21 DECEMBER 1901, Page 25

The War of the Polish Succeision. By the Crown Prince

of Siam. (Blackwell, Oxford. 2s. 6d.) —This is a lucid state- ment of the causes which brought about the war of 1733-35. One is struck in reading it how personal these causes were. , Nations nowadays fight for something substantial, not always material, but yet real, for the idea of nationality is just as real as com- mercial gain ; things were different then. What did it matter to England who was King of Poland ? One sees also how the national characteristics come out. Austria, e.g., is terribly beaten in the field, but gains on the whole.