Crown Jewels. (Elliot Stock.) — The title of this book
is rather misleading. It has really no connection with crown jewels in the literal sense of the words, consisting of brief biographies of the female Sovereigns and wives of Sovereigns of England (thirty-nine in all) from 1066 to 1897. Besides, several of these are not regarded in the light of jewels, such, for example, as Mary II., the wife of William of Orange, on whose "cold, un- grateful nature" the anonymous writer dwells, forgetful of Macaulay's defence; or Queen Anne, who, we are told, was "weary of the crown of which she had robbed her father and her brother, and her conscience was disturbed." Even of Queen Elizabeth it is said that "her crimes and cruelties are scarcely remembered on account of her memorable successes," and that "she had enjoyed her life, but could scarcely have believed that there was either God or eternity to reckon with." The biographies are, how- ever, crisply written ; several of them, such as those of Catharine of Braganza and Mary Beatrix of Modena, are exceptionally fall.
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