Some Books of the Week
THE French Foreign Office, following the example of Germany and England, has begun to publish its archives in so far as they illustrate the origins of the late War. The period from the Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871 is divided into three phases, ending in 1900, November, 1911, and August 3rd, 1914, and the publication of the papers in these phases is to proceed concurrently. The documents are arranged in order of date, not by subject as in the German and English series, but a most skilful précis in each volume will form a ready guide to the several topics. We have received the first volume of the third part, covering November, 1911- February, 1912, and the first volume of the first part dealing with the years 1871-75. Each of these instalments of the Documents Diplomatiques Francais (Paris: Alfred Costes; price not stated) is a model of its kind, editorially and typo- graphically. In the earlier volume the chief theme is, of course, the sensation caused in 1874-75 by Bismarck's implied threat to renew the war with France and his attempt to curb the free-spoken Belgian Press. The later volume begins with the anxieties occasioned by the Italian seizure of Tripoli and by the ominous war preparations in Germany. It is acutely and painfully interesting.
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