FERNANDO CORTES.
Fernando Cortes. By Francis Augustus MacNutt. (G. P. Putnam's Sons. 6s.)—We have no wish to dispute the title of Cortea to a place among the "Heroes of the Nations." To insist on such a definition of "hero" as would exclude him would narrow its application in an unpractical way. He was, it is true, licentious and cruel, and apparently without any more conscience than such as was furnished by his code of honour. But he was a great soldier and a ruler, and loyal to such conceptions of duty as he was capable of forming. Unfortunately he lived at a time when a separation of almost unexampled completeness had been effected between religion and morals. Cortes was devout in his way ; but when a man's devoutness has no influence on his conduct it does him far more harm than good. Mr. MacNutt, who has already done excellent work in this province of history, tells the story well. He has a gift of vigorous narrative and picturesque
description ; and he is not a hero-worshipper in the sinister sense of-that term; but he holds the balance fairly when he has to judge. He is evidently inclined to believe that tho death of Montezuma was ordered by Cortes. The Princes who shared the captivity of the Mexican King were certainly strangled by his command.,
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