Sir Robert Peel. By Justin McCarthy. (J. M. Dent and
Co. 2s. 6d. net.)—It is needless to say much of a book which has reached a fourth edition, but we may call our readers' attention to the appearance of this volume, not only because it is an excellent bit of work, but because there is so interesting an analogy between the political situation with which Peel had to do and that which now exists. The Irish difficulty is chronic, but, as an eminent foreign statesman said, never fatal, unless, indeed, we are foolish enough to make it so. But who would have thought twenty years ago thatit would be complicated with Protection ? The story is one well worth studying. The volume is one of the "Prime Ministers of England" Series, and it is interesting to observe the degrees of acceptance which the various biographies have met with. Lord Melbourne and Lord Derby have reached a second edition ; Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston a third ; Sir R. Peel, Lord John Russell, and Lord
Silisbury a fourth; 'Mr. Gladstone a fifth,—but Lord Beaconsfield %MS far beyond all with his ninth. Is this pro-eminence due to the man or to the biographer, James Anthony Fronde ?
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