3 JANUARY 1891, Page 31

Prom Middie to Admiral of the Fleet. By Dr. Macaulay.

(Hutchin- son and Co.)—This is a true tale, nothing less than "the story of Commodore Anson retold to boys." Not having the "Voyage Round the World" before us, we do not find it easy to say when Dr. Macaulay is using his own words and when he is quoting.. Now and then the old-fashioned style of his book makes us think that we are reading Anson's own narrative. A book of this kind is always, we think, best constructed by keeping as far as possible the ipsissima verba of the original, omitting where it is necessary,. and joining together by a thread of the adapter's own words.. However this may be, we are very glad to have so admirable a story as that of Anson's career. Never was there a more able and more conscientious officer. Pow, too, have contended against greater difficulties. The Admiralty in those days was not by any means an effective institution. Indeed, the account of tho fitting out of the famous expedition that circumnavigated tho globe, is as strange a piece of reading as may easily be found. The story goes on with increasing interest, which culminates in truly dra- matic fashion in the capture of the great Manilla galloon with more- than half-a-million's worth of silver on board.