Builders of United Italy. By Rupert Sargent Holland. (G. Bell
and Sons. 7s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Holland has selected eight " builders," and given studies of their life and work. Those are Alfieri, Manzoni, Gioberti, Martin, Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel, certainly an illustrious company, equally divided between men of action and men of thought, if we decide to inoludo Mazzini among the former. (This, indeed, is not a little
doubtful, for Mazzini was great in thought and a decided failure in action.) We have no hostile criticism to offer on these essays. They are the work of a thOughtful man who has carefully studied Ilia subject. We cannot accept all the conclusions and estimates of character, but there is little to which we should object. Perhaps the " Victor Emmanuel " is too highly coloured. Ho did a groat work for Italy, but he was in some respects by no means an influence for good. " Where there is no vision, the people perish," said the wise man of old. And this was his great defect. He was a practical materialist—oddly enough, Mr. Holland says he was "devoted to the Church "—and it is materialism that threatens to be the ruin of Italy.
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