7 OCTOBER 1911, Page 13

Great Soldiers. By George Henry Hart. (Grant Richards, 3s. 6d.

net.)—We have no fault to find with Mr. Hart's choice, nor, in general, with his treatment of his subjects. Henry V.'s march from Harfieur to Calais should, we think, have more space given to it. The passage of the Somme was a critical event. If Henry had failed—and be succeeded only through the negligence of the enemy—everything would have been changed. Some of the earlier chapters are disfigured by misprints, as in "Rivius" for for Livius and "Lama" for Zama. The plural of Itasca should

not be " Bkircae." Is it true that, as Mr. Hart puts it in his preface, "all really great soldiers avoid bloodshed" as much as possible ? Julius Caesar was very careful of Roman life, but when he had to do with Gauls he was absolutely careless.