CURRENT LITERATURE.
SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.]
Reminiscences of a Professional Politician. By J. C. H. (New Century Press. 2s.)—" J. C. H." lets us into some interesting secrets. He begins his reminiscences with the Home-rule Bill of 1886. He was then a member of a Liberal Association. The Executive Committee numbered twenty-five ; of these twenty- one were against the Bill, but when the three hundred rank-and- file came to vote the voting was five to one for it. Many of his stories refer to the Irish question, on which he feels strongly; but it must not be supposed that he sees no faults on his own side. On the contrary, he distinctly asserts that in the morality of political action there is not much to choose. On the question of the Irish party and their funds he asserts most distinctly that the present Lord Selborne's charges were true, and that he had abundant evidence for them, evidence which it was thought better to suppress. All the cheques were not returned. One contributor told him so in so many words, and said the same of a neigh- bour. Here is a story about Mr. Rhodes and his £10,000. Some one wondered that a professed Imperialist should do what would help to break up the Empire. " We can never tell," said the Colossus, "when 80 votes in the House of Commons may be useful to us." There is a good story of how the Liberals of a certain city, who had monopolised the only hall, were sold. They had got a Cabinet Minister down to speak. But only thirteen people came to the meeting. A Unionist sympathiser brought a circus into the town and admitted the public free. So Lord Salisbury's saying was true. They "preferred a circus to politics." Here is a good story about Mr. R. E. Wemyss when be stood for West Fife against Mr. Augustine Birrell. It was an objection to Mr. Birrell that he was a stranger to the " Kingdom of Fife." However, he discovered the tombstone of a cousin of his grandmother, and related the discovery to his audiences. Mr. Wemyss had founded a claim on the fact that his father and his grandfather had sat for Fife before him. "Are you not engaged," said a heckler to him, " in trying to ride into Parliament on the backs of your father and grandfather ? " " Well," said he, " I would fifty times rather ride into Parliament on the backs of my father and grandfather than on the tombstone of my grand- mother's second cousin,"
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