The Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria. By G. Barnett Smith.
(ffoutledge.)—A young lady once informed the present writer that she was reading Macaulay's History, and found it dull. That is the class of reader who will profit by The Prime Ministers of Queen Victoria. The style is good, and the way the subject is treated makes it easy for any reader of the newspapers to under- stand it. But there is nothing now in the book. What history there is in it can be found elsewhere. The views stated are generally cor- rect, occasionally crude, but in both cases have often been stated before. There is something of gossip in it, but that is no newer than the history, and is no less conventional. Nor do we think, although Mr. Barnett Smith emphatically tells us so, that in the case of Lord Beaconsfield, for instance, he has antici- pated the final judgment of history. We cannot be accused of having under-rated Lord Beaconsfield's faults ; but we do not think, as Mr. Barnett Smith does, that he was always in the wrong, or that it is a fair summary of his life to say that he "was selfish all through, and traded on the passions and prejudices of the English people." We have beard this sort of thing at a public meeting, just as we have hoard an ardent Liberal say that he could endorse everything that Mr. Gladstone had ever done and said. Mr. Barnett Smith would apparently do the same. He has the robust courage of the local politician, and this crudity of judgment is a very fair sample of the other characteristics of his book.
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