SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
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[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
Lectures on the History of the Nineteenth Century. Edited by F. A. Kirkpatrick, M.A. (Cambridge University Press. 4s. 6d. net.) —It is difficult to select for notice any one or more of the seventeen lectures included in this volume. Taken as a whole, they cover a very considerable portion of European history, and each particular subject has considerable claims on our attention. Mr. J. Holland Rose's " England's Commercial Struggle with Napoleon" has, perhaps, a special interest now, as, indeed, always. "Commercial supremacy" is a thing that we cannot do without. But it is, and must be, a highly vulnerable point. Time after time in history, as Mr. Rose reminds us, " the ruin of commerce in time of war has brought with it the decadence of the State." We have too, more, it may be, than any other nation of the world, the internal weakness of the Greek States, every one of which, Sparta only excepted, had a party within it ready to open its gates to the enemy. The Opposition in the early years of the nineteenth century did its best to help Napoleon, and the precedent has been closely followed in the early years of the twentieth. Another life-and-death question is treated by Professor J. K. Laughton in his "Britain's Naval Policy." We may quote the admirable conclusion of his paper:—" There is an old familiar story of a cat which had but one way to safety, and by taking that way was safe, whilst the fox, that knew of fifty ways, was caught by the hounds and broken up. It is for us to see that our one way to safety is secure : that our navy is superior in strength to any possible enemy. That is the whole essence of our naval policy : keep well the sea !" Among the articles on great personalities are those which treat of Bismarck, Mazzini, and Thiers with Gambetta under the title of " Two Statesmen of the Third Republic." There has been a tendency of late to depreciate Gambetta, but Professor Paul Mantoux does not favour it. The two articles on Russia by Dr. Paul Vino- gradoff are peculiarly interesting. This writer takes a gloomy view of the present prospects of his country. The reactionary rule of such people as M. Pobiedonostzeff can hardly last very long ; the fear is that it will be overthrown by some revolution, the violence of which will be almost equally injurious.
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