MEMOIRS.
From Workshop to War Cabinet. By the Rt. Hon. George N. Barnes. (Jenkins. 7s. 6d. net.) There are no scandals or displays of temper in this book. Mr. Barnes is by nature discreet and charitable. Parliament subdued him to its own mild manners, and at the same time allowed him to me his capacity for good, sober work in the most obviously helpful ways. In consequence he has no grievances and no enmities ; he preserves his customary moderation even when he discusses the extremists of the Labour Party. Though it is pleasing to read an account of public affairs in which everyone, however misguided, is taken to be a good fellow at heart, we find more interest in Mr. Barnes's memories of his early days, when he was as yet a mechanic and himself, as he confesses, a little misguided in his enthusiasms. The narrative of his youth and poverty is vigorously and simply written. We can follow, in the strange atmosphere of the dockyard and the workshop, the life of a conscientious skilled workman—now able, by eager and con- tinuous labour, to live in comparative affluence ; now unem- ployed, without food or money, compelled to tramp, day after day, for miles in search of a job. The first chapters of this book distinguish it sharply from the usual memoirs of public men ; they give it literary value and poignancy.
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