26 APRIL 1919, Page 21

series of "Helps for Students of History." The volume on

the Congresses which preceded and followed Waterloo is an admir- able summary of a subject that has come to assume greater importance than ever. The third section, especially, dealing with Aix-la-Chapelle, Troppau, Laibach, and Verona, is full of warnings for our generation ; Spain formed a problem, like that of Russia to-day, on which the Powers failed to agree, and the Congresses degenerated into an alliance of despots with whom Great Britain could work no longer. In the other volume Sir A. W. Ward reviews the efforts of peace-makers through the past century, and concludes with a discussion of the various proposals for a League of Nations. He emphasizes the importance, indeed the necessity, of a guarantee that the powerful members of the League will use all their power to make its decrees re- spected. But he adds that no League will succeed until all nations recognize that it is their duty to keep the peace.