A Footnote to History. By Robert Louis Stevenson. (Cassell and
Co.)—We suppose that Mr. Stevenson felt the compulsion of duty on him when he wrote this history of " eight years of trouble in Samoa." We do not say that it is not useful ; but we must say that it is tedious. That Mr. Stevenson should be tedious is indeed a marvel ; but there are subjects that even he cannot enliven, and in the petty politics of Samoa we have one of them. Yet there are redeeming features. The story has a moral ; and Mr. Stevenson points it well. Every now and then we get a touch which reminds us of the author of "Kidnapped" and" The Master of Ballantrae ;" and the chapter in which the story of the escape of the ' Calliope ' is told with characteristic vigour ought to count for much when the value of the whole is reckoned up.
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