6 NOVEMBER 1897, Page 10

Half - Hours of Early Naval Adventure. (J. Nisbet and Co.)— It

would be interesting to know whence these " half-hours " are taken. Who is it that tells us, for instance, that "we see in the Phcenicians the phenomena of dominion without conquest, greatness without ambition, permanency with limited numbers, freedom without turbulence, commerce without legislation, and riches without attendant pauperism" ? It sounds like Gibbon. After four chapters given to ancient history, and relating among other things Pompey's conquest of the pirates, we proceed to Alfred the Great and the "Foundation of the British Navy," the Danish Kings, the Cinque Ports and their privileges, the battle of Sluys, Cabot, the great Elizabethan navigators, and finally the Spanish Armada.