B. L Barnato : a Memoir. By Harry Raymond. (Isbister
and Co.)—A. Life of the financial celebrity popularly known as " Barney Barnato" was an inevitable contribution to the history of Great Britain in the nineteenth century. We suppose there is some real parallel to be drawn between Sir Francis Drake, whose watchword (" get your blow in first," or words to that effect) the late millionaire unconsciously appropriated, but the romance of the thing appears to us somehow to be monopolised by the Elizabethan fortune-hunter. Mr. Harry Raymond's simple and well meant biography of B. I. Barnato supplies a dismally in- structive page (chapter, we should rather say) to modern Colonial and Imperial history ; and the caricatures from the Oapetown Lantern carry one back at once to the dingiest politics of the eighteenth century. Undoubtedly there is something "Napoleonic" (we prefer that to any more judicial term) in the way in which Mr. Barnato " came, saw (several long days before other people), and conquered," first diamonds, and then gold ; and if he was not the best-abused man of his time, his own " apology" for his life, delivered to the Kimberley electors, quite recalls that of Socrates. But there is something thoroughly depressing about the mere crude struggle for precious metals (here so sympathetically recorded in racy, not to say sporting, language), in the fights of rival " Kings of Diamonds," the squabbles of financial cliques, and the fierce repression of that dread local malady known as "I. D. B." (" Illicit Diamond Buying ") ; but a something for which we suppose all persona who appreciate expensive jewellery must share the responsibility. From the dreary, restless grind of the speculating financier's life we turn, as he did, with comparative delight to his more humane (if less distinguished) performances on the stage and the hustings. There is no reason to doubt that the late Mr. Barnato did a great deal of difficult and useful work (which will, perhaps, like that of Drake, be better appreciated later on), that he was, as Mr. Raymond assures us, so "absolutely devoid of malice" that he even forgave his enemies after they had been sufficiently " grilled." It would appear also that, if correctly reported, he was an effective and powerful speaker.
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