bravos as was the opposition of their own colleagues. And it was by the latter that they were ultimately defeated. These new letters, as well as older evidence, make it quite clear that, in general, “ Pam " and Lord John agreed, but they hardly show (and this is a pity) in what particulars they differed. What is certain is that they agreed in their one really great achievement of this era, in the one cause towards which their impulsiveness, their unconventionality, and their sturdy good sense formed a valuable contribution-that is in the union of Italy. The new letters in chapter xxv tell us an old story. Everyone knows that Lord John scented "sanction to the divine right of kings" in a congress; how he acted on the motto of "Italy for the Italians "; how he published a famous despatch justifying rebellion to constituted authority in Naples and in the Duchies, and how millions of Italians blessed his name. But Palmerston was equally earnest, though perhaps not so flamboyant. And, whatever else we may say of the two, it is their policy at this period which earned the undying gratitude of Italy, and caused Garibaldi to exclaim on his deathbed: "The English have been the friends of freedom all the world over." There are not many English statesmen who have earned so noble an epitaph. But the fact is, the policy towards Italy, if right, was so just because it was exceptional. There was in the British attitude a defiance of international law and of established usage, and a plenitude of interference, justified perhaps in Italy, where the only constitutional monarch intervened to save his native land from oppressive aliens and from domestic tyrants more oppressive still. But was it justifiable for Lord John to pursue the same policy elsewhere? As if Austria had not received enough lecturing for her misdeeds in Italy, her Foreign Minister was compelled to listen to a despatch from Lord John, which informed him that the attempt "to centralise and to Germanise the Hungarian administration" had "succeeded ill," and which suggested that efficient measures might make Hungary and Venetia "the strength, and not the weakness, of the Austrian monarchy.' Canning, the great apostle of non-intervention and the avowed model of Lord John, would have been horrified at such meddling *(I.) v. Lord J. Russell to Earl Cowley, 29th October 1860, in Russell, Speeches and Despatches, London, 1870. II. 352-5. with other countries. Canning was very suspicious of guarantees, but we find Lord John talking recklessly about " guaranteeing all sorts of countries, and in 1863 a guarantee of "constitutional government was given to Greece which constituted a direct interference in her internal affairs. And most of this impulsive policy seems to have been due to Lord John. That worthy, indeed, confesses frankly (April 1, 1855; II, 203): "I believe I am very unfit to be a diplomatist." The shrewd sense and restraining influence of "Pam" over Lord John is perhaps best shown in dealing with the American Civil War, on which both Dr. Gooch and Professor E. D. Adams have recently thrown new light. "Pam," indeed, in one unofficial remonstrance to the American minister, behaved with the irresponsibility of a schoolboy, though in this case the schoolboy was nearly eighty. This incident seems to have sobered him, for Lord John was certainly more reckless in contemplating intervention, while "Pam," on the whole, judged the situation wisely, moderating Lord John's zeal and insisting that military events in America, and not diplomatic events outside it, must decide the question of Southern independence. The last problem—namely, why "Pam" and Lord John distrusted Napoleon III during the 'sixties-is not solved in these letters. It was a very serious fact that they did so. For the alienation of Napoleon led to England's humiliation by Russia over Poland (about which there is nothing in these pages), and to the crowning defeat by Bismarck over Schleswig-Holstein. Lord John and "Pam," who would have fought had the Queen and Cabinet permitted them, were humbled in the dust. Palmerston was near his end, but Lord John lived to be premier again, to write his memoirs and to moralise over the past. He admits a number of errors, and is generous to opponents, but of the largest error of all he seems to have had no conception. He seems not to have recognised that the age of Palmerstonian diplomacy really ended just after he himself became Foreign Minister. For it was in 1861 that Bismarck strode into the field. HAROLD TEMPERLEY RECENTLY PUBLISHED BOOKS THE PUBLIC LIFE. By J. A. SPENDER. Two vols. with Few people are more competent than Mr. J. A. Spender to discuss "The Public Life" in the sense of the life of statesmanship and of parliament. His editorial comments on politics in the days of the old evening Westminster Gazette, "the sea-green incorruptible" of Fleet Street, were read and appreciated by men of all parties for their balanced argument and nice scholarship, as well as for the breadth of view and knowledge of affairs which they expressed. The same qualities are apparent in these volumes. In the first he gives his readers an instructive account of the development of modern politics, and follows this up with penetrating studies of" Types of Public Men "from Bright and Cobden, down to the public figures of our own day. Particularly just is his estimate of Mr. Lloyd George, with whom he has not always agreed, but in whom he recognises an outstanding type of public man. Perhaps the second volume will attract more general interest, for here Mr. Spender has included several chapters on "The Press and the Public Life," in which one of the greatest journalists of our time is concerned with an analysis of the relations between government and press, and a survey of the changes in the functions and control of the newspaper world during the last thirty years. Excellently described is the difficulty of the present-day journalist, with one eye on the advertiser and the other on the foibles or business interests of his proprietor, still endeavouring to express opinion. Underlying all Mr. Spender's shrewd criticism of political life is a refreshing faith in progress. He is not afraid to face signs of decay where he finds them; "but our life becomes meaningless and our efforts vain unless we can, as far as possible, live the life of immortals and think of ourselves as actively co-operating in a scheme which is somehow good." This aim of "living the life of the immortals "is as old as Aristotle, and Mr. Spender sees the idea of progress "in innumerable forms" existing "in the human heart from the beginning of recorded things." By this belief he is able to conquer the pessimism that overcomes the superficial observer of to-day. ESSAYS BY DIVERS HANDS: Being the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom. Vol. V. Edited by JOHN DRINKWATER. Oxford University Press. 75. net. To the collection of varied and authoritative essays on aspects of literature, which are always to be found in these volumes, wherein are printed papers read before the Royal Society of Literature, there is added in this volume an essay of an unusually interesting kind, in which Mr. John Buchan, under the title of " The Old and New in Literature," gives the points of view of two friends of his, his "young friend, Theophilus, a very good type of intellectual youth," and another friend "Septimus," who is a gentleman somewhere between fifty and sixty years of age, who, having been left a competence by his father, has devoted his life to the formation of a fine library, and to county business in his native Gloucestershire." The introduction of two "friends" to supply two points of view is an old device in literature, and the importance of this essay lies in the fact that by this means Mr. Buchan does arrive at some valuable conclusions on the essential attitudes of youth and age to literature, and through literature to life. The conclusions are helped by the fact that his "friends" are both reasonable people, swayed only to a normal extent by their respective ages and surroundings. Other essays, more strictly relating to the craft of letters but all containing matter of interest, are contributed by Sir Henry Newbolt, Mr. John Bailey, Dr. Rafael Altamira, and Mr. H. Granville Barker. There is also reprinted an address delivered by Lord Grey of Fallodon on "The Pleasure of Reading," which gives expression to his joy in quietude. ORIGINAL LETTERS FROM INDIA (1779-1815). By Mrs. ELIZA FAY. With Introductory and Terminal Notes by E. M. FORSTER. The Hogarth Press. 15s. net. The author of "A Passage to India" opens his introductory notes to this volume with the statement that "Eliza Fay is a work of art,” and indeed these letters do reveal so unusual a character that one would say Mrs. Fay was an invention of a lively imagination, if one met her in a novel. But she lived, and wrote these extraordinary letters, describing her adventurous first voyage to India, her imprisonment in Calicut by Hyder Ali, and her life in Calcutta in the days of Warren Hastings. Every sentence of her letters is full of her personality-ill-educated, frank, strong-willed, keenly observant, humorous (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not)—and the result is that these letters are vivid and entertaining, as well as of considerable historical value. An instance on shipboard, quoted by Mr. Forster, gives this personal touch, never long absent from her letters: "Numbers of man-of-war birds and eggs were taken, which proved to be good eating; they likewise caught the finest turtle I ever saw, weighing near 400 lbs., but by an act of unpardonable negligence in people so situated, it was suffered to walk overboard in the night." "And she is so partial to nourishing food," remarks the editor. This, the first edition of these letters to be published in England, is fortunate in having Mr. Forster as its sponsor. WITH LAWRENCE IN ARABIA. By LOWELL THOMAS. With Frontispiece and 64 other Illustrations. Hutchinson. 21s. net. young Oxford don went out to Egypt during the war, vanished into Arabia, reappeared as leader of an Arabian army which was to spoil the Turco-German plans in Syria and Arabia, accomplished his purpose, A and disappeared once more. That was all that most of us knew about "The Uncrowned King of Arabia," Colonel T. E. Lawrence, until this book was published. Mr. Lowell Thomas fills in some of the details, and makes sure that Colonel Lawrence's features will be familiar to any of us who may meet him by printing a large number of photographs of "the Shereef" taken from various angles. But Colonel Lawrence, we are told, is a modest man, and what he said when he saw this book of breathless superlatives of praise we can only imagine. Mr. Lowell Thomas is an American of the enthusiastic kind, and an expert photographer whose instinct is to get his subject into the centre of the picture and keep him there, pleasantly smiling. The result must have been appalling to a sensitive Englishman, and it is unfortunate for the reputation of a man who deserved so well of his country that his first biographer should be so lacking in critical judgment of his achievement. We must await a more balanced account from another hand. TRAVEL IN ENGLAND IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By JOAN PARKES. With Illustrations. Oxford University Press. 21s. net. In these days, when we are carried in a comfortable express train from London to Penzance between breakfast and tea, it is surprising to consider with what discomfort and even danger our ancestors of the seventeenth century had to contend in the course of a twenty-mile journey which might take a whole day to accomplish. If they travelled by one of the very few high roads, most of which were inferior to a country lane of to-day, they were not unlikely to meet highwaymen. If, on the other hand, they chose bye-ways, they would be likely to meet with such tribulation as befell the unfortunate cousin of the Rev. Henry Newcome, whose description of a journey from Wymington to Cambridge is quoted by Miss Parker. On the first day" my cousin Hannah fell in a dry ditch and pulled her horse upon her, and cut her brow very sadly." On the next day " we were forced to return to our inn again, for my poor cousin Hannah was fallen into a pond." The experience of " poor cousin Hannah "seems to have been quite a usual one for the period, and travellers by coach were in little better case than horsemen and women; for, if a wheel were not wrenched off in a dry rut whilst the weather was fine, all four wheels would probably sink to the axles in mud after rain. Miss Parkes has consulted numerous authorities in her endeavour to give a true picture, and her account is illuminated by many human incidents such as those quoted above. RECORDS OF CLAN CAMPBELL IN THE MILITARY SERVICE OF THE HONOURABLE EAST INDIA Two hundred and fifty-one officers of the Clan Campbell served under |