12 JULY 1902, Page 24

A Primer of Greek Constitutional History. By A. H. Walker.

(B. H. Blackwell, Oxford. 3s. 6d. net.)—This is a valuable little book, carefully put together, and sober in its conjectures and con- clusions. The early Constitution of the Greek States and the political arrangements cl Sparta and Athens are naturally the chief subjects of the book. We should have liked to see one or two points in Athenian politics more fully explained. The 7pa4yll wapav■Ipaw, for instance, might have been advantageously dealt with. Was it a really effective safeguard to the Constitution ? For the most part, its appearances exhibit-it as an instrument of unconstitutional terrorism, and failing just at the occasions shen it might have been really useful.