Pillars of the Empire; Sketches of Living Indian and Colonial
Statesmen, Celebrities, and Officials. Edited, with an introduction, by T. H. S. Escott. (Chapman and Hall.)—Of these sketches, not quite a half are the work of the editor; while the rest are contributed by Major Arthur Griffiths, who furnishes thirteen, and Messrs. John Sherer, John Macdonald, St. Leger Herbert, and Cashel Hoey. They were originally published in the Home News, and are worthy of the more permanent form which they have now obtained. The object of the writers has been to give information, rather than to criticise. Various schools of politics and statesmanship are repre- sented; but it has been judged best not to compare them, to the disadvantage of one or the other. The result is a volume of con- siderable value, all the greater, because the work which many of these "Pillars of the Empire" have been or are doing is one which the ordinary Englishman has very scanty means of appreciat- ing, though he may be under obligations to it which are not easily stated. Among Indian statesmen, we have sketches of Lord Lytton, Lord Northbrook, Sir R. Temple, Sir H. S. Maine, Sir Neville Chamberlain ; among soldiers, of Sir Garnet Wolseley, Lord Napier of Magdala, and Major. General Roberts ; and among English Ministers, of Lord Carnarvon, Lord Kimberley, &c.
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