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Palmerston was an Englishman, partly educated in Scotland (where he was a pupil of the famous Dugald Stewart), who derived his title and much of his income from his Irish estates. He had fewer connections with Wales, although it was a Welshman, Lt. David Davies, who had escaped from a private 'madhouse' in south Wales and tried to assassinate him in 1818. His Welsh investments were happier. He began to invest in Welsh com- panies, of which the Welsh Slate, Copper and Lead Mining Company was the most important, in 1825. He took his duties as a director seriously and visited its quarries at Tan-y-Bwlch, near Portmadoc, on his journeys to and from Ireland. He drew up elaborate development plans and arranged to export slates to Ireland. Most of Palmerston's investments were disastrous, but Welsh slate eventually prospered and helped to keep him solvent in his later years. Palmerston was a man of his time (which was not Victorian)-- chronically hard up, pleasure-seeking, arrogant, amusing, a magnificent poseur, who played a great confidence trick on his countrymen, because he told them what they most wanted to hear-that Britain was the top nation and all foreigners were inferior. Professor Bourne has not written a debunking biography of Palmerston, whom in many ways he admires, but such a detailed expose can only reveal that Palmerston's feet were sometimes of clay-as well as cloven. Swansea M. E. CHAMBERLAIN CRIME, PROTEST, COMMUNITY AND POLICE IN NINETEENTH CENTURY BRITAIN. By David Jones. Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1982. Pp. xi, 247. £ 14.95. This book consists of a collection of Dr. Jones's essays, several of which have been previously published, in part or in full, in journals. Its objective is to provide 'greater understanding of the historical factors which define, stimulate and control criminal behaviour in various communities' (p. 32). Although the title might lead one to expect a survey of closely inter-related problems on a national stage, the volume consists of individual studies of particular topics over particular periods and, on the whole, in specific regions. Each may be read as a self-contained study. There is a broadly equal division between rural and urban content. With the important exception of the chapter on Merthyr Tydfil, there is little concentration upon Welsh history, though several pieces, notably an impressive study of vagrancy originally published in the WELSH HISTORY REVIEW, draws upon Welsh data and experiences. Chapter One, 'Setting the Scene', holds the volume together. It comprises a valuable discussion of both nineteenth-century opinion and the state of historical scholarship under such sub-heads as 'Crime and Protest', 'Crime, Authority and Administration', 'Crime and Capitalism' and so forth. Here it is that the author presents his view of crime as 'rational behaviour, closely related to the character of the ruling class and the defence and priorities of the capitalist system' (p. 31). If all this appears somewhat abstract and politicized it is not a true indication of what is to follow, for the other essays are admirably free of jargon, concentrate