Germany, 1815 - 1890. By Sir A. W. Ward. Vol. II., 1852-1871.
(Cambridge University Press. 12s. _net.)—The Master of Peter. house has continued his learned and very dispassionate history of modern Germany from the temporary triumph of Austrian diplo- macy at Olmiltz to the completion of Bismarck's success at Frank- fort. His chapter on the Schleswig-Holstein imbroglio is the most authoritative account in English of this difficult question ; it. is based in part on the papers of the author's father, who was accredited to the Hanse Towns from 1860 to 1870. The chapter on the negoti- ations before the Franco-Prussian War is impartial to a fault ; it is hard to believe in the good faith of the Prussian Court in 1870, but the author at any rate does not think that the Hohenzollern candidature for the Spanish throne was deliberately started in order to provoke France into a war for which she was unprepared. Professor Spenser Wilkinson contributes masterly chapters on the Danish, Austrian, and French campaigns.
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