11 NOVEMBER 1911, Page 26

History of our Time. By G. P. Gooch, M.A. (Williams

and Norgate. ls. net.)—Mr. Gooch gives a very fair account of the events of the last quarter of a century, though there is no mis- taking his Radical bias. To deal with all his statements would be to write again our political articles. Sometimes, too, we are not quite clear as to what is meant—by this, for instance : "The demand of Catholic Ireland for autonomy remains unaffected by good no less than by evil fortune." On the whole, perhaps, readers of the Spectator will feel more at ease when they get out* side British borders. Mr. Gooch has not escaped the great diffi- culty with which the writers of such books are confronted—the rapid change of situation. He gives a paragraph to the smooth- ing of the relations between Canada and the States, and appears to rank with a number of faits accomplis the Reciprocity pro- posal.