CHARACTER SKETCHES OF THE WAR.• Tan editor of the Daily
News seems to have inherited the mantle which fell from the shoulders of the late Mr. W. T.
Stead. The readable and incisive character-sketches which Mr. Gardiner has published under the title of The War Lords, like his previous collections, remind us strongly of the similar articles which used to form so interesting a feature of the Review of Reviews. Mr. Gardiner has, in earlier volumes of
the same type, approved himself a master in the art of building up a personality out of numerous anecdotes and hints which, taken singly, would scarcely seem worthy of more than passing note in a "London letter." In his latest volume he deals with the protagonists in the present war— with Sovereigns like the Kaiser, the Emperor Francis Joseph, and King Albert, with statesmen like President Wilson and M. Venezelos, with soldiers like General Botha, Sir John French, and General Joffre. His touch is light and his characterization shrewd; the result is journalism of so interesting a type that it well deserves the more permanent shape which is now given to it in this volume of the " Way- farers' Library." The underlying idea of the book is that, as most of us have discovered, we are going through experiences which will make a profound impression on the organization of society :— " When the shipwreck is over and we set about rebuilding civilization the world will find itself in possession of a most unsuspected stock of ideas. Great movements of thought are always independent of our conscious volition. They are driven, like the tides, by external stimulus, and the events through which we are passing are changing the orientation of thought. You cannot go into the House of Commons in these days without realising that we are passing through an internal revolution as well as a world crisis. We have got right down to the bedrock of things, and all the nice scheme of special privileges, vested interests, private prerogatives, is swept away. The individual has gone under. There is only one life, the life of the State, that concerns us.... The only political doctrine extant is the doctrine of the collective necessity. We are discovering that in the face of that necessity we have no individual rights or possessions that the State cannot resume almost without so much as a by your leave.'"
We aro not quite so sure as Mr. Gardiner seems to be that this condition of affairs will persist after the stress which gives rise to it has passed away. But whether or not we accept all his facts or subscribe to all his opinions, we can recommend Mr. Gardiner's book as a very entertaining stop- gap for the intervals of war news.
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