William of Germany. By Archibald Forbes. (Cassell and Co.) —In
writing a succinct biography of the great German Emperor, Mr. Forbes has endeavoured to give an equal prominence to the soldier and the monarch, hardly an easy task, for though successful beyond other rulers in government, his leanings were so essen- tially military, the Empire he founded so autocratic and warlike as to its basis, that the personality of the military dictator over- shadows that of the pacific ruler. He won his way into popularity by great victories, and moulded Germany into a coherent mass by the same means. Mr. Forbes has shown that the vigour and character of William I was the inheritance of the Hohenzollerns, as was also the minor but useful virtue of thrift. The writer has drawn a powerful portrait of one of the greatest monarchs Europe has seen, who united in his person the virtues of an honest man, the qualities of a soldier, and the rarer and more valuable tact of a King. He was granted a long lease of life, and, as Mr. Forbes puts it " to few men in the long roll of history has the consciousness of so complete a triumph been permitted in the hour of death." Mr. Forbes's style is somewhat strained, but in describing the campaigns he reaches his usual excellence.
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