By Sir Charles Oman
One associates Sir Charles 'Oman with All Souls, the history of the , Peninsular .War -and the House of Commons. But his pleasant •book -of - retakiiicences, Things I Have Seen (Methuen, 8s. 6d.), shows that he has witnessed several insurrections—in Spain, Portugal and, oddly enough, in Switzerlandand that he can remember, as a child, to have had a glimpse of Napoleon III with the Empress Eugenie at the Tuileries. He describes very clearly the Portuguese revolt that cost the late King Carlos his throne, and the little' affair at Bellinzona in 1890 which the Swiss Government ended so promptly that it has been forgotten. Sir Charles was at the Press Bureau during the War and had, he says, to compile the official bulletin on the victory at the Marne. The day after Jutland, when the German claims to success were still uncontradicted owing to Admiral Jellicoe's delay in furnishing his report, was, for the author as for many other _ people, the most anxious in the whole War. Sir Charles happened to be in Venice in 1921, when Comniunists and Fascists were fighting their battles- in the streets, and he had great difficulty in leaving the place. It is not _nil,- natural that he should prefer the Italy of today to the Italy of 12 years ago.
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