Military Manners and Customs. By James Anson Farrar. (Chatto and
Windus.)—Mr. Farrer has collected here a vast number of curious and interesting facts. We do not dispute the general conclusion which he would draw from them, viz., that war is a very horrible thing. At the same time, we must own that we do not see in him a serenely judicial and critical temper. Many cruelties, for instanoe, are laid to the charge of Alexander ; these rest chiefly on the authority of Quintus Curtin& Cartias is as good as Anise, says Mr. Ferrer, a dictum which shows a certain inability to judge of historical evidence. Curtias is a romancer ; Arrian is an admirable historian. As to the Franco-Prussian War, again, Mr. Farrer accepts too readily, we think, the charges against the Germane. In fact, Mr. Ferrer accepts everything that goes towards proving his point,—that war is a bad business from beginning to end.
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