Archbishop Laud : a Study. By A. C. Benson. (Began
Paul, Trench, and Co.)—It was a happy thought of an inmate of Lambeth Palace to give us this study of one of its most famous occupants in the past. There have been not a few greater men than Land in the line of the English primates ; but not one whose personality is more distinct. It is in realising this that Mr. Benson's work is especially useful. His historical judgments, though he does his beet to rid them of bias, seem to us somewhat uncertain, for want of a right understanding of the Puritan position ; but the human figure of Laud he presents to us with much force, and this in no small degree by help of Lambeth associations. He has even made some actual die-
coveries. And where he travels into the wider sphere of Land's political and ecclesiastical actions, we are always able, even when differing most from his conclusions, to recognise a careful and candid student.
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