NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11413, 25 October 1902, Page 8

NEW BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS.

With the revival of interest? in the Church of England as a National Church, and the more scientific study of history which has been adopted of later years, has come a pressing need for something like a continuous and adequate account of its rise and progress as a national institution. This work has been undertakeri by Messrs Mac. mHlan and Co., the eminent publishers. The plan adopted has been to distribute the writing among a number of competent scholars, each being responsible for a particular period, and the whole being combined in a series of handy volumes under the editorship of the Very Reverend W. R. W. Stephens, Dean of Westminster, and the Rev. William Hunt, M.A. Each volume is sold separately, and has its own ind^ex— a plan which has its manifest advantages to those students who desire to have information about oce particular period withoutgoing in for the whole work. The volume before us deals with the period from the accession of Henry VIII. to the death of Alary—in some respects the most interesting and at the same time the most difficult to treat in the whole history of the Church. Both publishers and editors are to be congratulated on the choice of the writer selected to write this volume. The author in question, Dr. Jamee Gairdner, C.8., is a layman—perhaps a desirable qualification in itself in dealing with such a period. He was formerly Assistant Keeper of the Public Records, and. edited for the Master of the Rolls some important State papers. He has had access to documents which throw a new light on several important points, and his training has been such as to enable him to write dispassionately on questions the Tery mention of which serve to arouse the "odium theologicum" in those disposed to take a partisan view in religious controversies. Dr. Gairdner has an interesting style, and when dealing with such weighty and serious matters as the King's supremacy, the suppression of the monasteries, and the Marian persecutions, does not disdain to reproduce any well-founded anecdote that may throw a light on the customs, of the time, or the character of the personages with whom he Ls dealing. In the account, reproduced from Sir Thomas More, of the case of Richard Hunne, who 'had been cammibted; to the Lollard's Tower for Ihenesy in fche year 1514, and was found dead in his place of confinement, hanging by the neck by & siik girdle, we seem to see the origin of the "three b.ack crows" and its more modern variants. There was a grave question >as to whether Hunne'e death was due to munler or suicide. . More mentions that an official of the King's almoner was reported to have said, in an enquiry before the Lords, that hie had seem many men who had hanged themselves, and !be. was certain from the appearance that Hunne's death was not self-inflicted. He was cross-examined before the Council. How many cases had he -dealt with of men who had hanged themselves? Would he say a hundred? No. Ninety? He considered, but dad not think he had seen ninety. Well, twenty? No, not twenty. They came 'down to fifteen, ten, five, and four, and finally it api peared that "he had never seen but one in ali his life, -and tbas was an Irish fellow called Grookahafnik, whom be* had seen hanging in an old barn." Dr.. Gairdner deals at some length with the burnings of the martyrs in Mary's reign, and withholds none of the hiorrdfying details. He shows, however, that we have to take the spirit pf the age into consideration, and holds that they were carried out with reluctance and from ft sense of dutyon the part of those conoernedi .(London: Macmillan and Co., Limited. ChristcbuMh: Wnitcombe and Tombs;. 7e 6d). .

The many admirers of Miss will welcome another charming boak~ of Australian domestic life from her pen. In "Little Mother Meg" we are again introduced to the family at Misrule. The , eldest sistOTj Meg, is now married to a young doctor, and troubles settle early on : the new home. Happily the,, cloud passes away, and the brothers and sisters when they come to "Slag's-," ihave a very jolly time, albeit the question of ways and means now and than becomes rather difficult. , Miss Turner ihas a deep inner sympathy witih child life, andl the mingled humour and pathos of her latest story will commend it to many (London: Ward, • Lock and Co. GhrisfcehurchY Simpson ainti Williams andPoumtain Barber; 2a 6d]u -'v.-' ;.; ... . ..-.■. . , ;■.

"A Heroine from Finland," toy Paul Waineraan,; gives a vividi pkstrare of life in Russia and Fnland, and is especially interesting now that the affairs of the latter country 'have been, brought co prominently befoie the pui>Eo of late. It deals with a well-to-do Finnish family, who came to Moscow to sea the coronation of the Czar, Nicholas 11.,;'.0<f -witich iwe lhave an impressive descriptiion. Tihey are -ehown round the city of one Count Rostoff, who afterwards visits them in Finland. He falls in love wirfch one of *hie'daughters> a. 'beaiutiful .girl, who is already engaged to a professor, anid there is the usual conflict, in wliicli a sense' of duty on tlhe part of the .girl ultimately triumphs.'. Tihe book will be valued chiefly,. however, not so much for ita plot as for its pictures of fashionable life, in Russia,' and the pursuit*, amusements and .Social characteristics generally of the Finnish people. : (London: Metihiuen and Co. Christohuroh: WMtcombe and Tcmbs.

"Under the Shadow of tie Rope," by E. W. Homung, is a sensational story, which is n<y-doubt already familiar to ouar readers from (the fact of its having appeared as a serial in the "Weekly Press." It deals with. a supposed .case of hueband-murder b/ a wdfe. Tlhe curious leaiute of tie .story is that a man wiho believes her to be guHty deliberately majrries iher, with ■the object of gefcting her into his power, and punishing her for the muider of her , first husband; and improbable as the idea is, ifc is very cleverly worked out. (London: Chatto and Wdnd'us.' Christchuroh: Fountain Barber. 3s 6d and 2s 6d.)

"The Cat's Paw.'V by B. M. Oroker, is an interesting story of Anglo-Indian life. The heroine, a charming girl, and wellconnected, , but ipoor,, is entrapped into going out to India to marry a young man, wiho turns out to bej.a drunkard, and not at all the man she had believed him to be. She consequently refuses to have anything to do with him, and, being alone and unfriended in India, falls into sore straits. She gets a position as governess im the family t of a Eajah, and ultimately falls/in with the right man, whom ghe marries. (London-. Ohatto and Windus. Christchiirch : Fountain Barber 3s 6d anoV2s;6d.) \ ■ . \