Cassell's History of the Boer War, 18994901. By Richard Dane.
(Cassell and Co. 7s. 6d.)—This mighty book, with its 1,560 pages—about as much, to make a rough guess, as what has been left of Livy—will not be found at all too long by British readers. It is a clear, spirited narrative, not always, it may be, possessed of the dignity of history—the time for the dignified historian has scarcely arrived —but not unworthy of its subject. Mr. Dane in his first chapter plunges in medias res, and describes the battle of Talana Hill; in the second he goes back to the causes, and very properly cuts his account of them very short. The action of the Boers threw that question into the background, though, of course, it remains to be discussed some day. We cannot follow Mr. Dane through his story, check his facts, or review his criticism. As far as we have been able to test his work, it seems to have been carefully
done, and the result is certainly attractive. There are vivid descriptions, plenty of illustrative anecdote, both sportive and serious. We may notice his excellent appreciation of our sailors, while we are disposed to agree with his idea that they ought not to have been sent to the front. But the temptation to employ so very efficient an instrument must be almost irre- sistible. There is an abundance of illustrations, always interest- ing, if not of the first artistic quality. What is the occult law that commands the illustration to be put in places which it does not illustrate? In a scientific text-book the representation of a crucible would not be put opposite the description of a sandbath.
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