New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-05-07
BOOKS AND AUTHORS
Current Talk of Things Present
and to Come.


In Notes on New England Birds
book just coming from the Riverside
Press. Mr.. F. H. Allen has collected the
delightful bird material to be FOUND IN
the fourteen volumes of the complete
edition of Thoreau's works Illus
brought together, these studies make
truly charming book, eminently useful TO
ornithologists and bird lovers generally
who do not possess that complete edl-
ton. It is illustrated by photographs OF
live birds taken in their native haunts.
The biography Of the late Mark Twain
has for some time been in process OF
preparation by his friend, Er Albert
Bigelow Paine With Nine. Gabrilo-
witsch, Mark Twain's daughter. Mr..
Paine is now engaged in arranging his
material and in gathering whatever cor
respondence is of biographical or liter
airy nature. He would be glad to re-
ceive, copy and return to their owner
such letters from the pen of Mark
Twain.
A series of picturesque biographies
Illustres" is to be brought OUT In Paris
The first volume deals with Marie
Stuart and is by NJ. Augustin Filon,
who will also write on Elizabeth dan
gleterre." NJ. Emile Faguet is to be the
biographer of Nine. de Sevigne and NJ
Raymond Poincare has chosen Nine. de
Stael Nine Marcelle Tinayre is the
Of nj on DnPhpESp
Longueville, and NJ. Pierre Baudin will
produce g book on Queen Victoria.
The "Bardon Papers: Documents Re-
lating to the Imprisonment and Retire
ment OF Mary Queen Of Scots have
Just been issued by the Camden Society.
These papers, we are told, were origi-
nally deposited in an old house in
Somersetshire which had been the home
of the Leigh family for three hundred
years It is thought that they once be-
longed to Sir Christopher Hutton, who
was Counsel for the prosecution In the
Darlington case" and that the summary
of the charges against the Queen, which
is included, was either drawn up by him
or was prepared for his use. These
charges comprise" says THE London
Standard" AL the well known offences
of which Mary has been accused-that is.
plotting against Elizabeth, calling her
self Queen of England. melting rebellion
at home and seeking assistance from
abroad and acquiescing in conspiracy
which involved Elizabeth's assassina-
ton At the same time they show how
the Secretary Walsingham, Mary's in
veterate enemy, was working up the
case against her. and tampering with
Mary's correspondence. in order to bring
home to her more closely the crimes of
which he wished to convict her. 1t Is
admitted that he tempered with one let
ter. and if with one why not with
others? It appears, however, that at
enc time both Walsingham and Hutton
advocated Mary's removal out of Eng
land: and if her presence in England
was, as they said. a standing menace to
Elizabeth why was she kept there?
They changed their minds afterward;
but Elizabeth would not hear of her re-
mOvaI. which seems to have meant her
return TO Scotland. Mary offered to
make great concessions in return for her
freedom. Sir Christopher Hutton drew
up reasons both for and against her re-
lease. to which. however, according to
Dr. Read. he himself was steadily OPP
posed" The Standard" ends it's notice
with the ever recurring verdict. Not
proven:
OF the crimes imputed to Mary while she
still reisned in Scotland her guilt or in
nocence is unlikely ever to be determined
and this question was no business or Eliza
beth But as regards her conduct in Eng
land. TO which these documents are con
fined we fancy that the ultimate verdict
of history will be more faDorap'e t to ner
and this not because she did not commit
the alleged offences against Elizabeth with
which she was charged but because the
color of them has been blackened in total
disregard of the injuries which provoked
them. It is impossible to rise from the
that if Elizabeth was the intended vic
tim of one set of plots. Mary was the vic
dered at in the history Of Mary Stuart is
the blindness of one set OF writer's to the
fact that the fOrCible detention of Mary in
England went far to justify the means by
which she sought to effect her escape
Most political prisoners have this right
How much more when the prisoner is
Who has no legal right to sit in judgment
on her, If the principle Salus populi su-
prema lex 1uStlneS EIlZdDeLIl, II HAUL any
would not bind Mary. We except. OF
course her alleged cOnnivance at Eliza
beth's assassination, which Is still I'M
proved.
Spring poems are still coming, even in
materialistic period like this, They
are seldom satisfactory nowadays, but
some of them are not without music.
Witness this, Primrose Pathway,
which appears in THE Pail Mall
Gazette;
When hazel catkins swing,
When wild birds sing In chorus,
When days are lengthening
The road leads straight before US
To primrose woods of spring.
There is the dusk of yews,
The tufted green Of larches.
The sweep of boughs that fuse
In endless woodland arches,
Vistas of fairy views.
Across the dead-leaf floor
Gold-slppered April passes.
Behind her gold galore,
Pale fragrant primrose masses
Burst upward and adore
Man. when the cuckoo calls,