Impressions of a Wanderer. By M. C. Mallik. (T. Fisher
Unwin. 5s. net.)—Mr. Ilallik has travelled mush, and has much useful information to give us. He hopes that the English language may take the place which French once occupied. The two together seem to command most of the civilised world. Mr. Vallik has. found two places only where neither was available, one in Sweden, the other Nijni Novgorod. Then he has a quite exhaustive chapter on "Coinage." It is noteworthy that he prefers our unit of a shilling to the decimal system. He seems to admire England everywhere except in India, his own country. As to the British rule there he seems to use wholly unjustifiable language,—" fair and even generous treatment is meted out to every other portion of the British Empire," but in India only tyranny and neglect of the interests of the governed prevail. "India has the mis-' fortune of having no real ruler." Perhaps he would like to go back to the days when there were "real rulers." If he could, he might regret the rule of "officials whose natural inclination is to observe rontine and make as little change as possible,"— a curious description, by the way, of such men as Lord William Bentinck, Lord Canning, Lord Lawrence, and Lord Mayo. One thing may be taken as certain, that the Bengali will never be allowed to occupy the place of the Briton. If the four hundred millions are ever "properly consolidated "—no easy matter where there are so many races to be assimilated—he will not be at the top. Mr. Mallik says much of colour ; surely caste is a much snore insurmountable barrier.
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