The author has no difficulty in showing that Dante was not a Reformer before the Reformation,' in the sense so unwisely held by some, that he taught opinions akin to those taught by Luther, etc., or in showing that the opinions he held on the temporal power were not those attributed to him by Rossetti and others. The most attractive of the chapters at the end of the volume is that on Dante in English literature. The volume is not without mistakes or misprints, as Infra for Inferno. Some of the names are curiously misspelt; Joachim appears as Giocchimo, and a number of Biblical names appear otherwise than as in the A.V. As to the treatise, De Aqua et Terra,' Dr. Hogan differs from Dr. Moore, whose defence of it, he tells us, has left his conviction that it is not Dante's unshaken.

The Complete Works of John Gower. Edited from the MSS. with Introductions, Notes, and Glossaries. By G. C. MACAULAY, M.A. The French Works. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1899.

If Mr. Macaulay has not made a great discovery, he has at anyrate brought to light one which is of great importance, more especially in regard to the early developments of the English language and the writings of Gower. The principal piece in the present volume is the hitherto missing work of Gower, usually referred to as the Speculum Meditantis, and the way in which he came across it, Mr. Macaulay tells us, was as follows-In the year 1895, while engaged in searching libraries for MSS. of the Confessio Amantis, I observed to Mr. Jenkinson, Librarian of the Cambridge University Library, that if the lost French work of Gower should ever be discovered, it would in all probability be found to have the title Speculum Hominis, and not that of Speculum Meditantis, under which it was ordinarily referred to. He at once called my attention to the MS. with the title Mirour de l'omme, which he had lately bought and presented to the University Library. On examining this, I was able to identify it beyond all doubt with the missing book.' The Mirour l'omme is not a great poem in the way that the Divine Comedy, Paradise Lost, or the plays of Shakespeare are great, but it is great in length. Some of the folios are wanting in the MS., nevertheless, in its present condition, the poem runs out to close upon 30,000 lines. Its weariness is almost equal to its length. The author seems to have been determined to atone for the lighter pieces he had written by making this as learned and heavy as possible. Still, in spite of himself, he has not been able to altogether suppress his skill in words or his natural faculty as a poet, and here and there greener and brighter spots appear in wha is otherwise desert. The date at which the poem was written cannot be exactly determined, but, as Mr. Macaulay shows, from certain indication it contains, there can be little doubt that it was written during the year 1376-1379. In his Literary History of the English People, M. Jusseran conjectured that if the work should ever be discovered, it would prove t be one of those tirades on the vices of the age which in French wer known as ' bibles.' And such it is, though as Mr. Macaulay justl observes, it is much more than this. In fact,' as he continues, it com bines the three principal species of moral compositions all in one frame

work-the manual of vices and virtues, an attack on the evils of existing society from the highest place downwards, and finally the versified summary and legend, introduced here with a view to the exaltation and praise of the Virgin.' In the first of the divisions into which it divides itself- -a division which extends over nearly two-thirds of the whole-the work resembles somewhat those of Frère Lorenz, William Waddington, and others whose books were intended to be of practical use to persons preparing for confession. In its second part it resembles such compositions as Bible Guiot de Provins, but is much larger and goes into much more elaborate detail respecting the various classes of society and their distinctive faults. In the last 2500 lines is a Life of the Virgin as the principal mediator between God and man, the conclusion of the book as it exists containing a number of not unpoetical praises and prayers addressed to her. The work is learned-too learned, in fact, to be lively -and contains an immense number of quotations. A number of them are from Cicero and Ovid. Three are attributed to Horace, but one of them is from Ovid, and another of them from Juvenal. Many are from the Latin Fathers, Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, and Ambrose, but the greatest number are from the Old Testament, with which the author seems to have been very familiar. He was acquainted also with the Legenda Aurea, and refers to the Vita Patrum. There are references to the political events of the period, but, as might be expected, the work is richest in notes bearing upon its moral and social aspects. The general corruption was regarded by Gower with something like horror, but he describes what he saw or believed he saw. What he says respecting the Court of Rome and the mendicant Orders confirms the unfavourable impressions we get from other writers of the times. The temporal possessions of the Church he denounces as the root of almost all the evils there is in her. The mendicant friars he regards as those false prophets' of whom the Gospel speaks, who wear sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves. The parish priests, he thinks, are almost as much to blame as the prelates, monks, and friars, and is of opinion that the whole church is in need of reform. Turning to secular life, he gives a curious and life-like picture of the city dames at the wine-shops, whither they go instead of to church or market, how the vintner draws for them ten kinds of wine from a single cask at different prices. He describes the devices employed by shopkeepers to attract custom and to cheat customers. Tho mercer cries out louder than a sparrowhawk, seizes on people in the streets, drags them into his shop, and urges them only to view his wares, ostrich feathers, silks and satins, and foreign cloth. The draper tries to sell cloth in a dark room, where blue can hardly be made out from green, and while making his customer pay double its value, wants to persuade him that he is simply giving it away out of regard for him. The goldsmith purloins the gold and silver left with him; the druggist not only sells paints and cosmetics to women, but is in league with the physician, and charges exorbitantly for making up the simplest prescription. Food is adulterated; false weights and measures are used; wines are mixed and coloured, and what is sold as Rhenish probably grew upon the banks of the Thames. Merchants defraud all who have dealings with them, live in great state, but when they die are found to have spent all their substance and to have left their debts unpaid. The labourers in the country are discontented and disagreeable. They demand more pay and do less work than formerly. In the old days they never tasted wheaten bread, and rarely had cheese or milk. Juries are corrupt, and usually packed by certain captains called tracers.' Judges and advocates he condemns in more unqualified terms than the members of any other calling. As to himself

a few facts may be gathered from the poem which in some degree supplement what little is known of his life. His life hitherto, he thinks, has been passed in folly, and he has committed all the seven deadly sins; moreover, he has written love poems; all the same it is probable enough that his life was highly respectable. He appears to have been married, and it is not unlikely that he was a merchant. He apologises to the honest members of the class for exposing the abuses to which the occupation is liable, objects to outsiders being given privileges in trade, and is so enthusiastic about wool as the first of all commodities, and has so much to say about the abuses of the staple that the probability is he was a wool merchant. As is well known, he was wealthy, but his tastes appear to have been simple. That he was just and upright is beyond question. The other works contained in the volume are the Cinkante Balades and the 'Traitié.' The first have been known through their publication by the Roxburgh Club and by Dr. Stengel; the Traitié,' a series of eighteen balades, has also been twice printed, once by the Roxburgh Club and again by Dr. Stengel. Mr. Macaulay has done his work well. His introduction is of great value both in connection with the writings to which it is prefixed, and in connection with the history of the English tongue in regard to Norman-French. The notes grapple with the difficulties in the text, and the elaborate glossary, so far as we have examined it, is exhaustive.

Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. By SAMUEL DILL, M.A., Professor of Greek in Queen's College, Belfast. Second Edition, Revised. London: Macmillan & Co.

1899.

Professor Dill's volume has already reached a second edition, a recognition which its value well deserves. Books of its kind do not readily reach a second edition, and the fact that this has may be taken as an indication, not only of its intrinsic merits, but of the wide-spread interest which is now taken in the social condition of the human race at any of the great epochs of its history. For the materials for his work Mr. Dill has, o course, had to have recourse to the authors of the period with which h deals, and his pages resolve themselves largely, though not entirely, bu almost of necessity, into a history of the literature of the last days of th Western Empire. His sketches of Symmachus, Ausonius, and Apollinari Sidonius, their surroundings and writings, are brilliant and effective. Th letters and other literary efforts of these and other Roman authors of th time are not particularly interesting reading. For the most part they ar extremely artificial, rhetoric and fine phrases being more conspicuous i them than facts or information as to the great changes which were the being gradually evolved. To the severer spirit of Ammianus Marcellin Mr. Dill pays a just tribute, and writes with discrimination about Rutili Namatianus. Salvianus he pronounces rhetorical, and says that he h a parti pris,' but admits that on matters of notorious fact his testimor must be accepted.' Of the work of Orosius, notwithstanding its popularit in the Middle Ages and the favour it has found among some mode critics, he has little that is good to say. As for its being the first attem to found a philosophy of history, this description of it, he says, can on be accepted if by the words 'philosophy of history,' is meant an arbitra and uncritical handling of the facts to suit an a priori theory, or a tempo ary theological purpose. Referring to the City of God, Mr. Dill says, has some of the faults which we might expect from what S. Augustine te