prophet and ever since held by those who belonged to the communion of the faithful, Ibn Hanbal suffered a long persecution, and in the end endured a scourging of one hundred and fifty blows. His steadfastness excited the unbounded admiration of the people of Baghdad, for the Moslem populace had little sympathy with the loose views and free living of the rationalists. Afterwards the times changed, rationalism went oat of favour at court, but Ibn Hanbal, though now honoured by the new caliph,

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... r lost the affection of the people, and when he died at the age of seventy-seven, all Baghdad mourned him, the concourse at his funeral surpassing all that had ever been seen before. As his authorities for this monograph, Mr. Fatton has chiefly made use of the biographies of the im*™ contained in three manuscripts preserved in the library of the university of Leyden; and in his notes he gives ample quotations (in Arabic) from these sources. Every care has evidently been taken in printing this book, which will prove a valuable addition to our knowledge of an interesting period. In view of a second edition, a small mistake may be pointed out on p. 175, where it is stated that 'Abd Allah the celebrated son of Ibn Hanbal was buried 'in the quarter called commonly al-Harbiya (or al Zati'a=iiie quarter of the city or the plot of ground in which his house stood ?)' In point of fact 'Abd Allah was buried not in the Harbiya quarter, but in the district lying at some distance to the north of this, beyond the Tahirid trench. His grave was near the Straw Gate, opposite the Kazimayn shrines, and the building would seem to have been the one which Niebuhr, who visited Baghdad in the middle of the last century, mentions as having then been recently carried away by the flood of the Tigris-Niebuhr in mistake patting Ahmed for 'Abd Allah Ibn Hanbal (the name of the father for that of the son). The name Kati'a, which Mr. Pattern does not appear quite to understand, here stands for Kati'a-Umm-Ja'far (in other words the fief of Zubaida, the celebrated wife of Harun-ar-Raahid), which was on the Tigris bank and went as far north as the Straw Gate. (1217-1688) . By DAVID HANNAY. GUT LE STBANGE. A Short History of the Boyal Navy (London: Methuen. 1898.) IT Mr. Clowes, as from his preface seems to be the case, wishes bis book to be accepted as the standard popular naval history, he will have to edit his four future volumes with much more care (or at least with much more success) than he has been able to bestow upon this one. He will have to verify his citations, he will have to keep an eye on his ' process ' blocks, and consider whether it would not be better to have fewer and more useful illustrations, to do without the more wretched of the little tailpieces for instance, and even some of the portraits, which might be supplied elsewhere, in favour of bigger and clearer illustrations of the ships themselves, their guns, tackle, &c He will have to alter the abominable and confused arrangement which has allowed of continual at