7 JANUARY 1893, Page 30

Clyde and Strathnairn. By Major-General Sir Owen Tudor Burne. (Clarendon

Press.)—It may be doubted whether either Lord Clyde or Lord Strathnairn can properly be called " Rulers of India." It is true that in time of war the soldier mostly rules ; during the Indian Mutiny, however, the Civil Government never lost control. Indeed, in more than one instance, Lord Canning overruled the decision of the General in the field. The volume before us, indeed, professes to do nothing more than give an account of the military operations which led to the re-establish. meat of the British rule. With the " rule " of India it has but a remote connection. But taken for what it professes to be, it is a distinctly valuable contribution to the history of the time. Sir Owen Tudor Burne is not an indiscriminate admirer of Lord Clyde. He hints that he was too apt to limit his movements by the "rules of war," rules which are not always applicable to such a campaign as that of the Mutiny, in which a ruling race, greatly outnumbered by its enemies, must, above all things, maintain its prestige, and in which retreat, however well justified, generally ends in disaster. Another criticism of another kind is the General's strange disinclination to praise any troops that were not Highlanders. Sir Hugh Rose's operations are probably less known than those of his brother commander, public attention having boon specially attracted by the achievements of the Law- rences, of Havelock, and of Outram, not to speak of such men as Neil and Hodson. But they well deserve the careful and apprecia- tive record which they here receive from Sir 0. T. Burne's pen. The addition of this volume to the series is practically justified by its value,