26 SEPTEMBER 1908, Page 24

A Descriptive Bibliography of the Writings of George Jacob Holyoake,

with a Brief Sketch of his Life. By Chas. Wm. F. Goss. (Crowther and Goodman. 5s. net.)-When G. J. Holy- oake died in his eighty-ninth year he had attained a certain mitis sapientia which greatly became his old age. But in his youth he had been a fighter, a militant atheist of a very pro- nounced type, and with a certain tendency to war against society. His biographer was bound to state facts, but he was not bound to defend them. Holyoake refused to pay tithes for a shop in the parish of St. Bride's, and Mr. Goss relates with approval how he got the better of the vicar by paying him in kind,-i.e., by a parcel of secularist pamphlets. We doubt whether Holyoake in his old age looked back on the affair with satisfaction.