said that he does a service to students of international politics, whether his conclusions be entirely just or not, for it has been the fashion since the war to ignore the ugly facts of the European situation, where these facts conflict with the Allied ideal of “self-determination," and it is time that more attention should be given to the sufficiently obvious "sore places" that have been left by the creation of new States and new boundaries.

Mr. Lothrop Stoddard intends this book to be no more than an introduction to the subject; but it is an introduction that should provoke thought and discussion.

LORD MINTO A MEMOIR.
Nelson. 21S. net.

By John Buchan.

Illustrated.

The life of the late Lord Minto has provided material for Mr. John Buchan with which he was particularly well fitted to deal, and he has produced a picture of this great gentleman and wise administrator which is completely satisfying. Not only do we read with interest and profit of his public life-the unbending honesty, tempered by courtesy, with which he was wont to get his way both in Canada and India, in his dealings with independent Canadian ministers, or with that often "difficult" scholar-statesman, John Morley-but Mr. Buchan knows how to relieve the official side of the biography with telling glimpses of the home-life at Minto, in Canada and India, with anecdotes of Minto's early days when he was better known as "Mr. Rolly," the gentleman-rider, with accounts of his children's escapades, and with reminiscences of the horses and dogs whom Lord Minto loved. It is a book to be read by all who appreciate a well-told life of a great public servant, to whom honours came unsought but well deserved.

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1812 AND THE RETREAT FROM

MOSCOW. With Maps. By Hilaire Belloc. Nelson.

6s. net.

By writing this spirited account of a great historic drama, Mr. Belloc has added to the already long list of his public services. He shows again all his flair for the "personality" of a country-side in his description of the Russian plains over which Napoleon conducted his most desperate adventure. He supplies clearly-drawn maps of the campaign, and well-informed detail of the movements of troops, so that the book is a valuable addition to Napoleonic literature, and loses nothing of its importance from the fact that the material it contains originally appeared in 1912 in the form of centenary articles in the Pall Mall Gazette. It is in reproducing the drama of the retreat that Mr. Belloc is at his best in crisp, telling phrases-" the army was on the ebb for Europe and repose. These goals it did not achieve. It died upon the way."

TUDOR STUDIES.

Presented by the Board of Studies in History in the University of London to Albert Frederick Pollard ; being the Work of Twelve of His Colleagues and Pupils. Edited by R. W. Seton-Watson. Longmans, Green & Co.

15s. net. This collection of essays on the Tudor Period was made for presentation to Professor A. F. Pollard when, in 1923, he resigned his position as Chairman of the Board of Studies in History in London University, and a peculiarly fitting gift it was for one who had done so much for the interpretation of Tudor life to present-day students. There is, necessarily, little cohesion between them; but, individually, the essays are in the highest class, and those like Professor Newton's on "Tudor Reforms in the Royal Household" add some important details to the history of the royal prerogative.

A KNIGHT'S LIFE IN THE DAYS OF CHIVALRY. By Walter Clifford Meller. T. Werner Laurie, Ltd. 30s. net.

This is an extremely comprehensive and detailed work of great value to students of the Middle Ages. Mr. Meller has drawn largely for his material on contemporary romances and poems, such as Froissart's Chronicles, Malory's "Morte d'Arthur " and " The Romaunt of the Rose," and he has been successful in incorporating this material into a complete account of the life of an average knight from the moment of birth in a noble family onwards.

By Henry Broxap.

Cambridge

THE LATER NON-JURORS. University Press. 21S. net. Mr. Broxap is concerned in this book with the later period of the Non-Juring movement, which began towards the end of Queen Anne's reign. The greatest source of information drawn upon by the author is what is called the Brett MSS., the papers and correspondence of Dr. Thomas Brett, which were first made available to the public in 1916; and he has also drawn upon the various MSS. in the possession of the Scottish bishops. The author warns his readers that "the book is not to be regarded as complete in itself and without reference to the works of the eminent authors whose names will always be associated with the story of the Non-Jurors"; but it does in fact, form an extremely valuable history of a hitherto-neglected period.

ESSAYS ON JEWISH LIFE AND THOUGHT (The Letters of Benammi : Second Series). Longmans, Green & Co. 10s. 6d.

net.

These essays contain reasoned statements of the Jewish attitude to religion, which means, says the author, that they embody the Jewish attitude to the whole of life, for to the good Jew religion fills every part of life. The author touches with fairness and moderation on the persecutions of the Jews and on the present "Anti-Semite" agitation, and includes a chapter that is illuminating to the Gentile on the Jewish

view of the Messiah. Particularly valuable is the chapter of warning to the Jews that they should avoid becoming absorbed by their surroundings in the age of greater tolerance that has now dawned, for the author believes that much of the spiritual strength of the Jews of the past was gained through suffering under persecution.

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH NOVEL: The Age of Romance, from the Beginnings to the Renaissance. By Ernest A. Baker, D.Litt. Witherby. 16s. net.

The English novel, as we understand it to-day, goes no further back in history than Fielding, and it might, at first glance, be thought that there was little of value to the study of the novel form of fiction to be found in beginning one's researches with the fiction of Greece and Rome, and continuing through Anglo-Saxon fiction to the Arthurian legends, and the romances of the Middle Ages. Dr. Ernest Baker has, however, proved his case for this full investigation of the origins from which sprang at last the full-blown novel. For, although none of the early works of fiction were novels, each contained something that was later to be included as a necessary part of the novel, whether of plot, of character-drawing, or of the presentation of some one aspect of the life of the time. No early work of fiction had the "unity which it is supposed that a novel must conform (although many to-day do not), and in none was there that interpretation of life through character, which is certainly the true purpose of the novel. The great romances to which the novel owes the form of its story were, of course, utterly distinct from novels because they treated not of life and real people, but of qualities or aspirations materialised for the purposes of the romance. Dr. Baker traces the growth of the different kinds of fiction with copious illustrations, and his readers will look forward with interest to the two further volumes, which will complete his work.

to

THE BOOK OF DECORATIVE FURNITURE. By Edwin Foley. Two Volumes; 100 Drawings in Colour, and 1,000 Text Illustrations by the Author. Nelson. 42s. net. These impressive volumes provide a competent survey of the decorative furniture of the chief European countries during their best periods. The author has had access to many private collections, and has been permitted to reproduce in his illustrations some of the finest pieces; whilst his notes are never dogmatic, but are usually reasonable conclusions from the data in his possession. He avoids, with great care, such a statement as that inscribed on an old chair attributed to William Penn :

I know not where, I know not when,

But in this chair sat William Penn;

and he is usually content to give the most likely history he can discover of any piece, without expressing a definite opinion. The book will

appeal mainly to wealthy collectors, for most of the pieces discussed are priceless and so elaborate as to provide little guidance for the small householder who is trying to get together a few good pieces with a small expenditure.

MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

With an Introduction

by Albert Bigelow Paine. Two Volumes. Harper and

Brothers. 42s. net. There has been a disposition recently among certain young critics to dismiss Mark Twain's humour as merely facetious, and older people who used to revel in "The Innocents Abroad" have been obliged to re-read it in secret for fear of the sharp tongues of their youthful mentors. Without taking sides, one might commend, as a corrective. to these critics a study of "Huckleberry Finn" and of this newlypublished autobiography.

In his autobiography, Mark Twain rambles at will over his reminiscences, jumping from an early memory of Missouri days to something that has stirred him in yesterday's newspaper. But, whatever his subject, his readers may be sure of an arresting statement of his point of view, sometimes full of scathing anger against injustice, more often illuminated by a broad and humorous understanding of humanity. Some of the most delightful pages in the book contain Mark Twain's memories of his beloved daughter, Susie, who died so young, and extracts from her own "autobiography," written as a girl, in which she deals her father many a shrewd blow, as when she writes of him: "He has the mind of an author exactly, some of the simplest things he can't understand."

There is very little bare fact in these volumes, for Mark Twain does not concern himself with detail, except in his full account of his heroic efforts to meet his creditors after his bankruptcy, and in his references to his beau ideal, General Grant, who is depicted as a very lovable man. In the greater part of the book the autobiographer draws on his memory, which, as he quaintly told Mr. Paine, so developed that it became easier for him as he grew older to remember things that had never happened! In more prosaic words, he has let imagination have as free a rein as memory. The result is a collection of descriptions -humorous, satirical or pathetic-in which the reader sees not so much the subject as the personality of the author developing from his sympathies or full-blooded hatreds.

TIDEMARKS: Some Records of a Journey to the Beaches of the Moluccas and the Forest of Malaya in 1923. By H. M. Tomlinson. Cassell. 125. 6d. net.

As might have been expected, Mr. Tomlinson writes no ordinary travel book, and goes far below the surface of things in his impressions of a journey to the beaches and forests with which is associated the name of Joseph Conrad. He gives his readers, also, an intimate revelation of the disillusioned frame of mind in which he started upon

this journey. He looked upon England after the war and found that it was bad. Then came the offer of this journey, and he set out on it in the hope that somewhere he would find a land free from some of the "problems" and difficulties of home. He explored many remote and beautiful places, and found, particularly at sea, a relief from the sense of being "at the fag-end of everything" which had oppressed him in London. In one of many passages of great beauty he describes his sensation of immortality on the forecastle of his ship. Finally he returned home, still disillusioned, but compensated to some extent by his experiences. One feels in his book the movement and sound of the sea, the everlasting silence of primeval forests, and an artist's sure appreciation of essentials in men and their surroundings. Nor is there to be found in his writing any of that "brilliant cleverness" of which the publisher's announcement unaptly speaks. Mr. Tomlinson's art is happily free from the superficial sparkle which this phrase suggests. ADVENTURES IN PERU. By C. H. Prodgers.

The Bodley Head. 12s. 6d. net.

Illustrated.

Mr. Prodgers' earlier work, "Adventures in Bolivia" showed that here was a man of originality who had acquired a profound knowledge of the people and countries about which he wrote. His " Adventures in Peru "are equally fascinating, and perhaps even more to be treasured, as the last work of his pen. For many years the late Mr. Prodgers, a cadet of an old English family, made his living in South America by training racehorses. During short periods of leave he undertook mining investigations in remote places, partly for profit, but also from sheer love of travelling into the wilds under conditions of difficulty and danger. He was a true "merchant-adventurer" of the old English tradition, always with a keen eye for a useful addition to his income, but always, too, with an eye for adventure. He shows a sympathetic appreciation of the Indians, amongst whom he spent so much of his time; he admires them for their many good qualities, while recognising their laziness and other defects. His journeys were not the carefully planned expeditions of the wealthy tourist, but "business trips (as he would probably have called them) in the course of which he took everything that came to him with philosophic calm, and gained the confidence of his Indian guides, so that they told him such things as their secret remedies for snake-bite, their ancient recipes for poison, and the many uses they found for medicinal plants. He was the friend of everyone, from the President of Peru to the poorest Indian porter. Every page of his book reveals an attractive personality.

FAR AWAY UP THE NILE. By J. G. Millais.

With Illustrations from Drawings by the Author by H. R. Millais and from Photographs. Longmans, Green & Co. 30s. net. The Sudan has been tragically brought to public notice within the last few months, and Mr. Millais' observations of conditions in that great territory are to-day particularly apposite. This book is a record