Memoir of the Life of Major - General Colby. By Lieutenant - Colonel J.
E. Portlock. (Seeleys.)—To an unprofessional reader this book looks. tobe something of a tangle. General Colby was connected with the- Ordnance Survey of Great Britain and Ireland for forty-five years, and was during a considerable portion of that time in chief command of it. Lieutenant-Colonel Portloek wishes to combine a sketch of the history of the undertaking with the biography of his hero. We are inclined to think, with all deference to one who certainly known much more about the matter than we do, that it would have been better if he had kept therm apart. A summary of what has been done from the beginning, fol- lowed by a life of General Colby, with references to show what part he had in it, would certainly have been easier to understand. We must plead guilty to having felt considerable exasperation at the way in which the things are mixed up together. But though we cannot praise the method of the book, we may say that it contains a great amount of information, carefully collected by one who is evidently acquainted with his subject, and that it has a value which, though professional readers will recognize it more readily than unprofessional, yet certainly exists.
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