variety
of valuable and curious details drawn from the Stuart Papers sent to the
Prince Regent on the demise of the Cardinal York; and it would be well
for the reputation of Marlborough, as well as many other eminent men of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, if some of them could be
buried in oblivion. But by far the best life of Marlborough, in a
military point of view, is that recently published by Mr Gleig, in his
"Military Commanders of Great Britain,"--a sketch characterized by all
the scientific knowledge, practical acquaintance with war, and brilliant
power of description, by which the other writings of that gifted author
are distinguished. If he would make as good use of the vast collection
of papers which, under the able auspices of Sir George Murray, have now
issued from the press, as he has of the more scanty materials at his
disposal when he wrote his account of Marlborough, he would write _the_
history of that hero, and supersede the wish even for any other.

The fortunate accident is generally known by which the great collection
of papers now in course of publication in London has been brought to
light. That this collection should at length have become known is less
surprising than that it should so long have remained forgotten, and have
eluded the searches of so many persons interested in the subject. It
embraces, as Sir George Murray's lucid preface mentions, a complete
series of the correspondence of the great duke from 1702 to 1712, the
ten years of his most important public services. In addition to the
despatches of the duke himself, the letters, almost equally numerous, of
his private secretary, M. Cardonnell, and a journal written by his
grace's chaplain, Dr Hare, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, are
contained in the eighteen manuscript volumes which were discovered in
the record-room of Hensington, near Woodstock, in October 1842, and are
now given to the public. They are of essential service, especially in
rendering intelligible the details of the correspondence, which would
otherwise in great part be uninteresting, and scarce understood, at
least by the ordinary reader. Some of the most valuable parts of the
work, particularly a full detail of the battle of Blenheim, are drawn
from Dr Hare's journal. In addition to this, the bulletins of most of
the events, issued by government at the time, are to be found in notes
at the proper places; and in the text are occasionally contained short,
bu