This sources that the Tanganyika has its effluent in the north, and is therefore connected with the Albert Nyanza. Nor can we regard the alleged difference of altitude (226 feet) between the two lakes as an objection to this supposition; for when we know that 1° Fahr. represents an altitude of 533 feet, a difference of level which is indicated by the fractional part of a degree may well be attributed either to some imperfection in the instrument or to defective observation.* Dr. Livingstone suggested ten years ago that the parting of the watershed between the Zambesi and the Nile might be somewhere between the latitudes 6° and 12° south, that the two rivers rose in the same region, and that their sources would probably be found at no considerable distance from each other.† Should this conception be realised, a remarkable resemblance will exist between the two great rivers of Western Europe and the Zambesi and the Nile. The Danube and the Rhine have their sources very near to each other, but the streams diverge, the one, like the Zambesi, to the east, the other, like the Nile, to the north, both traversing a vast extent of country before they pour their waters into the sea. most interesting problem is now, perhaps, nearer its solution than it has ever been, for Dr. Livingstone's instructions for his new journey of exploration are to reach the Tanganyika, and to direct his particular attention to its effluent; and as the distance between the two lakes Tanganyika and Albert Nyanza cannot be considerable, it is to be hoped that he will be able to test the correctness of the information which he formerly received, as well as that given to Captains Burton and Speke. The question afterwards to be determined will be, whether the Albert Nyanza is connected with the Nile, and if so, how connected. The river which flows from the Victoria Nyanza was traced by Captain Speke for only fifty miles, but Mr. Baker has established by personal observation the fact that it flows into the Albert Nyanza, having ascended its banks to the point where Captain Speke left it, namely, the Karuma Falls. Mr. Baker asserts that he saw, or imagined he saw, a river at a distance of twenty miles from the furthest northerly point which he reached on the Albert Nyanza, issuing from the lake and traversing the plain beyond; but nothing can be reasonably affirmed or inferred from such distant observation. Albert Nyanza may be connected with the Nile by some great but hitherto undiscovered stream communicating with the Bahr el Ghazal (the Nile of Herodotus), and this supposition The The observation is recorded by Captain Speke; and it may be observed that his eye-sight had become greatly impaired in his first expedition. Missionary Travels,' p. 477. is rendered highly probable when taken in connexion with the information which Mr. Baker received from the people residing on the shores of the Albert Nyanza, that the lake extends to the north-west for about forty miles, when it suddenly turns to the west, contracting gradually, and that its extent is unknown. That the Bahr el Ghazal may ultimately prove to be the true Nile is thus rendered extremely probable, nor does its mere-like character, so far as it has been explored, militate against such a supposition. The characteristic of the Nile below Khartúm, for a considerable part of its course, and for a large portion of the year, is that of a very sluggish stream with gigantic reeds springing out of the stagnant water on each side. In descending the stream from Gondokoro, on passing the Bahr el Ghazal, it is a custom, Captain Grant tells us, for all boats to fire a gun as a salute, possibly a traditionary honour paid to the great source of Egypt's fertility. The river, which flows from Gondokoro at its junction with the Bahr el Ghazal, is only eighty or a hundred yards across, while the Bahr el Ghazal is half a mile in width, and after the junction of the two streams Captain Grant admits that there is an evident increase in breadth and width, that the water thenceforward becomes purer, losing much of its turbid appearance, and that the current is considerably increased.* The river which flows past Gondokoro, and which Captain Speke, in his map, traces from the Victoria Nyanza, is, Dr. Beke informs us, known there not as the Bahr el Abyad, or White Nile, but as the Bahr el Djebel, or mountain river. Should it be eventually found that the Tanganyika is connected with the Albert Nyanza, and the latter by its westerly or any other effluent with the Bahr el Ghazal, it will necessarily follow that the Tanganyika, or rather the river Marunga, which enters that lake at its southern extremity, will form the true head water of the Nile, and the course of the mighty river will then be proved to extend through forty degrees of latitude, and the great lakes Tanganyika and Albert Nyanza, will be but the expansion of a majestic river the course of which from its fountain head to its embouchure, will exceed four thousand miles. We have, in a former number of the Quarterly Review,' expressed our doubts whether the result of Captain Speke's travels could be accepted by geographers as a final solution of the great problem which has perplexed the scientific and the curious of all ages, and the important discovery by Mr. Baker of the *See p. 380 of Captain Grant's 'Walk across Africa,'-a remarkable record of courageous endurance and a most amusing picture of African manners and character. great great Albert Nyanza confirms us in that opinion; for the notion of Captain Speke that the little Luta Nzigè (Albert Victoria) was only a backwater of the Nile,' which the river must 'fill' before it could continue its course, has been proved to be completely erroneous. The Albert Nyanza is a lake of vast although unknown dimensions, but certainly inferior neither to the Victoria Nyanza nor the Tanganyika, receiving the drainage of extensive mountain ranges on the west, and of the Utumbi, Uganda, and Unyoro countries to the east. There is even considerable reason to doubt whether the river struck by Captain Speke at Madi is even the same which he left at the Karuma Falls, for no part of its subsequent course, although indicated upon a map for two hundred geographical miles, was ever seen by him; and Dr. Peney, one of the Austrian missionaries, who resided for nine years at Gondokoro, concluded from the results of long observation that the river which flows past that place contributes little or nothing to the flood of the Nile. The sum of Captain Speke's discoveries, therefore, now appears to consist in the fact that he discovered in his first exploratory journey the great lake Victoria Nyanza, and in his second a river issuing from it, which, after a not very lengthened course, has been ascertained to fall, in common, however, with several other rivers probably as large if not larger than itself, into another enormous lake, now denominated the Albert Nyanza; but of the effluent of this lake positively nothing is at present known, however great may be the probability that a connexion between the Nile of Egypt and the lake may be hereafter incontrovertibly proved. We trust that in the above remarks we shall not be suspected of wishing to detract from the real merits of the gallant explorer, whose untimely death is so generally and justly deplored. Whatever may be the ultimate value assigned to the facts ascertained by him, there can be no difference of opinion either as to the intrepidity of his character or on the magnitude of the exploit of the march across the continent of Africa, which he and his companion Captain Grant accomplished in the face of so many dangers and at the cost of many sufferings and privations. The complete solution of the great geographical problem may not be given to one explorer, nor perhaps will it be accomplished in one generation, but we certainly appear to be approaching nearer and nearer to its determination. If the lake Tanganyika should prove to be connected with the Albert Nyanza, and the Albert Nyanza by its westerly or other effluent with the great river of Egypt, to Dr. Livingstone may yet be awarded the honour of being the real discoverer of the source of the Nile, the the probable region of which he pointed out long before any of the expeditions from the eastern coast of Africa had been undertaken; and he may soon, by a careful survey of the Tanganyika and possibly also of the Albert Nyanza, be on the verge of a discovery which will far surpass in interest any that has hitherto been made within the basin of the Nile. ART. II.-1. The Barons' War, including the Battles of Lewes and Evesham. By William Henry Blaauw, Esq., M.A. Svo. London and Lewes, 1844. 2. The Chronicle of William de Rishanger, of the Barons' Wars. The Miracles of Simon de Montfort. Edited for the Camden Society by James O. Halliwell, Esq., F.R.S. 4to. 1840. 3. Monumenta Franciscana. Edited under the direction of the Master of the Rolls by J. S. Brewer, M.A. 8vo. 1858. 4. Roberti Grosseteste Episcopi quondam Lincolniensis Epistola. Edited under the direction of the Master of the Rolls by Henry R. Luard, M.A. 8vo. 1861. TH HE list of works which stands at the head of this article betrays a deficiency in English literature. Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, the founder of the English House of Commons, has had no biographer. The vicissitudes of his fame have, by a rare chance, almost equalled those of an eventful life. Honoured by those who knew him as a statesman and a hero, by those who survived him as a saint and martyr, he gradually faded from recollection, until, with the revival of classical letters, he passed into the oblivion which covered all things mediæval. The first serious attempt to rescue from forgetfulness the stirring events with which his name is interwoven was made by Thomas Carte, Englishman, as he proudly writes himself on the title-page of his History of England." Carte, who was really a considerable historian, formed every writer who followed him for more than half a century; and the verdict of the uncompromising Nonjuror, condemning Montfort as a base and ungrateful rebel, became the received judgment of history, and was accepted without question by men who, if left to themselves, would have come to a very different conclusion. Sir James Mackintosh was the first to perceive that as Montfort rebelled he was probably a good man: but never having studied the facts, he was fain to content himself with the expression of a general sympathy. Since his time a generation has arisen in which no road to fame has been found so easy as to write the panegyric of some man of mark a the whom whom the common consent of mankind had branded with perpetual infamy. We have found something to say for Nero, for King John, for Richard III., for Bishop Bonner, for Robespierre; Cromwell has become a saint, Henry VIII. a wise and good man, singularly unfortunate in domestic life; yet there has been no life of Montfort. Perhaps he has never been made sufficiently infamous: for certainly a man revered in his own day, and literally worshipped after his death, however adverse the judgment of later historians may have been, cannot be said to stand on the same pinnacle of infamy with Nero or King John. Perhaps, too, an explanation may be found in the peculiar circumstances of his times. If printing had been invented in the days of Henry III., the richest materials for his history would have been found in a series of such memoirs as illustrate the court life of the ancien régime in France. A weak, goodnatured, false, and fickle king, who would trust no one but a Pope, and be permanently governed by no one but a legate or a woman, was the prey of continual intrigues, which we often see in their results, but of which the secret history has for the most part perished utterly, and could scarcely have been revealed but through the medium of that lighter historical literature-so charming to read, so painful to reflect upon-which grows selfsown in more modern days where cultivated feebleness is crowned. Whatever be the cause, the fact remains; we have no life of Montfort. The nearest approach to it is contained in a book the unequal merit of which we gratefully acknowledge, Mr. Blaauw's War of the Barons.' Simon de Montfort was born in the first years of the thirteenth century, the fourth and youngest son of an illustrious stock. His father was the stern captain, adventurer, bigot, statesman, and sovereign by turns, on whom the Albigensian crusade has conferred so doubtful an immortality. His mother was a Montmorency; his father's mother Petronilla, was the sister and coheiress of Robert Beaumont, last Earl of Leicester of his line. In right of his English blood the elder Simon had inherited half the lands and borne the honours of an Earl of Leicester. A quarrel or a rebellion-the terms were synonymous-deprived him of both, and though in the last years of King John he was restored to his lands, it does not appear that he ever again bore rank as an English earl. The difficulties which his eldest son Amauri experienced in making good his claim to the succession are significant of a change which was passing over the face of Europe. The King of England would no longer accept a divided allegiance. It was open to Amauri to do homage for the |