No British Prime Minister has been more generally misunder- stood
than Lord MelbOurne, except perhaps the late Lord . Balfour. Mr. Bertram Newman's entertaining volume on Lord Meltwitrne ..(Macurillan, 12s. 6d.) should dispel the idea that he was a mere cynic wile treated'polities as a sport and 'cared nothing for the people. As a matter of fact, he steadied -Grey's Reform Ministry of 1830-34 -when it was nearly ship- wrecked by dissension, and he carried on its work .fill 1841 , as no one else. could have done. He served the nation well by acting as the young Queen Victoria's guide, philosopher, and friend in the critical early years of her reign. :His private , life was far from happy. His marriage with the volatile Lady . -Caroline Ponsonby was a failure, made worse by her mad .passion for Byron. He was involved, though innocently, in the noted case of Norton v. Norton of 1836 which Dickens parodied in Ettirdell v: Pick-1fmk. As Mr. Newman shows, • -he took -a misehievous delight in shocking -dull folk by witty
indiscretions. The book is full of- them. ' • * * * *
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