The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-20 00:00:00

(To be continued.)

Memoirs of James, Marquis of Montrose, K.G.,
Captain-General of Scotland. By James
Grant, Author of " The Romance of War."
London : Routledge and Co.
WE are rather puzzled to know for what class
of readers this compilation is intended. We
are told in the preface that " many memoirs
" of Montrose have appeared, but none that
" were much known, especially in England,
" or were within the reach of the million."
It is perfectly true that " memoirs " have ap-
peared—memoirs without the aid of which
we suspect this volume would never have seen
the light. These memoirs were by Mr. Mark
Napier, and are perfectly familiar to all who
have any pretensions to speak of Montrose's
epoch. Mr. Grant's book will no more super-
sede them than it will supersede any other
standard work. But will it then suit what in
a cant phrase is called the " million" ? This
can scarcely be expected, for times are not
very flourishing, and the price of the work
is six shillings. We suspect that it will hit
nobody's desires except those of that class
which least deserves encouragement the
class of readers too lazy or too stingy to buy
good and copious works, but always ready, at
a reasonable expenditure, to get tolerably
light reading embodying superficial informa-
tion. Whatever honour is to be acquired on
these grounds Mr. Grant deserves, and what-
ever profit his publishers may as creditably
share with him.
The truth is, that Mr. Grant has treated Mr.
Mark Napier very ill, and we shall point out
how he has done so, and why it ought to be
exposed, even at the risk of seeming to make
a book like that before us of too much impor-
tance. Mr. Napier has been I suTilp set:
Tiiiihaxor of Montrose's fame. That great noble
—coldly treated by Clarendon and meanly
treated by Burnet—has in modern times been
abused by the Whig historians and neglected
by the public. Some twenty years ago he was
as little generally known as the Elgin marbles
were in the days when Athens was under a
pacha. Mr. Napier commenced a thorough
investigation of his life—pursued it, not only
in the old contemporary literature, but in the
MSS. of the Advocates' Library and the char
ter-chests of great Scottish families—brought
to light forgotten deeds, letters, and even por-
traits—and has embodied his discoveries in
four distinct publications. The last of these
(1856) bore the very same title as Mr. Grant's
present performance, and yet that writer now
totally ignores that work—freely employs his
predecessor's materials, but never gives the
slightest hint that he too had written Mon-
trose's biography ! One would think that Mr.
Napier—whose name is once or twice casually
mentioned—had indeed (like an honest drudge)
accumulated raw materials, but that Mr. Grant
had used the privilege of a genius to create a
good biography out of it for the first time.
Row encouraging to private gentlemen of posi-
tion, who spend time and risk money on lite-
rary labour, to find the fruit carried off as soon
as it is pleasantly ripe ! The Napiers were
nearly connected with Montrose, and it is
honourable to them to protect his renown ;
but it is hard that a gentleman should have
his pocket picked while watching over an an-
cestor's monument. What the law may say
to this we do not pretend to guess, but we
know what men of letters ought to say. And