THE LOVE . STORY OF LADY PALMERSTON By F. E. Bally
As the sister of Lord Melbourne and the wife, by her second marriage, of Lord Palmerston, the nominal subject of Mr. Baily's rambling book (Hutchin- son, as.) was a prominent Whig hostess in the generation following the Reform Bill. Her correspondence, printed in 1922 by Lady Airlie, shows that she was a clever woman, and her portraits attest her personal charms. Unluckily Mr. Baily is so intent on the careers of Lady Palmerston's two Prime Ministers and on the scandalous chronicles of the time that his poor heroine herself is eclipsed. His numerous quotations from Harriette Wilson's dubious "memoirs," which he describes as " classical," are strangely inappropriate in this con- nexic n. Mr. Baily's historical survey is not improved by the modern analogies that he suggests, and his remark that the Reform Bill " accomplished scarcely anything " is absurd. The book is illustrated with a score of portraits.
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