THROUGH INDIA WITH THE PRINCE.
Through India with the Prince. By G. F. Abbott. (E. Arnold. 12s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Abbott went as a special correspondent to a Calcutta newspaper when the Prince of Wales made his tour of India, and here are his letters produced in book form before the Prince has had time to get home ! We cannot but admire the energy of the publisher, but here our praise must end. Mr. Abbott, having taken his snot d'ordre from a Calcutta news- paper, hurries round India, with which, we gather, he has little or no previous acquaintance,—the books that figure on his title- page are concerned with Greece, Greece Proper and Greece Irredenta. He had opportunities of seeing pageants, and we allow that he has a gift for describing them. But where is his call to deal with the " serious problems of British rule " ? The pretension is even more absurd than would be a claim by the Prince to govern India on the strength of what he has seen and heard. These hurried visits are quite as likely to confuse as to enlighten. A man who has long studied the questions of govern- ment, whose judgment is absolutely impartial, who is unfettered by instructions from an employer, may quite possibly learn some- thing by actual inspection of places and people. But he would be the first to insist on the narrow limits of the knowledge so gained. What should we think of the man who should spend a week in Oxford, see a cricket match, a boat race, and a Com- memoration, and then proceed to instruct the world on the "more serious problems" of University education ?
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