31 MAY 1902, Page 24

The Hinderers. By Edna Lyall. (Longmans and Co. 28. 6d.)

—We cannot help thinking that "Edna Lyall" has written this book, not for the sake of the story, for such it can hardly be called, but that she,might have _the opportunity of assailing those who hold, with the .vast majority of Britons here and beyond the seas, that we have done well to maintain our Empire in South Africii. She talks, for instance, of the " unjustifiable system of martial law," as if war could be carried on without it, especially in a country where so many sympathised with the enemy. We might say more, but in view of good work in the past, prefer to be silent.