SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
(Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.] The Edinburgh Review for April, a very readable number, contains a most instructive and sympathetic article by Sir John Collie on " The Disabled Soldier," dealing especially with the sufferers from "shell-shock, " who need careful treat- ment, but may, the author thinks, be cured in most cases if the right methods are adopted. The wonder is that so many men can endure the incessant rain of high explosives on the battlefield without breaking down. A French soldier contributes an excellent article on " Alsace-Lorraine and Democracy," explaining clearly why Alsace has become a symbol of liberty, and why France cannot accept the proposal to submit the future of Alsace to a poll of the present inhabitants. The editor, Mr. Harold Cox, has a candid • The Island Mystery. By George A. Birmingham, London : Methuen and Co. (0.. nets)
and vigorous article on " The Power of the Press," the dependence of the Ministry on a certain section of the Press, and the effects of this connexion on the Censorship and the Administration in general. Mr. Gosse writes well on " Mr. Hardy's Lyrical Poems " ; " if he had never published a page of prose, he would deserve to rank high among the writers of his country on the score of the eight volumes of his verse." Mr. J. E. C. Bodley reveals his intimate knowledge of France and her history in a second instalment of " The Romance of the Battle-Line in France," a reminder of the many charming places that the Germans have spitefully destroyed, as well as of others, like Ferrieres, which they hoped in vain to visit. The German Emperor, it seems, intended to make Ferrieres his head- quarters for the siege of Paris, as his grandfather did in 1870.
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