2 JUNE 1906, Page 23

The Annual Register, 1905. (Longmans and Co. 18s.)—There is nothing

new to be said about this " Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad." The thing is done as well as it can be done. We may give as an instance the very lucid account of a matter about which most people's ideas are exceedingly confused, —the war in German South-West Africa. It occupies less than two pages, but it means much, especially when one remembers what the German Press said about our affairs in South Africa. English history stops before the General Election. The supple- mentary chapters on Trade and Commerce, Literature, Art, Music, &o., add greatly to the value of the book.