14 JANUARY 1882, Page 24

William Ewart Glads'one, Prime Minister of England; a Political and

Literary Biography. By G. A. Emerson. (Ward, Lock, and Co.) —We cannot profess to have much liking for these biographies of living statesmen. But if the thing has to be done, it is satisfactory to have it reasonably well done. The " literary " portion of the biography is by far the less full and complete; and yet this is the part which, without any trespassing on forbidden ground, might have been most amply treated. To us, at least, the rechauffes of Parlia- mentary debates and long discourses, quoa audisse semel satis est, is a little tiresome; but Mr. Emerson doubtless knows the readers for whom he is writing, and he must be allowed to have given them what they like in good measure and well prepared.