The picturesque career of Gustavus Adolphus, the Northern Hurricane has
evidently interested Sir George MacMunn and led him to write a pleasant book (Hodder and Stoughton, 18s.). But Sir George has no new light to throw on the "Protestant hero" and does not deal as fully as one might expect with the military problems of his whirlwind career in Poland and Germany. Gustavus's passion for leading a charge, which cost him many wounds and in the end his life, is strongly emphasized, but his great organizing talents which count for far more in the history of war than his personal gallantry receive less attention. Sweden gained little from his two years' campaign and his victories over Tilly and Wallenstein. But his methods of drill and tactics, his skilful use of light artillery and field-works, and his strict discipline brought in the modern period of warfare and were adopted by Leslie's Scottish army and by Cromwell's New Model in our Civil War. It is to be regretted that Sir George MacMunn's book lacks an index.
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