REVIEW.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4259, 19 January 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

REVIEW.

V History of Our Own Times', from I*Bo In I.ln- Diamond Jubilee,” by J nstin McCarthy. Loudon ; Chatto ami Wiudus. Wellington : Whitt’tuiibn and Tombs. Cheaper edition, price Gs.

The ulility and popularity of slr Ir t iii .McCarthy’s “J listory of Our Own ’Timc.s” have been naturally enhanced by ;i ho [nililicajicn of an additional volume in which the record of Her Majesty's reign, which the author had previously ■.wit ten as far as 1830, has now oecn brought up to the Diamond Jubilee. ‘Tho same admirable qualities which gained ;,o many I'a.vourablo criticisms for the original work, are to bo found yet more ■agreeably exemplified in Hie volume before us. There is tho same pleasant alliance of brightness and vigour iu rhe stylo, tho same, careful generalisations, and yet more careful detail, tho .-,a.nio absence of personal and party bias. -M '• McCarthy, it has been said, writes i ior tho multitude. Whether there bo [ .an implied sneer iu this or net, we canaiot say, but it would be well indeed hau writers of much more pretentious his■i orica 1 works than that under consideration exhibited more of the admirable •characteristics which have cenfributeu ■so largely to Mr McCarthy's successThat, a volume of over 400 closely yet ■clearly printed pages should ho devoted to the events of less than eight years may suggest the possibility of a verbosily which docs not. ho wover, exist in Mr McCarthy's direct yet fascinating chronicles. The truth is that in many respects tho period with which tho hist'arian has dealt was so thickly studded aii.h important events as to rank Amongst tho most momentous periods ■of her Majesty’s reign. That period witnessed, amongst other events, the ■.return to office of Mr Gladstone for a , long tenure of power and his famous yet nufilo attempt to solve the Irish problem. Within that period took place The deaths of two such utterly dissimilar yet almost, each in his own way, equally powerful leaders, as Beacousfield and Parnell ; it included some of the most costly, and, directly and indirectly considered, most important of Britain’s many “little- wars”; it witnessed tho first shadows of the present struggle in SouMi '.Africa—but tho list is too long to be ■continued. Mr McCarthy, in his new volume, as in tho volumes of the original work, follows closely tho course of political history, not only in Groat Britain, but on the Continent, and in other parts of the world. One first turns, however, and that very naturally, to his account of JVlr Gladstone’s two last administrations. and more particularly to tho story of tho Irish problem in its later developments. Himself an Irishman, an Irish patriot, an ardent Homo Ruler, Hu' reserve, prudence and unfailing wood taste -with which Mr McCarthy deals with the successive Home Rule Bills, the famous “Parncllism and Crime’’ publications, the evil deeds, and yet. more evil end of the forger and nerjui'or,’ Bigot t. with the Darnell-O’obea scandal, and the revolt in committee !i oom Id, which followed,. men'it, high praise. The record is a triumph of accuracy and fair play, lo both great political parties, and to the frish Nationalists and their loader. Almost equally interesting are the chapfers which deal respectively with the Bradlaugh episode, the Egyptian war, and tho retirement of Bright from the Gladstone Ministry, with the Soudan ■and Bonin campaigns, and with the Venezuela dispute. Facts, dates and figures are manipulated in such a way os to make the record tho easiest and most delightful reading. In his treatment of tho Jameson Raid, tho South African Committee’s inquire, and the earlier troubles with ‘'Oom Paul,” there is perhaps here and there Just the slightest tendency to personal bias, but tnis perhaps is more apparent than eral, and it is only fair to remember that the chapters dealing with tho South Africa question were written before the outbreak of the present war. As in his m-eccding volumes. Air McCarthy pays laudable attention to social developments and changes, and one of the most ■ voluble features of an every way admirable work is tho series of short “charac- ■ tor sketches” in which the historian limns in brief tho public careers and . p-rsonal traits of tho many eminent mmi, famous in politics, science, art and • . literal uro. who passed a wav during th° , uciml under review. Nothing, for instance, to take throe political sketches, could be better than the brief biographies of Bcacnnsfield. Parnell and Randolph Churchill. Other notable “charaefer skctchos”to take'a few names, as it w'-e. at r.mdom. are those of Tennyson. Browning, Huxloy,AuthouvTrollooe, Tvmhdl, George Eliot. Cardinal Man’"o<r. and the Rev, Charles Spurgeon. ■'.Vo could write at much greater length in myirie of what is a finely executed, in! r nsel.v interesting, and unonostionabtv must useful contribution to the history ~f (he en'itury. hut already the limits i' l- available space have been passed, and o can oulv. in conclusion, exorens the hone that the volume may find many voders in (his colony, not onlv amongst politicians and our public m«n generally. . but amongst the over increasing ' ranks of Now Zealanders who take pleasure in good and instructive literature.