Victoria, Queen and Empress. By John Cordy Jeaffroson. 2 vols.
(William Heinemann.)—Mr. Jeaffreson tells again a story that has been told before. He tells it, however, with variations. He applies, for instance, the "higher criticism" to the picturesque story of the young Queen receiving in deshabille the homage of the Archbishop and the Lord Chamberlain. Other things also will be found not quite the same as they are in popular works. Mr. Jeaffroson's book will not be found lacking in interest—that the subject forbids—and he has a pen which by long practice has acquired a certain facility. But why does he weary us by such reflections as this about William IV.'s death And now he had ceased to be King of Britain, and had become the cold, still, sense- less; thing to which every living man who reads this page will in no long time be changed." Why such an epithet as " funebrious " P It is marked obsolete by Webster, Surely, the plain "undertaker" would be better than " funebrious artist."
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