Royal Youths: a Book of Princehoods. By Iscott R. Hope.
(T. Fisher Unwin.)—The eight lives which Mr. Aseott Hope has chosen for telling in this volume, are those of Conradin, "the last of the Hohenstaufens," Don Carlos (the son of Philip II.), Louis XIII., Queen Anne's son (the Duke of Gloucester), Frederick the Great, Ivan VI. (the successor of the Empress Anne of Russia), the Orleans Princes, and Louis XVII. The choice is limited, we are told, to Princes of whom most readers do not know much ; most of the stories, it will be seen, are of a sombre cast. Mr. Hope has written them carefully and well ; ho exercises, we think, a sound judgment on the controverted matter with which he has to deal. Altogether, the book will be found to give interesting ex- cursions into some of the by-paths of history. We see that Mr. Hope rejects, though not altogether without reservation, the story of the violent death of Don Carlos. There is at least a strong probability that it was due to natural causes.
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