13 SEPTEMBER 1902, Page 21

SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.

[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for reriew in other forms.] On Military Education in England. By T. Miller Maguire, LL.D. (J. J. Kelliher and Co.)—It is scarcely necessary to say that this pamphlet is worth reading. It is a reprint of a lecture delivered in July last by Dr. Maguire at the Royal United Service Institution. The lecturer is peculiarly emphatic in his assault on the eu/tus of games. He points out that our great generals have, for the most part, not been players of games, but have been readers of books. Clive, Wolfe, Coote, Wellington, Sir Charles Napier, the Lawrences, Havelock, Lord Clyde, Outran, Edwardes, Lord Wolseley, Lord Roberts, played no games. That is a list which it will not be easy for the game devotee to explain away. The fighting man is the better for games, especially those that inure him to pain, but the leader must read. Besides the lecture we have the report of an instructive discussion that followed it. Among the speakers was Colonel Lonsdale Hale, who is very scornful of the recent Report on military education. He is quite right to speak his mind, but he might be a little more courteous. It is scarcely good manners to speak of one of the most distinguished and successful Head-Masters in England as "a gentleman of the name of —." Those who read this pamphlet should compare it with another by the same author printed in 1896 and republished in 1900, "Our Art of War Made in Germany." Dr. Maguire admires German education, but not German strategy. French strategy is even leas admirable, to judge from the reports of the French manceuvresi which are appearing in the papers.