21 AUGUST 1897, Page 25

The Political Life of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.

Illustrated from Punch,Vol. II. (Bradbury. Agnew, and Co.)—This volume con- tains the history of the years 1876-86. It begins with the proro- gation of Parliament in 1876, and carries on the history up to the defeat of the Home-rule Bill (1) and the Dissolution that followed. The writer may be described as Gladstonianis partibus haud iniquus, but he never goes beyond the bounds of moderate criticism of opponents,—is, in short, in harmony with the temper of the illustrations, which are the raison d'être of his book.