Lord Amherst. By Anne Thackeray Ritchie and Richardson Evans. (Clarendon
Press.)—Lord Amherst was certainly not conspicuous among the "Rulers of India," as far as personal abilities were concerned. As an administrator of internal govern- ment he was timid. Of course it is difficult to say where reforms become possible; still, one cannot but think that if Lord William Bentinck had been preferred, instead of being postponed, to Lord Amherst—there was a question which of the two should succeed the Marquess of Hastings—certain social changes might have been made earlier. The foreign policy of Lord Amherst had of necessity to be spirited. Sent out to be a man of peace, he found himself compelled to undertake the Burmese War, and to crush Ryder All by the storming of Bhurtpoor. These things snake his government a period of more than usual interest. The narrative, which is a happy combination of the knowledge of the expert and of literary skill, does justice to its subject.
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