6 NOVEMBER 1909, Page 11

Heroes of Modern India. By Edward Gilliat. (Seeley and Co.

5s.)—This is a very opportune volume, in view of what is going on both in this country and in India. No one would wish to speak unkindly of the genuine aspirations of Indian Nationalists. It is less easy to put up with the ignorance and irresponsibility of their advocates in England. It is therefore an especially useful work when a practised writer such as is Mr. Gilliat sets before us the truth, telling us something of what India has suffered at the hands of other masters, of the difficulties that complicate the situation, and of what has been done by English statesmen and soldiers, by famous men, and by a multitude of undistinguished workers to make life happier and better. Mr. Gilliat begins with "Robert Clive, the Founder of the British Empire," Warren Hastings (to whom we are glad to see justice done), Lord Wellesley, and his yet more famous brother, the victor of Assaye, John Malcolm, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and a long series of administrators and fighters, ending—and what end could be more distinguished ?—with Henry Havelock, James Chttram, and John Nicholson. Nor are activities of another kind, but even more beneficent, forgotten. A chapter is given to Henry Martyn, and another to Reginald Heber. These stories have been told before, but we are glad to have them told again. Mr. Gilliat, too, knows how to give them a new and attractive setting. They are embellished by a number of spirited illustrations.