atmosphere, speaking French, and taking for his heroes Molière and Voltaire. He looked upon his residence on his own estate as a period of exile, and, like most Russians of the day, had no country tastes to pass his time. He therefore turned to his old nurse Irene, who happily for the poet lived before the days of trades-unionism, and regarded him as a gifted and uncomprehended child. This delightful old crone told him numberless stories and legends, and surprised him by acquainting him with the national songs and traditions of his own country. These legends Poushkin put into verse, and they still form the favourite reading of every educated Russian child. It was to his nurse that he submitted the first reading of his poems, as Molière is said to have submitted his to the fisherwomen of the Halles for approval. He was brought up at a Lyceum opened in Tsarskoe Selo, and it is perhaps worth noting that the requirements for matriculation at this educational establishment were an examination in religion, four modern languages (of which English was one), and the sciences. His first poem in 1820 called Rouslan and Ludmiela provoked a literary controversy similar to that which greeted Wordsworth's Ballads in England. It was a fantastic mock-heroic poem something like Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, a medley of the thoughts and diction of heathen days with the ideas of this century; in short, a poem which completely broke from pseudo-classicism, and, to use Poushkin's own expression, breathes Russia.' The great difficulty for a young writer a hundred years ago was the censorship, which now suppresses passages rather from political than moral considerations. Jukovsky was made to alter a stanza in which his hero had demanded a rendezvous with his inamorata on St. John's Day, since, as the censor suggested, pious people might deem the selection of a church festival for a lovers' meeting as an affront to religion.' We have noticed that what tempers the rigour of despotism more than anything is satire, epigrams and pasquinades, and the like; and Poushkin was a fertile author of these. Though he did not dare to print them, yet they went the round of every circle, and were passed from hand to hand

in manuscript. In his Christmas Tale he represents the Tsar as blessing his people and bidding them rejoice because I have eaten, drunk, and dined well, and am fat, healthy, and replete.'

Poushkin's Evjenie Oneguin must not be passed over in this very brief notice of the poet's numerous works. It is a picture of contemporary manners, and in the picture the prosy everyday episodes greatly outweigh the material for poetry; hence Evjenie Oneguin is really a romance in verse. The story of the poem may be thus briefly told. Oneguin is a Petrograd dandy, who, after a sickening career of pleasure in town, fancies that he would like a rest in the country on his estate. Now the difference between an English squire and a Russian boyar is that the former's mind is that of a Western, with a Western's love of country scenery, pursuits, sport, travel, and the happiness which thinking on such memories brings to their possessor. Oneguin's mind was empty and aimless, with a touch of Orientalism in it, and he had no such resources. Unable therefore to find relief or interest in the society of his humble neighbours and disliking study, he falls into a dull fever of discontent with the world and mankind. This discontent has been called Byronic; but in fact Byron's discontented heroes were either men of action who could not achieve their desires, or men of culture whose despondency arose from the impossibility of satisfying their spiritual and intellectual cravings. Oneguin's proceeded from sheer ennui, and it was to combat this world-weariness-the fruit of empty-headedness-that Poushkin set himself. Whilst in this exile he falls in with a mystic poet called Lensky, who is engaged to a girl in the village called Olga, the daughter of a Mr. Larens. Olga has a sister called Tatiana, who at the sight of Oneguin is smitten with a violent passion, and, after confiding her secret to her old nurse, ventures to address Oneguin in a letter containing a description of her feelings towards him. She receives the chilling answer that he is not suited for domestic life, and her despair at this rejection of her innocent love is deepened by his strange conduct when next they meet on her name-day. He has

rejected her love, but he is smitten with a passion for Olga, and his attentions are so marked that Lensky, mad with jealousy, challenges him to a duel, in which the poor poet is mortally wounded. This terrible catastrophe naturally causes an estrangement between Oneguin and the Larens ; but Olga quickly consoles herself by marrying a dashing cavalry officer, while the loving Tatiana sinks into despondency. The good mother of the two girls knows of but one remedy for bad spirits-viz. marriage. So she secures for Tatiana a good match in a general of good position. She marries, and not long after goes to a fashionable ball where she meets Oneguin. He is astounded at finding the romantic and simple country girl metamorphosed into a graceful and superior lady of the world. He now feels the love which he had been invited to give and had refused; but in reply to his amorous advances she coldly bids him remember that she has been given to another and will ever remain faithful to him. With these words she leaves him dumbfounded, and the poet, with an abruptness more seeming than real, brings his story to an end by declaring that those alone are happy who can as lightly bid adieu to the romance of life as he now parts from his friend Oneguin.

The Russian writer Alexinsky, referring to the Russian literature of to-day, points out the very great importance attached by the Russian people to their literature, which, as absolutism forbids any intellectual exertion in politics, is the only resource for those who, loving their country, are anxious to widen her liberties. Hence the Russian people hold their literature in very high esteem. They do not look on it as other countries do-merely as a source of amusement, but as the instrument which prepares the way for social programmes. We in England may indeed have produced, by means of novels with a purpose, reforms in special subjects-in prison reform, in improvements in the management of our schools etc., and we are now producing a school of writers who from their point of view are labouring to make liberty more complete by such measures as the emancipation of women, the alteration of our divorce laws, etc., but these are only details in the progress of a State

which is as free as a free people chooses to make it. The Russian romance-writers and Russian poets and Russian historians aim on the other hand at the establishment of Liberty itself, which when once secured may enable them to secure those social reforms which are necessary to the development of their country. Thus Poushkin, the uncrowned Tsar of Russian poetry, writes an Ode to Liberty, naïve indeed, but full of fire-daring to crossquestion the Tsars, and exhorting them to bow the head before the Law, and to appoint Liberty the guardian of their throne. So Lermontov, another great poet, after the tragic duel in which Poushkin fell, wrote verses full of fire, cursing the greedy crowd that surrounds the thrones of the butchers of liberty and genius.

It is precisely because Russian literature is so universally prized by the Russian people that we are justified in believing that it will be a dominating factor in the literature of Europe in the near future. And this literature is noted by the author quoted above as eminently social; i.e. Russian authors do not write for personal fame or greed, but are ever thinking of their poor and suffering neighbours and fellow-countrymen. Hence we cannot but be confident that after this cruel war so bravely borne by all classes in Russia, the blessing of Liberty will be granted to those who have so earnestly and so unselfishly demanded it.

HERBERT A. STRONG.

ART. V.-CONVOCATION OF CANTERBURY:
ITS EARLY HISTORY.

1. Concilia, Decreta, Leges, Constitutiones, in Re Ecclesiarum Orbis Britannici, Viz. Pambritannica, Pananglica, Scotica, Hibernica, Cambrica, Mannica, Provincialia, Dioecesana. . . . Opera et Scrutinio HENRICI SPELMAN, Eq. Aur. Tomi Duo. (Londini: Typis R. Badger, Impensis Ph. Stephani, & Ch. Meredith, sub Aureo Leone in Coemeterio Paulino. MDCXXXIX, MDCLXIV.)

VOL. LXXXI.-NO. CLXI.

G

2. Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae a Synodo Verolamiensi A.D. CCCCXLVI ad Londinensem A.D. MDCCXVII. Accedunt Constitutiones et alia ad Historiam Ecclesiae Anglicanae spectantia. A DAVIDE WILKINS, S.T.P., Archidiacono Suffolciensi, et Canonico Cantuariensi, collecta. Tomi IV. (Londini: Sumptibus R. Gosling, in vico, dicto Fleet-Street, F. Gyles, in vico, dicto Holborn; T. Woodward, inter duas Templi portas, Fleet-Street; et C. Davis, in vico, dicto PaterNoster-Row. MDCCXXXVII.)

3. Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Edited, after Spelman and Wilkins, by A. W. HADDAN, B.D., and W. STUBBS, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History, formerly Fellows of Trinity College, Oxford. Three volumes. (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press. 1869-71.)

4. The State of the Church and Clergy of England, in their Councils, Convocations, Synods, Conventions and other Publick Assemblies; Historically Deduced from the Conversion of the Saxons, to the Present Times. With A Large Appendix of Original Writs and other Instruments. By WILLIAM WAKE, D.D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to Her Majesty. Occasion'd by a Book, Intituled, The Rights, Powers and Privileges of an English Convocation, &c. (London: Printed for R Sare at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn. MDCCIII.)

5. Foedera, Conventiones, Literae, et Cujuscunque Generis Acta Publica, inter Reges Angliae, et Alios quosvis Imperatores, Reges, Pontifices, Principes, vel Communitates. . . Tomi XVII. In Lucem missa de Mandato Reginae, Accurante THOMA RYMER, Ejusdem Serenissimae Reginae Historiographo. (Londini: Per A. & J. Churchill. 1704-17.)

6. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores, or Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages. Published by the Authority of Her