Sir Thomas Maitland. By W. Frewen Lord. (T. Fisher Unwin.)
—This volume is one of the series of " Builders of Greater Britain" appearing under the general editorship of H. F. Wilson, M.A. Mr. Lord is not tender of established reputations. Lord William Benthack, for instance, is described as "very handsome, very arrogant, and very dull." His rule in India was spent, we are told, in making experiments which "were (with one single exception) of disastrous effect. The exception was the abolition of Sati [vtaigo, Suttee]." Joseph Hume fares much worse. He had saved £40,000 in India during his seven years in the Indian Civil Service. "He was then both well and ill equipped for the part of financial reformer; well equipped in that be was himself inde- pendent, ill equipped in that his independence had been attained by very dexterously availing himself of alarming irregularities in the administration of the Empire." Nor does his hero escape. He pours contempt on his early career in Parliament, when he was a rabid Little Englander and obstinate obstructionist. For success in these characters you want sensational reporting. Maitland "was born a century too soon for complete Parlia- mentary success." But Mr. Lord has high praise for what Thomas Maitland did when he found his right vocation, which was to rule half - civilised or uncivilised men. St. Domingo, Ceylon, Malta, the Ionian Islands, were successively the scenes of his action, and he made himself felt every- where. It was in the last of these places that he died suddenly. Mr. Lord, whose speciality it is to bewail our lost Empire, is very severe on the surrender of the Ionian Islands. "The day came when the Islands were surrendered to Greece, and surrendered in such a fashion that we gave the impression of having been expelled. Our retirement marked the lowest point of England's influence in Europe and the world." Mr. Lord is a vigorous writer, but he leaves the impression of being somewhat given to sweeping judgments.
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