NARRATIVES OF SOME PASSAGES IN THE GREAT WAR WITH FRANCE
(1799-1814)). By Sir Henry Bunbury. (Peter Davies. 10s. 6d.)—Sir John Fortescue, in an intro- duction to this reprint of a neglected book, calls it " on the whole the best military history in our language." With due respect, we regard that as an exaggeration. But Bunbury
was a shrewd observer and a good writer, and his account of the futile campaign in North Holland, of the expulsion of the French from Egypt in 1.801, and of the battle of Maida in 1806 is extremely lucid .and interesting. He is at his best in the caustic portrait of Sir John Stuart, who somehow won the astonishing action at Maida over a superior French force and then could think of nothing but the despatch that he was to write on his victory. With such a commander the victory of course proved futile.
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