GEORGE ill. AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION:
The Beginnings By F. A: Murnby. (Constable. 21s. net.) We have praised Mr. Mumby's earlier books in which he tells history by reprinting original letters strung upon a fine thread of his own narrative, and we recommend his latest to readers on both sides of the Atlantic, deprecating any sneers at his "scissors and paste." He deals with the years 1760 to 1775, from the accession of George III. to the disaster at Lexington. The letters are taken -from those of the makers of the history, the King, his Ministers, -Franklin, Washington and others, .and of a few spectators, " Junius " and Horace Walpole. Apart from their occasionally splendid qualities as literature they convince the reader that our nation had no more desire to curtail the liberties of the Colonists than to see the chains of arbitrary government gradually riveted upon their own. RI fortune and innocent misunderstanding attended on the obstinacy and the stupidity which amounted to a crime, and if possible surpassed crime, and these letters reveal the inevitable tragedy as it advanced. The book is illustrated with sixteen portraits.
(Continued on page 888.)
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