SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Netter in this COIIIIIIn ("mg not necessariiy preclude subsequent review.]
Poland Past and Present. By J. IL Harley. (Allen and Unwirs 4s. 6d. net.)—Mr. Harley's sketchy outline-of Polish history is resolutely uncritical. Even the absurdity of the " Liberum Veto," by which a single Polish noble could nullify the decisions of the Diet, is glorified as. chivalrous individualism. The aggressive policy of Poland towards the weak Russian State is glossed over. More interest attaches to the chapters on Polish life since the Partition, recounting the efforts of the Poles to educate their people and maintain the sentiment of their common nationality under three alien Empires.- Mr. Mickiewicz, a. son of the poet, contributes a preface in favour of Polish independence, which he conceives it to he Great Britain's duty to secure at the Peace Congress. The Poles—a nation of twenty millions—would be well advised to trust to their own vigour and tact, and, forgetting old grievances, to give their full confidence to the Russian people instead of coquetting with the enemy.
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