The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-25 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Memoirs of Royal Ladies. By Emily Sarah Holt.
2 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
The memoirs of royal ladies seem lately to have
been a favourite resource for authoresses who for-
sake the beaten track of novels and romances. Miss
Strickland's celebrated and successful "Lives of the
Queens of England," which have long since become
part of our standard literature, set an example
which inspired many others to enter the same
line. Miss Everett Green's '' Lives of the English
Princesses" were worthy companions to Miss
Strickland's " Queens," while Miss Pardoe and
Miss Costello have both produced instructive
biographies. More lately Miss Freer has obtained
no inconsiderable reputation by her skilful por-
traiture of royal French ladies—the sister of
Francis I. and her heroic daughter being followed
by the memoirs of the brief existence of the
fairest of the four wives of the gloomy Philip
11. It is true that in her recent works
Miss Freer has become more ambitious
in her choice of subjects, and has for-
saken court festivals and boudoirs for camps and
cabinets, but there are many still left to pursue
this genuine branch of history. The work before
us possesses in some degree the merit of novelty,
since, although many of the names are familiar to
us, but one of them possesses any memoir in the
English language. Some of them, such as Joanna
of Navarre and Marguerite of Austria, have from,
their political associations been prominent in his-
tory, but from some strange oversight their lives
have remained unwritten. The ten subjects selected
by Miss Holt include some scarcely known names,
such as those of Ela de Rosmor, Countess of Salis-
bury, in the days of King John, and Alicia de Lacy,
Countess of Salisbury, Lincoln, Leicester, and owner
of many another fair heritage, whose life so ill
accorded with her noble birth. This unworthy
lady lived in the reign of Edward 11. Jane Beau-
fort, Queen of Scotland, the wife of James 1., and
the lady whom the imprisoned monarch first saw
from the windows of Windsor Castle, and
celebrated in the King's Julian, is one of the
ladies chronicled, though we gain few particulars
respecting her which are not told us in ordinary
histories. Jeanne, Duchess of Orleans, the hapless
wife of Louis XII. of France, will be a familiar figure
to all who remember the pages " Quintin Durward."
Joanna of Spain is another lady who has been cele-
brated in song and romance, and her melancholy
devotion to her neglectful husband has furnished
Mrs. Hemans with the subject of one of her famous
"Records of Woman." She was the daughter of
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and mother of the
Emperor Charles V. Her husband was the son of
Maximilian of Austria and Mary of Burgundy, and
thus in her joint connections were gathered to-
gether half the crowns in Europe; The madness
hereditary in her family, however, developed itself
in. the unfortunate heiress, who passed the latter
half of her life a hopeless maniac. She was pas-
sionately devoted to her husband, who regarded
her with contempt and aversion. For many days
after his sudden death she insisted that he was
still alive, and remained watching the corpse. This
touching incident gave rise to Mrs. Hemans's poem.
The historical student will remember the use
made of the name of the Emperor's mother
in Padilla's insurrection against Charles V.
Maguerkte of Austria, sister-in-law of the un-
fortunate Joanna, and subject of another me-
moir, was of a very different character. She
was possessed of considerable political ability,
and governed the Netherlands for many years with
prudence and fidelity—services which were ill
requited by her ungrateful nephew. Her marriage
adventures were most extraordinary. After being
three times married, she was left a widow at the age
of 24, having by a series of unfortunate accidents
lost the crowns of France, of Spain, and of the
dukedom of Savoy. She was first married, when
scarcely more than an infant, to Charles VIII. of
France, and was brought up in the French Court.
After a few years, however, Anne of Bearigen, the
Regent of France, coilidered that it would be more
advantageous to her young brother to espouse the
heiress of Brittany, and consequently the youthful
Marguerite returned to Austria. She was after-
wards married to Juan, Prince of Asturias, and
son of King Ferdinand of Spain, but he died in
consequence of a fall from his horse six months
after his marriage, Some time later his widow
espoused Philibert, Duke of Savoy, and was crowned
Duchess; but again her wedded life was short.
Three years had scarcely elapsed when the young
Duke of Savoy died almost suddenly, and Mar-
guerite henceforward remained single. It would
seem that, had it not been for pride of birth, Charles
Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and afterwards the hus-
band of Mary Tudor, would have been the object
of her choice. Numerous copies of the correspon-
dence between her and her father, the Emperor
Maximilian, are given in her life. The " Memoir
of Clementine Sobieski," titular Queen of England,
wife of James ll.'s unfortunate son, will attract
the reader. It seems singular indeed that anybody
should have been willing to undergo so much risk
and adventure to wear such a shadowy crown. The
lives are all written with care, and show evidence of
considerable research and careful study of contem-
porary authorities. Nevertheless the work is not
equal in interest to many others of its class. The
earlier lives are too brief and fragmentary to pos-
sess much individual interest, and the style does
not compensate for the deficiency. The authoress
does not possess the power of throwing herself
into the spirit of the times which she treats of, and
representing characters and events as they ap-
peared from their point of view. She regards
them as if they were acting and speaking at our
present day, which throws a kind of stiffness and
want of reality over the work. As a first attempt,
however, it is decidedly meritorious, and we have
no doubt that the authoress with time and expe-
rience will occupy a worthy place among our
feminine historians:

A Comprehensive _History of India, Civil, Military,
and Social. Nos. 39-42. Blackie & Son.
Chapter ten of book the sixth brings us to the year
1807 and Lord Minto's appointment as Governor-
' General, and, as is the custom in this work, a
portrait of the earl is given. In reviewing the
character of Lord Minto at the close of his admini-
stration, the author, after doing justice to the earl
for the encouragement which he gave to education
and literature, censures him in our opinion unjustly
for his severity regarding Baptist missionaries.
We would ask what right individuals have to
insult the religion of a nation simply because they
themselves profess another creed ? Granted it is
done with a good intention, but that does not
render their interference the less objectionable.
The Government having engaged to respect the
national religion of India, was bound to see that
it was respected by those who directly or indirectly
claimed the protection of Government :
" Among the personal merits of Lord Minto must not be
forgotten the interest which he took in native literature,
and the liberal patronage which he extended to these who
cultivated it. So far as compatible with the restrictions
imposed upon him by the home authorities, he endeavoured
to carry out the view of the Marquis Wellesley in founding
the college of Fort William, and he also proposed a plan for
the foundation of Hindoo colleges at Nadiya and Tirhoot.
These were to have been followed by Mahometan eolleges
in other localities. The object contemplated by these insti-
tutions was to continue to native literature that encourage-
ment which it received from native Governments, but
which had ceased in consequence of the political revolu-
tions which the country had undergone. In regard to -the
Baptist missionaries at Serampore, the conduct of Lord
Minto unfortunately is inconsistent with itself, and at
variance with the good sense and enlightened spirit-which
he usually displayed. Besides defraying out of the public
treasury the expense of several native grammars, dic-
tionaries, and other rudimentary works printed at the
Serampore press, he gave liberal aid to the Serampore
translations of the Scriptures, and yet issued an edict
which evidently tended, if not crush them altogether, to
diminish their usefulness, and bring them under bondage.
Sir George Barlow, sharing in the prejudices then gene-
rally entertained by old European residents, and alarmed at
the supposed connection between missionary labours and
the Velore mutiny, prohibited the missionaries from
preaching in the public streets, or sending itinerant native
preachers through the villages, or gratuitously distributing
controversial and religious tracts, but imposed no restric-
tions on their private instructions or Scripture transiatons,
and left them at liberty to perform divine service in Ben-
galee in their mission-house at Calcutta. One of the first
acts of Lord Minto'S Government was not merely to renew
the restrictions, but to threaten the missionaries with others
of a still more rigorous description. The pretext for this
procedure was the circulation of a tractin Persian containing
what was called a scurrilous account of Mahomet. By a
strange perversion of the meaning of words it was held
that Government, by promising to protect the great body
of the people in the undisturbed exercise of their religion,
were thereby pledged not to allow any one to obtrude upon
them printed works containing arguments or exhortations
at variance with their religious tenets. The inference
drawn was, that the Company were under an obligation to
suppress, within the limits of their territory, treatises and
public preaching offensive to the religious persuasions of
the people—an obligation which considerations of necessary
caution, of general safety, and national faith ands honour,
made it imperative on them to fulfil. In conformity to this
very curious pledge and obligation, the Governor-General
in council not only prohibited the issue of religious tracts,
but ordered that public preaching in the vernacular tongue
in the Mission-house at Calcutta should be discontinued.
Even this was not deemed sufficient, and for the avowed
purpose of bringing the missionary press more immediately
under the control of the officers of the Government, the
missionaries wore commanded to remove it from Serampore
to Calcutta."
The first chapter of book seven is devoted to the
renewal of the Company's Charter, the establish-
ment of intercourse with Nepaul, and the war with
the Ghoorkas ; and the succeeding chepters describe
the continual petty wars which were waged with
the surrounding States until the settlement, for the
time at least, with the Onde dynasty, and the
assumption of the title of King of Oude by the
Nabob in 1822. Tkere is a well executed engraving
as a frontispiece for Book 7, entitled, " Scene on
the March of a Native Indian Army," in which 41