Life of Sir William Robert Mends. By his Son, Bowen
Stilon Mends. (John Murray. 16s.) —The story of Admiral Mends, who died in 1897 at the age of eighty-three, was in the Navy from 1826 to 1883, and in t he Crimean War was Flag-Captain to Sir Edmund Lyons, was certainly worth telling, because he was an excellent man and a loyal officer. But his son has told that story at too great length. Why should this or any book be crowded with trivial details like : "As the breeze is strong and the weather doubtful there is every possibility of a speedy closing of the mail-bag, therefore I shall put my letter up at once ; the shaking of the screw prevents my writing almost" ? Yet Mends had many interesting experiences and adventures, more particularly in the early years of his life and off the coast of South America. His observations, too, upon men and things in the Crimean War— one is pleased in these days to note that he says a good word for the Press—are shrewd, and he was more than a fair judge of character. Furthermore, as the volume is written quite con- scientiously, though not concisely, it will be found very valuable by the English and the European historian of the future.
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