SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as have not been reserved for review in other forms.] The Story of British Diplomacy. By T. H. S. Escott. (T. Fisher Unwin. 16s.)—It is quite impossible to review in detail this. book, covering, as it does, a large part of the field of British
bietery for =we than four centuries. may all be read with
intermit, though not, we may say, with implicit confidence. There are, too, unaccountable omissions, In even the briefest sketch of "British Diplomacy" something more enlightening than what we find on p. 30 ought to have been given about the Treaty of Dover. There are still Jacobites in existence, and a formal history of this kind ought not to pass lightly ever this infamous betrayal of English liberties by one of the heroes of their faith. As we approach our own times the narrative distinctly increases in interest. Mr. Escott has had oppor- tunities of intercourse with those "who know," and has availed himself of them to good purpose. He had a conversation with Lord Granville about the relations between him and his predecessor at the Foreign Office (Lord Palmerston). He was allowed to see Lord Malmesbury's Memorandum on
Napoleon ideas about European politics. The reader will find especially interesting the narrative of the negotiations which ended in the Crimean War. The action of British states- men has been, we cannot but think, unjustly censured. There was no hurrying into war. They made effort after effort to avoid it.
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