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lately been produced with great success at the Playhouse, Liverpool, we have a short play that is full of interest. The characters are simple Welsh village people of sturdy breed, the dialogue is the simple language they talk. The plot in skeleton too, is simplicity itself, the story of difficulties and of the opportune discovery of the lost legacy. Yet the action is brisk and kaleidoscopic and not a moment is wasted indeed the author seems to have denied himself all luxury of side-plays, and to have devoted all his dramatic power to the natural development of the simple action. Yet problems big and widespread are hinted at. Is a man who has struggled honourably and failed in business to be dismissed his office as treasurer of the church ? There is quiet satire too, against the hypocrisy and narrowness of the good man whom we all have met in our native villages. This play is not pretentious-it is a simple drama of Welsh domestic life, but as such it is a rare achievement, and worthy of the best traditions of Welsh drama. W.D.P. The Expansion of Europe," by Ramsay Muir. Constable & Company. 1917. 6s. net. Pp. 243. Professor Muir is one of the men of learning who are not afraid to utter to the world the lessons which they have gathered from their studies. He has never been reluctant to declare those principles in the conduct of public affairs which he believes to be warranted by the recorded experience of the past. And however one may differ from his views, it must be counted for him for virtue that he holds his science to be of more than esoteric interest, but profitable for doctrine, for reproof, and for correction. The scope of his present book is indicated by the title. It is the history of the contact of Europe with the non-European countries of the world, from the days when the first maritime adventurers of Spain and Portugal founded the overseas dominions of the Iberian peoples, to the last formal act of the expansion of Europe in the proclamation of a British Protectorate in Egypt. The story is extraordinarily well told. It lends itself to effective telling, unless indeed the narrator, oppressed by the amazing complexity of the pattern, ceases to find a real plot in the story, and descends to the mere compilation of dates and facts. Pro- fessor Muir knows and gives the dates and facts well enough but he is never in the least danger of losing his plot. For there is one single theme in all this book-the greatness and uniqueness of the achievement of Britain in founding an Empire of self-governing communities. The book might fairly carry as its sub-title In praise of England," and the one fault which might possibly be imputed to it, is that that by its pre- occupation with a very great theme, it lapses here and there from the severe objectivity of treatment which one expects in historical writing. Professor Muir's apologetic ardour carries him so far, e.g., as to let him find in the late South African War something of a high crusade in defence of freedom. It is true, of course, that Kruger was a bigoted old man with immoveable prejudices and ambitions which, if he had been allowed to act on them, would have destroyed the peace of South Africa. But the whole complaint about the war was that we were foolish enough to put the old man in the right, by giving countenance to the ambitious manoeuvres of the .Rand magnates and thereby alienating from our own just grievance, the sympathy and support of the growing liberal elements in the Boer republics themselves. Professor Muir seems to find a token of the purity of our motives in the fact that after the annexation, we left the gold mines in the hands of the original owners. Most people will feel that unless the magnates had had fair assurance of our benevolence in that matter, they would not have jockeyed us into war. Nevertheless the Boer War, black as it was, is by no means the worst proof of the soundness of Professor Muir's main contention. For what- ever ill we have done in the building of the Empire, has been more the outcome of passivity than of activity, and due more to want of know- ledge than to perversity of will. We have not as a nation consciously pursued ends of aggrandisement; though too often, we have allowed the uncontrolled rapacity of our countrymen to drag us into situations in which there was hardly any escape from inflicting on a weaker people either the wrong of war or the greater wrong of abandonment to the most corrupting elements of Western civilisation. But it remains true, and it is a fact which our desire to be honest with ourselves should not prevent us from recognising, that there has been in the world's history no Imperial achievement like that of Britain, none so sincerely attached to the twin principles of law and freedom. Pro- fessor Muir is right in believing that only by the unhasting but un- resting extension of these principles cart we secure not merely the con- tinuance of the British Commonwealth, but, what is more important, the continuance of civilisation. British Foreign Policy in Europe," by H. E. Egerton. Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 6s. net. 440 pages. Professor H. E. Egerton has recently issued a book on British Foreign Policy in Europe to the end of the Nineteenth Century." He describes it as a modest attempt to answer the practical question, how much of truth there is in the charge so often made by German publicists and historians that the past history of British Foreign Policy has been con- spicuous for its display of perfidy and unscrupulousness. His reply to the charge, after marshalling the evidence is that, whilst British states- men may often have been mistaken and wrong-headed, the policy of the country, on the whole, has been singularly honest and straightforward. The English," said Napoleon III. in 1853, are manly enemies and manly friends, and that is more than I can say for others." Certain dominating aims are seen to run through the history of British policy. One of these is the desire for commercial extension. Even those British monarchs, who are regarded as the worst, strove for this end. Professor Egerton points out how even Charles II., although a bribed tributary of France, actively promoted British commercial and colonial expansion, and how James II. worked for the navy and favoured the interests of British trade. Another important feature of British policy has been its keen interest in the Netherlands, or what is now Holland and Belgium. It has been its traditional policy not to permit the low countries to be controlled by a dominant military power. When Antwerp was in the hands of Napoleon it had been a loaded pistol held at the head of England." (p. 139). Oliver Cromwell, the most practical of statesmen though a religious dreamer, attached so much importance to Holland that he made an offer to confederate with its people. They were to have the same terms as Ireland and Scotland had, viz., that the Dutch should have men of their nation sit in council with us as we would have with them, and that all ports, harbours and trade should be alike each to other (p. 37). Queen Victoria showed the same solicitude in the nineteenth century. In 1869 she declared that she had invariably expressed the strongest opinion that England was bound, not only by the obligations of treaties, but by interests of vital importance to herself, to maintain the integrity and independence as well as the neutrality of Belgium and that the best security for these essential objects would be found in the knowledge that any proceedings which seemed to threaten their violation would bring England at once into the field (p. 291). Professor Egerton points out how France laid the seed of a peril, the full harvest of which is still now being reaped, by her support and en- couragement by Frederick the Great. Like Frankenstein she called into life the monster that was one day to threaten her existence. The doctrine enforced by Bismarck and taught by Treitschke, that the State is Power, that Might is Right, and that Prussia is the inspired instrument of God, was first evolved by Frederick the Great. His character was justly described by his uncle, George II. of Great Britain. The King of Prussia is a mischievous rascal, a bad friend, a bad ally, a bad relation, and a bad neighbour; in fact the most dangerous and evil-disposed Prince in Europe (p. 67). Professor Egerton's book is full of wise lessons. When one hears talk of restoring the German colonies, conquered by the Afrikander soldiers of the Union, it is interesting to note the result of a similar policy in North America. In the war between France and Great Britain in North America in the eighteenth century, the one substantial gain of the war was Louisbourg, which was won by the men of New England. The restoration of Louisbourg to France, by the indignation it aroused among the colonials, went far to plant the seeds of that discontent with the British connexion which eventually brought about the separation. The book is vividly and interestingly written. The author gives the reader short pen-portraits and thumb-nail sketches of many of the leading European figures. Castlereagh, Canning, Wellington, Palmerston, Lord John Russell, King Louis Philippe, Prince Albert, Napoleon III., Salisbury, Kaiser William, are brought before the reader by picturesque and epigrammatic touches. The author metes out praise and blame impartially. He praises, as they deserve, statesmen like Castlereagh, Wellington, Palmerston, and Salisbury, while he condemns diplomatic impostors like Lord John Russell, who was as truculent on paper as he was impotent in fact. To any reader who wishes to get a readable outline of British Foreign Policy for the last three hundred years this book should prove useful and interesting.