24 FEBRUARY 1900, Page 22

The Mind of the Nation : a Study of Polstical

Thought in the Nineteenth Century. By Marcus F. P. Dorman. (Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. 12s.)—Mr. Dorman believes that he can get at the mind of the nation by analysing its constitution, sketching the character and careers of the more famous modern statesmen, and summarising the history of parties. It is, perhaps, a too- confident belief, and the result is merely a set of interesting statistics, and a:sketch of the constitution drawn from the works of Anson and Dicey. The author's comments and reflections are curiously naive and inept, but he has a certain amount of common-sense, and his statistics are undeniably interesting. The book has an air of being written very much from the out- side, like the work of an intelligent foreigner. The worst part is the series of comments on politicians, and the most valuable part the chaits which the author has drawn up to show the

growth and cross-divisions of parties during the century. It is the work of an industrious amateur, and we may find much to interest us in his facts, if we fail often to recognise the wisdom of his deductions.