Those who have read in the daily Press and elsewhere
and enjoyed Sir John Fortescue's various scattered articles will be glad. to .have them under one cover in the shape of Historical and-Military Essays (Macmillan, 10s. 6d.). The first part of ' the book consists of a discussion of various aspects of George III.'s political papers, and contains matter of high . controversy (" it was not the king, but the Whigs who made . the American war ") which can only be hinted at within the limits of a paragraph, hitt, as always with Sir John Fortescue, , the case is presented with clarity and. vivid force. The last paper of all contains a striking interview of an ancestor of the author's with Napoleon in Elba, wherein that mighty genius -produces with unexpected honesty and candour his views on the events and people of the time. As for the author's several exquisitely finished military vignettes—notably those on a Staff Officer in the days of Marlborough and on the Sanctity of the Colours—it need only be said, as Sir John himself has said of Napier, " He has assimilated his material and made it his own. He has shaped it to his mind. . . . And this is great art."
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