The author asserts, in justification of labours which for a while seriously affected his health, that this litigation and legislation not only interested Nonconformists deeply at the time, but will be of importance as long as there remain in England any places of worship or religious 'charities not connected with the Establishment; for the decisions were '(with the exception of a Scotch case ) the first enunciation of

the law upon the subject; and the doings of the Parliament may 'furnish a guide in the attack and defence of other endowments. All 'property devoted to the support of religion must,' he adds, necessarily be in the power of Parliament, and it is well that it should not be 'forgotten how that power was exercised in the case of the old Presbyterian Chapels.' The subject has a special interest now that Mr. Coleridge's Test-Abolition Bill is again before Parliament, especially when it is observed how earnestly its author, while contending that the University should be rendered_really national, admits that the colleges are not national foundations. It must be conceded that the rights and interests of the Oxford Colleges should be respected by the Legislature, though they have not always been so; but why, then, should those of our Nonconformist charities have been set aside by statute, as this volume shows they have been ?

Mr. James's work, though not exactly light reading, will interest many; some as a book for mere perusal, others as a storehouse of information and counsel concerning the legal security of funds and endowments for religious purposes. Conscientious trustees of Nonconformist charities will appreciate it in this respect. Others may form an idea of the general interest of the volume by looking through the 'contents' of that part of it which is entitled the historical proofs and illustrations,' pp. 63-209, and from the notices not only of eminent ministers whose characters or writings are appealed to, but of those of the great lawyers connected with the various cases, as judges or counsel. It is almost needless to add that no public or quasi public Nonconformist library should be without it.

Memorials of Charles March, Commander, R.N. By his nephew, SEPTIMUS MARCH, B.A. London: James Nisbet & Co. 1867.

Not often has the life-story of a brave, God-fearing man been better told. This brief narrative is charged with incidents and enriched with copious extracts from a journal descriptive of the ever-changing home and rare religious life of an English seaman. Much piquant humour; a breadth of view, and a shrewd insight into human character; a vigorous Puritanism, without its cant; much bitter agony, endured with exemplary patience; and a sublime confidence in God, are revealed in Captain March's journal. This early publication of a young author is full of high promise, and will not fail to perpetuate the usefulness as well as the memory of him whom it so adequately portrays.

POLITICS, SCIENCE, AND ART.

Descriptive Astronomy. By GEORGE F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S. of the Inner Temple. 1867. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press.

The student must not look in this superb volume for any information

Contemporary Literature.

54

perfect trustworthiness and sagacious good sense. The writer lacks skill in bookmaking, which is no discredit to him, and is sometimes a little magniloquent, but this does not prevent his book from being deeply interesting and valuable to both the ethnologist and the Christian. 'My 'object in the work,' he says, has been to secure completeness, ' referred to as a thoroughness; so that in all time to come it may be a correct and reliable authority on every important question relative to the Kaffir race.'

Mr. Holden ventures occasionally upon a speculation. What will Professor Huxley say to his theory of diversities of race-that at the dispersion of Babel 'God added to the confusion of language distinction of colour, size, and other great family characteristics?' I hold that it requires no greater exertion of Divine power to produce an effect upon the colour of a man than upon the language of a man. True; and Mr. Holden, to say the least, is every whit as reasonable in his hypothesis, and a great deal more pious, than any anthropologist who has as yet condescended to enlighten the world. If,' he says, 'climate and habit could do it, three thousand years would be quite long enough; if not, thirty thousand would be equally ineffective.'

Mr. Holden has written a thoroughly good book-painstaking, conscientious, and interesting.

The History of the Litigation and Legislation respecting Presbyterian Chapels and Charities in England and Ireland between 1816 and 1849. By T. S. JAMES. London: Hamilton, Adams, & Co. Birmingham: Hudson & Son. 1867. To the entertainment afforded by such books as Spence's Anecdotes, or a volume of Parliamentary and forensic sketches, this work of Mr. James adds the higher interest of a contribution to our juridical history, and the development of statutory law as affecting religious endowments and trusts. It is a narrative and an argument. From the period specified on the title-page, any one who is not wholly ignorant of the ecclesiastical and eleemosynary questions which have occupied public attention during the present century would expect to find in it a full account of the litigation respecting Lady Hewley's charities, and of the several decisions upon it. It contains, however, much more than this. The narrative, properly so called, relating to those charities occupies pages 227 to 360 only of the 844, to which the text of the work extends; though portions of the evidence tendered by the Unitarian Trustees of those charities when the cause had come up before the House of Lords on appeal are given, supplemented and annotated in what may be termed the preamble to the narrative of that litigation. But several other narratives, some of them of considerable interest, are included in the history-e.g., that of the Wolverhampton Chapel case, which arose in 1816, and those relating to five important cases which sprung up in Ireland. These cases occupy altogether 372 pages. With the exception of what has been referred to as preamble, the remainder of the work relates mainly to 'the Socinians' application to Government for relief;' the consequent proceedings in Parliament;' the claim of Scotch Presbyterians to the entire benefit of the Hewley Charity; and an appendix, of which no more needs to be said here than that it is an invaluable contribution to Nonconformist history, biography, and statistics in England and Ireland, from the ejectment in 1662 till far into the next century.

The author asserts, in justification of labours which for a while seriously affected his health, that this litigation and legislation not only 'interested Nonconformists deeply at the time, but will be of importance as long as there remain in England any places of worship or religious 'charities not connected with the Establishment; for the decisions were (with the exception of a Scotch case ) the first enunciation of

the law upon the subject; and the doings of the Parliament may 'furnish a guide in the attack and defence of other endowments. All 'property devoted to the support of religion must,' he adds, necessarily be in the power of Parliament, and it is well that it should not be forgotten how that power was exercised in the case of the old Presbyterian Chapels. The subject has a special interest now that Mr. Coleridge's Test-Abolition Bill is again before Parliament, especially when it is observed how earnestly its author, while contending that the University should be rendered really national, admits that the colleges are not national foundations. It must be conceded that the rights and interests of the Oxford Colleges should be respected by the Legislature, though they have not always been so; but why, then, should those of our Nonconformist charities have been set aside by statute, as this volume shows they have been ?

Mr. James's work, though not exactly light reading, will interest many; some as a book for mere perusal, others as a storehouse of information and counsel concerning the legal security of funds and endowments for religious purposes. Conscientious trustees of Nonconformist charities will appreciate it in this respect. Others may form an idea of the general interest of the volume by looking through the 'contents' of that part of it which is entitled the historical proofs and illustrations,' pp. 63—209, and from the notices not only of eminent ministers whose characters or writings are appealed to, but of those of the great lawyers connected with the various cases, as judges or counsel. It is almost needless to add that no public or quasi public Nonconformist library should be without it.

Memorials of Charles March, Commander, R.N. By his nephew, SEPTIMUS MARCH, B.A. London: James Nisbet & Co. 1867.

Not often has the life-story of a brave, God-fearing man been better told. This brief narrative is charged with incidents and enriched with copious extracts from a journal descriptive of the ever-changing home and rare religious life of an English seaman. Much piquant humour; a breadth of view, and a shrewd insight into human character; a vigorous Puritanism, without its cant; much bitter agony, endured with exemplary patience; and a sublime confidence in God, are revealed in Captain March's journal. This early publication of a young author is full of high promise, and will not fail to perpetuate the usefulness as well as the memory of him whom it so adequately portrays.

POLITICS, SCIENCE, AND ART.

Descriptive Astronomy. By GEORGE F. CHAMBERS, F.R.A.S. of the Inner Temple. 1867. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press.

The student must not look in this superb volume for any information

Contemporary Literature.

551

or instruction in the principles of astronomy, either plane or physical. No proofs are given of the planetary or lunar theories; no exposition of the true figure of the earth; no explanation of the processes by which the Copernican theory of the heavens at length prevailed; and no illustrations even of the true doctrine of gravitation or the tidal wave find place in it. There is, however, an abundance of information descriptive of astronomical facts, and there are empiric rules for the observation of eclipses, for finding Easter, calculating days of the year in accordance with various calendars, and there is a prodigious accumulation of special observations with reference to the heavenly bodies themselves and their most startling phenomena. Curious by-paths of astronomical research are brought to light, and we are told all that is known about the phenomena of earthshine on the moon, about the possible satellite of Venus, the zodiacal light, the history of the discovery of Neptune, and the fancied discovery of the planet Vulcan, which is supposed by some to be scorching itself between Mercury and the sun. Pains are taken to relate all credible observations on the coronæ and red protuberances, and other peculiarities observed during eclipses of the sun. Great, if not undue space is devoted to the history and mystery of comets, and a whole series of beautiful plates is given, illustrative of their appearance. Extraordinary care has been taken in preparing a list of nearly three hundred comets, whose periods have been determined, and equal elaboration characterises the delineation of the stellar heavens. The descriptive details of celestial phenomena include the metoric shower of 1866; while the last improvements in transit instruments are not neglected. The book will be a useful vade-mecum to the professional astronomer, and may be valued by the school-boy who wants to understand the harvestmoon, or the difference between the old style and the new, as well as by the young lady who is anxious to make out the festivals of the ecclesiastical year 2867. It is an introduction to the study of astronomy, which, however, assumes the possession of a fair amount of astronomical knowledge. If, in a second edition, the author would treat the processes of discovery in the same agreeable and careful manner, and expound the laws and explain the principles which he enounces dogmatically; if he would go over, in an introductory chapter, the ground traversed with such consummate ability by Professor Airy, in his Lectures to the Ipswich Mechanics' Institute, this work would be more valuable to the beginner; for, in spite of the elaborate tables and the extensive and original research with which the volume is replete, it yet is obviously intended to instruct and amuse those who are strangers to this magnificent field of observation and induction. The devout and reverent tone in which Mr. Chambers has executed his formidable task is worthy of remark.

Sir Charles Wood's Administration of Indian Affairs, from 1859 to 1866. By ALGERNON WEST, his private Secretary. London Smith, Elder, & Co. 1867.

This little book describes, in rather dry detail, the series of measures for the government of India carried out by Sir Charles Wood. It is the work of a friend, who looks with loving eye on the doings of his chief, and delights to survey the official labour which ill-health has compelled him to lay down. The excellencies are therefore made plain, and deficiencies are quietly passed by. Yet, after all, the book is not worthy of the theme; and the work done deserves, and some day will obtain, a far more brilliant record than it has here found. As years roll on, men

will look back on this period of Indian government with grateful wonder. When Sir Charles Wood took office in 1858, the mutiny had just been crushed ont by military strength, but everything was in disorder. The East India Company's great system had been broken up, and a new system of finance, of civil government, of military possession, had to be inaugurated and built up. A new hold on the Indian provinces, now to be moulded into a United Empire, demanded a new spirit; and as the consequence, a series of measures which should bring up the entire government to the level of the present age. No such task had ever fallen to a band of statesmen before; and in no country of the world has such grand work been accomplished as Englishmen have performed in and for India during the last eight years. In every sense a great reform has been carried through every department of the administration. Measures having the widest sweep in legislation, and charged with largest influences for good have been adopted, including a new Code of Criminal Law, and Codes of both Civil and Criminal Procedure; and the Courts of Justice have been remodelled; a provision made for securing the services of well-trained judges from England in aid of the invaluable local experience of the judges trained upon the spot. The finances also have been placed on a sound footing, and the public credit of the Empire restored. These great measures have been secured by the co-operation of an unusual number of able men both ín India and in England, and the result must be ascribed to them all.

But Sir Charles Wood was at their head. He bore a very large share of the common labours, and deserves as large a share of the common praise. It is no reproach to a man charged with heavy responsibilities like his at times to fail, to rebuke the wrong man, to reject or to delay a good measure. And such mistakes he made. Nevertheless, his administration was a great one. It was full of great measures, which could not have been carried without him, and, which received his hearty approval and support. If at times he failed to grasp some mighty scheme applicable to the entire system of the Empire, he did understand all the details, and saw them carried out on sound principles and with an honest purpose. He brought to his task great knowledge, untiring industry, great conscientiousness, long experience, and a masterly conduct of business which overcame all difficulties; and he appointed as his coadjutors able men, whose worth he recognised and whose service he rewarded. In his honourable retirement from political life, upon no period of his official life may he look back with such gratitude and pleasure as to his Indian administration during the last seven years.

The Mysore Reversion: an Exceptional Case. By Major EVANS BELL. Second Edition. London: Trübner & Co. 1866.

Major Bell has here written a large book on a subject of very limited range. He is one of those Indian writers who seem to think that the only people in India who have rights are the native princes, and that the only party who ought to find no friends is the Indian Government; also that, even when that Government upholds the rights of subjects and peasantry against princes who oppress them, it is chargeable with selfishness, and a desire to grasp everything for itself. In 1831 Lord William Bentinck took the Province of Mysore from the native raja, whose violence, oppression, and plunder, had driven its four millions of people into rebellion; and for thirty-five years it has remained under the rule of