Shorter Notices
Politics in Pitcairn. By W. K. Hancock. (Macmillan. 10s. 6d.)
THE ten essays in this collection all bear out Professor Hancock's own statement, in the preface, that he is "more in sympathy with the silly moralisers than with the cynical Realpolitikers." Whether he is dealing with the intrusion of the outside world on the com- munity founded on Pitcairn Island by mutineers from the 'Bounty,' or an almost unknown Italian patriot, Ferdinando Ranalli, he is throughout aware of the larger issues of universal liberty and justice behind political and national questions. At the same time, he does not overlook the place that virtii—the actual technique of power— plays in world events ; and in Machiavelli in Modern Dress he deals with the extent to which both political and ethical considerations may sway the historian. An analysis of the tendencies which have followed the advent to flower of Labour in Australia is illuminating in the comparisons that may, perhaps, be drawn from it ; whilst the lecture on economic history emphasises the fact that Professor Hancock carries no narrow specialisation to the Chichele Chair in that subject at Oxford. Altogether this is a volume pleasing in its diversity ; and the lightness of touch in no way conceals the insight and wide range of study that go with it.
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