France in 1802. Edited by J. A. C. Sykes. With
Introduction by Richard Davey. (W. Heinemann. 6s.)—One Henry Redhead Yorke went to Paris in the days of the Revolution and witnessed some striking events, the trial of the King among them. He found it expedient to leave France, was tried for seditious lan- guage in this country, and imprisoned. In 1802 he went to Paris again, but his old sympathy was by this time turned to hatred and contempt. The letters which he wrote to friends in England are now republished with certain changes and omissions. If these had been much more thorough no one would have complained. Much that is unprofitable remains and not a little that is highly objectionable. Some misprints might have been advantageously corrected, "Seve" for "Sevres," for instance, and " Cardinal Fess" for "Cardinal Fesch." On the other hand, there are certainly some curious details. Yorke is not a witness to be implicitly trusted. He has all the fanaticism of a pervert. A useful appendix has been given, with biographical notices of eminent or notorious personages who figured in France during the Revolutionary and Imperial times, and also of some of earlier date. Mr. Davey in his introduction seems to us greatly to underrate the importance of the French Revolution.
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