The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-11-17

.p,.,iss and Slavery 10 was necessary;
p course, to Gil the gap between more
;rrrortant periods, and the author has don
~, he could with the Kansas troubles,
,ha Drpd Scott decision, the 1857 panic,
NE Douglas campaign, the precursors OF the
rsr that wiped out all their importance.
Ito is not TO blame il he is not inspired.
on seeing the title Of Vol. Nv. Of The
c,,.hridge Modern History" Macmillans).
namelv. The Thirty Years War hopes
crosse that at last an adequate -presentment
d, ,aurlcd European history could be read
In English. The volume includes. however,
something Of far greater moment than
arv continental disaster. the story Of the
str.eele between Charles Stuart and his
roople. The proportions are reduced.
therefore, 10 what general histories usually
proyide. A more descriptive title would
have been "the history Of the first sixty
vearz # the seventeenth century, In this
yo.mr the editors apparently have been
oh.e.i 10 take the greater portion OF the
burden on themselves. DR.. A. W. Ward
does oh, German part and the Thirty Years
War al by himself; DIR. G. W. Prothero
attends to England as far as the Protec-
torate. when the task is taken up by others,
and Mr.. Stanley Leathes deals with the
French side. 1t is a mark Of very recent
discussions that whole chapters should be
deyotel 70 the navy Of the Commonwealth
and 10 the transference Of colonial power.
The latter. by the way. Is by the new Belt
professor at Oxford. We should be sorry
10 have lost Mr.. Horace F. Browns inter-
esting chapter on the Valtelline. but not
even Milton's sonnet can justify the pro-
norton given to that episode. The in
clusion Of the chapter on British fantastic
poets seems eccentric. The chief writers
OF this volume are well known as thor
oughly respectable but not brilliant his
torlcal writer's; the matters they have to
deal with have been fully threshed over
by their predecessors; it would be difficult
for them to make serious blunders. Their
volume is a trust worthy book of reference.
but. we fancy. is not what Lord Acton
planned.
Ia writing the two large volumes OF
Christopher Columbus and the New World
o. HIS Discovery u. B. Lippinoott Com
uany), Mr.. Filson Young believes that he is
supplying something that is really wanted.
He has disco vered that to many people
Columbus means merely a name and a fact
Ut lNOs tnot ACDOAy Aoc "Ay A0co Va $3.50
himself or seems to care. So he has set to
work to bring him to life again. He has
read a number OF excellent books on Column
bus and, we infer from the excellent photo
graphs, has visited a number Of places asso-
Ciated with him. So he starts on his story.
using a jaunty, conversational tone with
slips into slang, which accounts for the two
volumes, but which we presume is living
Whenever he comes to ar ascertained fact
in Columbus's career Mr.. Young employs
his Imagination to picture what happened.
Unfortunately Columbus was a fifteenth
century Genoese adventurer and Mr.. Young
IL a twentieth century British subject, an
Irshman we suspect, but with the hmita-
lions OF insular conventionality. The result
Is, we fear, that the reader often sees what
Mr.. Young would have done il he had been
Columbus instead OF the live discoverer.
Nevertheless, the oft told tale is told again
entertainingly and lightly. IL 1t does occa-
sionally cause irritation, and it is a story
that is always worth reading.