24 JUNE 1922, Page 23

History of Holland. By George Edmundson. (Cambridge University Press. 22s.

6d. net.)—This learned and die- passionate history of Holland from the Burgundian domination down to our own times was much needed. Mr. Edmundson is one of the few English historians who have devoted special attention to Dutch affairs in the seventeenth century ; his narrative, though crowded with facts and dates, is, on the whole, clear and readable. The later chapters, from the Peace of Utrecht onwards, are naturally less interesting than the account of Holland in her prime, but will be new to most English readers, for whom Dutch history after the wars

of Marlborough is a sealed book. It is useful, for example, to have the Belgian revolution of 1830 described from a Dutch standpoint ; there are two sides to every question. The evolution of Dutch politics since 1842 is well, though briefly, described. At the end of the book may be found a good bibliography and two very poor maps.