Sketches of Rulers of India. By G. D. Oswalt. 2
vols. (The .Clarendon Press. 2s. net per vol.)-111 books of a solid, trust- -Worthy kind about India are especially welcome at this time.
Oswell, who is the Principal of Rajknmar College at Raipur, -has given us some Indian history in the biographical form. In -the first volume he has included sketches of the great actors in the Mutiny era : Dalhousie, Canning, the Lawrences, Clyde, -Strathnairn, Mayo, Nicholson, Havelock. Perhaps we should -choose out of these as a typical Englishman, not, of course, as the greatest, Lord Mayo. He was one of the rank-and-file, so to speak, of politicians ; but how he rose to the situation I That, we may flatter ourselves, is a national characteristic. In Vol. II. we have "The Company's Governors," beginning with Clive and 'Hastings, and ending with Colvin. The other names are Munro, Malcolm, Elphinstorte, Metcalfe, and Thomason. Some of these -names mean but little to the average reader. This is all the more reason why books of this kind are welcome.
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