paratively colourless and unbiassed records of the annalist, who must needs crowd a thousand things together under a diminishing glass, or would he rather have the trouble of contrasting the diffused and prejudiced accounts of partisan story-tellers, and digesting them in his mind? We think he would. History is more than chronicle. There must be time for standing off from great events before we can see them in their true proportions, or with the lights and shadows that will serve the purpose of the historic muse.

All this we have no doubt the Editor of this bundle of summaries would admit; but the little book is, nevertheless, one of much usefulness. Many a writer of history will use it for its compact scheme of events, who will find the high-and-dry antithetic balance of the manner disturbing to the historic attitude. There is, comparing the earlier with the later summaries, a noticeable difference in the style, and the first ends with a classical allusion of a kind which would now be said to bear the stamp of old fogeyism. But the great change of all is in the comparative lengths of these yearly compends. The first, 1851, occupies four pages and a half. Gradually there is more to say, or at least more is said. Towards the middle of the volume we find about twenty pages is a fair length for a summary. At the end the narration of its events of the year occupies over thirty. The Editor very truly remarks that the changes with which the quarter of a century has been crowded are not exactly of the kind which was looked for in the year of the Great Exhibition. In these five-and-twenty years have been included the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, the rise and fall of the second French Empire, the American War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Spanish Revolutions, the Disestablishment of the Irish Church, the second great measure extending the Suffrage, the foundation of a system of National Education for England; the gradual, but steady and sure rise of the working classes into greater and greater power and importance; and the awakening of the agricultural labourers. These are all matters which come strictly within the province of a newspaper annalist. But there have been other and very considerable movements of which it was more difficult to say much in annual summaries. Different estimates will be formed of the probabilities of Disestablishment, but it may safely be said that the Church of England is far from being weaker than she was in 1850; while she has, in various ways, allied herself much more closely with the most stirring thought and the most active life of the country. There has been, within its borders, a steadily growing movement in the direction of Traditionalism, Ceremonialism, and Sacerdotalism. Roman Catholicism (to use the convenient phrase) has greatly advanced. Its leading men come more frequently to the front; its propagandist activity is manifest in the best literature especially; and it no longer excites, among educated persons, the bitter enmity of the old days. Connected with the immense scientific-speculative activity of the last twenty years, and the scarcely less striking historico-critical activity manifested in Germany, France, and England, there has been an extensive and powerful revolt, especially among educated persons, from the authority of all forms of religious belief. Lastly, we must not overlook what may be called the Artmovement, which has had and is having important consequences; though its history would be a perplexing one to write. Of course, no student of the times in which we live can be blind to the immense increase of temperance propagandism or its results. The fate of the world might have been different if Cleopatra's nose had been shorter-so we have all read; and in the early spring of 1874, Liberals had to learn bitterly enough what a small thing may lead to the reversal of a course of national policy which had been proceeding with little interruption for thirty years. It is a fact, and not a mere smart fiction, that the "beer" interest destroyed Mr. Gladstone's reduced majority of sixty.

The mention of this distinguished name may be permitted to remind us to say that there are two gentlemen who, whenever they turn up in these summaries, are treated with a kind of reticence that too often looks like snubbing-Mr. Gladstone

and Mr. Bright. The homage, when it cannot be avoided, has in it a touch of alienation which is slightly amusing. What will be said of Mr. Gladstone in the summary for 1877, it would be rash to predict in detail; but we sincerely hope it will not be said that he proposed to drive the Turks out of Europe, or hinted at the possibility of such a thing. We can assure Sir Henry Elliot, Sir Charles Adderley, and all whom it may concern, that the driving of the Turks out of Europe was discussed, not by Mr. Gladstone the other day, but by Addison's political upholsterer two hundred years ago. “He told us, with a seeming concern, that by some news he had lately read from Muscovy, it appeared to him that there was a storm gathering in the Black Sea which might in time do hurt to the naval forces of this nation. To this he added, that for his part he could not wish to see the Turk driven out of Europe, which he believed could not but be prejudicial to our woollen manufacture. And not only was it considered undesirable to expel the Turks, it was considered an impracticable thing." The upholsterer being asked for a loan of half-a-crown, the Tatler continues:-"I told him, if he pleased, I would give him five shillings, to receive five pounds of him when the great Turk was driven out of Constantinople, which he very readily accepted, but not before he had laid down to me the impossibility of such an event, as the affairs of Europe now stand." The affairs of Europe even "now stand" so that the Turk cannot be driven out of Europe; but before The Times issues its next budget of summaries we may hope to see a considerable approach to what the greatest statesman of the century really did suggest-and perhaps something more and better.

T

PROPHETS AND PROPHECY IN ISRAEL.*

HIS volume of 700 pages, with an introduction by Dr. Muir, which is sanctioned by Dr. Kuenen, is a book for theological students, though the author has written it with an eye to general readers who are sufficiently interested in the subject to follow him in his criticism. We do not now profess to discuss it from any point of view whatever, or even to analyze it, though we shall give some account of it. It does not seem to us that the general reader will care to follow the author through so long an examination of the subject, because when once the old-fashioned belief in Hebrew prophecy is given up, or even shaken, the mind rapidly seizes, without help, upon the main lines on which any alternative theory must be constructed. As for Dr. Kuenen of Leyden, he is already so well known to theological students in this country that it is unnecessary to say that his theory of the character and history of Hebrew prophecy is what is sometimes called the "organic" as distinguished from the supernatural. The prophets, according to this view, were not inspired to foretell future events-they were simply men of great moral and spiritual fervour, whose predictions, when they made any, were simply such impassioned forecasts as would naturally arise in the minds of men who believed with more or less definiteness that they were able to speak to the nation "the word of Jahveh." Of course the Messianic prophecies are examined; and the New Testament exegesis generally. The conclusion is that none of the prophecies were "fulfilled" in the old-fashioned sense; and that such practical fulfilment as may be recorded in a few cases was nothing remarkable or unaccountable. The prophets differed among themselves; the members of the inner and outer circle especially. Their work exercised an unfavourable influence upon the national polity as a whole; but they

*The Prophets and Prophecy in Israel: an Historical and Critical Inquiry. By Dr. A. Kuenen, Professor of Theology in the University of Leyden. Translated from the Dutch by the Rev. Adam Milroy, M.A., with an Introduction by J. Muir, Esq., D.C.L. Longmans & Co.

laid the foundation of that ethical monotheism which, in its transformed shape, we now know as Christianity.

This is a very brief account of Dr. Kuenen's book, to which we hope to return at some future time. Perhaps it is hardly necessary to quote anything from Dr. Muir's summary; but a few sentences may be admitted :

Israelitish prophecy was not a supernatural phenomenon, derived from divine inspiration; but was a result of the high moral and religious character attained by the prophets whose writings have been transmitted to us. This moral and religious character was itself the slowly-matured growth of ages, the seers and soothsayers in whom the first beginnings of prophecy were manifested, having stood on a much lower spiritual level, and entertained a less worthy conception of Jahveh's nature and attributes, than were eventually reached by their successors. The latter were persuaded that Jahveh was a holy and righteous God, who must necessarily reward his faithful and obedient servants with earthly prosperity, and punish with temporal punishment those who forsook him and transgressed his commandments. They consequently predicted evil as the certain lot of the offenders, unless they repented, and a happy future for the righteous, if they continued to do well. At the same time the prophets were convinced that Israel was Jahveh's chosen people, and they therefore conceived that a most glorious future awaited a portion, at least, of this favoured nation; these were the ideas which inspired, and found expression in, their prophecies. But prediction was not in reality regarded by them as their principal function; and they did not attach primary importance to the literal and immediate fulfilment of their promises and threatenings, being convinced that at some time and in some way or other the divine decrees which they announced would be substantially accomplished. They were, above all, preachers of righteousness."

Dr. Kuenen is decidedly an arid writer. He is wanting in height, warmth, and spiritual apprehensiveness; but he is candid and patient. He dedicates his work to Dr. Muir, and acknowledges in a very graceful manner the merits of Mr. Milroy's translation-adding that Mr. Milroy has corrected him in a few places.

D

PHOEBE JUNIOR.*

ARK will be the day which gives us the last novel by the author of "Mrs. Margaret Maitland of Sunnyside;" but we are not sorry that this is the "Last Chronicle of Carlingford" which we are to have from her welcome pen. It is not that there is any falling off-" Phoebe Junior," the daughter of our old friend with the pink shoulders (who has married Mr. Beecham, now settled in London), is one of the finest and most finished portraits ever drawn by Mrs. Oliphant. It is well also that she is a very agreeable girl, for otherwise the story would be unpleasant. Of course the story could not exist without her, or some one else to give it unity; but what we mean is that this bit of the old Tozer "strain”. grafted and trained and watched and tended, and brought down to the latest date, even to Chinamania-is just the mediating power that was wanted. And most dexterously has Mrs. Oliphant used her. There is something exceedingly subtle about this lady's female characters-the remark may seem almost idle, but we doubt if she has had justice done to her in this respect. Look at Millicent in "Three Brothers," and then at Phoebe Junior, and you will admit that you do not know where else to turn for similar character-painting. It is all done under your eyes, and yet it is conjuring. Phoebe is a wonderful creature. What an inscrutable mixture of stubborn honesty, worldly wisdom, real kindness, quiet sensitiveness,

*Phoebe Junior: A Last Chronicle of Carlingford. Three Volumes. By Mrs. Oliphant. (Second Edition.) London: Hurst and Blackett.

and entire self-possession is this charming hussy! And how perfectly natural a product, as we hinted just now, of the Tozer genius, born into a world a few years older, and submitted to the influence of London culture in a West-end Dissenting community, instead of to that of a little country town, where a small cheesemonger is the Diotrephes of the church!

One of our reasons for our joy that the Carlingford series ends here is, indeed, that, as Tozer would say, "our Phoebe is not to be beat." But there is another reason. Horace Northcote, the blazing young Liberationist of this story, marries Ursula May, clergyman's daughter, and retires from Carlingford :

names.

"I'm one as is qualified to give what you may call a casting-vote,' said Tozer, 'being the oldest deacon in Salem, and one as has seen generations coming and going. And as for church and chapel, I've served 'em both, and seen the colour of their money, and there's them as has their obligations to me, though we needn't name no But this I will say, as I'm cured of clever men and them as is thought superior. They ain't to be calculated upon. If any more o' them young intellectuals turns up at Carlingford, I'll tell him right out, "You ain't the man for my money." I'll say to him as bold as brass, "I've been young, and now I'm old, and it's my conviction as clever young men ain't the sort for Salem. We want them as is steadygoing, and them as is consistent; good strong opinions, and none o' your charity, that's what we wants here."'

"Now Tozer had loved clever young men in his day more well than wisely, as everybody knew, and this deliverance carried all the more weight in consequence, and was echoed loudly by one general hum of content and applause.

"Northcote took this very quietly, but he retired, after he married Ursula, from the office of pastor, for which he was not fitted, and from the Liberation Society, and various other societies, coming to see that Disestablishment was not a panacea for national evils any more than other things. He was in the habit of quoting his brother-inlaw, Reginald May, as the best man he knew; but this did not make him a Churchman; for naturally he could not say the same of other members of the same class and family. He was shaken out of his strong opinions; but it is doubtful how far this was good for him, for he was a man of warlike disposition, and not to have something which he could think the devil's own stronghold to assail, was a drawback to him, 'and cramped his mental development."

As far as "society" is concerned, the long feud between Church and Dissent is thus "made up" at the end of the Carlingford story. But, all the way through, the treatment of these topics from the society point of view has not been any more satisfactory to deeply serious readers than Northcote's secession from the post of fighting-man was to him. There has been something wanting all along; and though we cannot wish the Carlingford series unwritten,-while it would have been idle to wish the books different,-we cannot help feeling that in no portion of that series has Mrs. Oliphant done full justice to her own deepest sense of that truth which we must all live and die by. We are not partisans; we represent neither Church nor Dissent; but it is plain that the political question between them is not solved by showing how Churchmen and Dissenters can be made to like each other in society, or by showing a fiery young Liberationist in the act of learning that Church has advantages, and Dissent disadvantages. In real life the fiery young Liberationist would not have talked to Reginald May, the Church-sinecurist, as Mrs. Oliphant makes him talk. He would have said, "The inconveniences you allege in our economy are the incidents of human infirmity; but the wrong things we allege in yours are the inevitable result of your institutions."

CRIPPS THE CARRIER.*

R. BLACKMORE has a place of his own among novelists, and he is certainly not likely to lose it. You do not go to the author of "Lorna Doone" and "Cradock Nowell" for anything bearing the least resemblance to what you expect elsewhere in the way of fiction. The story that you read may be called a novel-or, at least, it may rank for a time with the books of the season; but you will put the book up on the shelves in choice company when you have gone through it, and you will carry away some unfading figures for the picture gallery of your mind. Nobody who reads the present story will ever forget Zachary Cripps the carrier, and his brother Tickuss, or Leviticus. Mr. Blackmore's rustics are wonderfully done. There is no reason why Cripps should almost fill the canvas; the part he plays in the narrative was quite consistent with his occupying a very subordinate place; but, in spite of the fact that he neither does nor suffers anything in particular, Cripps not only justifies the name of the story-he makes us feel that he is the medium through which we have to lay hold of it. The narrative itself is romantic enough—probably Mr. Blackmore will not be hurt if we say it is a tissue of improbabilities. In other hands it might be very pathetic; but though the strong plot-interest carries us on to the end, we are not much moved by the sufferings of the old squire, who for a time loses his daughter. In the kind of pathos that belongs to such a situation, a simpler touch than Mr. Blackmore's is required. The author's manner is not so involved as that of Mr. George Meredith; but still it is involved. It would be wrong to say that the thought sometimes looks far-fetched-but Mr. Blackmore makes you bide his time. There is a certain reserve about his humour; a "crust" or shell to his thought, and it sometimes looks as if he took a sly pleasure in suddenly snapping a thread. You come upon an exquisite bit of natural beauty or something which promises a long stretch of humorous suggestion; but the author is off and away to something else long before you are satisfied.

"Cripps the Carrier" is none of your easy-going modern stories, in which the incidents reel themselves out, like parlour conversation. The plot opens upon you at the very first, and is wrought out by hundreds of minute touches. Mr. Blackmore belongs to the old school of novelists-if you are to get much pleasure out of him, you must give him the reins entirely-he is your master for the time being, and will let nothing happen but as he pleases. His tastes and culture look backward rather than forward. He would much rather quote Sophocles than write about a "dynamic smile." Far away from those quaintly idyllic pages are the half-slipshod, half-pretentious mysteries of the modern dialect. You must really attend to Mr. Blackmore before you have hold of his best and choicest. There never were books that would less bear "sampling" than his, but we are tempted to extract a fragment or two of dialogue between Zachary Cripps the carrier, and his halfhonest brother Leviticus :

"What be the reason, then,' Zachary went on, still keeping his eyes on the face of Tickuss, 'that thou hast been keeping thyself and thy pigs out o' market, and even thy waife and children to home, same as if 'em had gotten the plague? And what be the reason, Leviticus Cripps, that thou fearest to go to a wholesome publichouse, and have thy pint of ale, and see thy neighbours, as behooveth a God-fearing man? To my mind, either thou art gone daft, and the woman should take the lead o' thee, or else thou art screwed out of honest ways.'

"The Carrier now looked at his brother, with more pity than suspicion... Leviticus saw his chance, and seized it.

Cripps the Carrier: A Woodland Tale. By Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Author of "Lorna Doone," 33.66 Alice Lorraine," &c. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington.