Ideas About India. By WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT. Kegan Paul, Trench, and Co. If any corroboration by fresh facts was needed of Mr. Cotton's statements, this volume of Mr. Blunt's would supply it. Mr. Blunt has travelled a good deal in the East, in Egypt, and in Asia Minor; and his report is that such oppression, such suffering, due simply to bad government, to race insolence, and to sheer incapacity, is nowhere else to be witnessed. The Hindoo ryot is stripped of his very subsistence by the pressure of taxation; he is helplessly in debt through a system of borrowing which the Government has encouraged. It is admitted that the Government affords him protection, and ensures peace; but these blessings are not to be much enjoyed under chronic starvation. While the people starve, the officials riot; hundred of miles of road have been made at the ryots' expense, which serve no purpose but to let civilians' wives drive out in phaeton to dine with each other. The Government of India, as landlord, does practically nothing for the land. All is squandered and spent on other things, and the people who till the soil are yearly becoming poorer and more poor.' Mr. Blunt holds that swiftness of communication has lessened the feeling of 'home' in India among officials, such as was felt even by old servants of the Company; and this has had its own effect in intensifying race-hatred. Such cases as that given at pp. 53-56, which came under Mr. Blunt's own eyes, ought to make every Englishman feel ashamed of his countryman. Mr. Blunt's praise of Lord Ripon as a statesman who studied to do the natives justice, is of the more value because he is not a political partizan. His book is a terrible exposure, but it is also pervaded by wisdom and calm counsel, to which we hope that those who are most concerned will listen in time. 1. The History of Constitutional Reform in Great Britain and Ireland, with a Full accouut of the Three Great Measures of 1832, 1867, 1884. By JAMES MURDOCH. Blackie and Son. 2. The Three Great Reforms of Parliament. A History, 18301885. BY WILLIAM HEATON, Editor of Cassell's Concise Encyclopædia,' &c. T. Fisher Unwin. The story of Constitutional Reform is certainly a large subject, and one which sums up, in itself, the whole history of modern Liberal legislation, which owed its great impulse to the Reform Bill of 1832. In view of the last and crowning contribution to this cause-the Reform of 1884-Mr. Murdock's book has its raison d'être. The story of the struggles for the cause of early reform must create all the greater interest and sympathy in the public mind, that we are just now passing through another political transformation. Starting with a short chapter on the principles governing the rise and development of representative government, Mr. Murdoch leads up to his subject with a short sketch of the abortive efforts of various reformers prior to 1832. The French Revolution opened people's eyes to the glaring injustice and corruption of the old representative system whereby a few hundred persons returned the majority of the House of Commons; but in the very extent to which it did so, it led to loud and frequent cries for a reform, which did much to drive the Tory party, and many even of the old Whigs, into an attitude of unyielding resistance. Mr. Murdoch gives at length the proposals of early reformers-Flood, Grey, and otherswhich certainly seem nowadays moderate enough, but which in those days, when men's minds were thrown off their balance mainly by the excesses and violence of the French Revolutionary Party, seemed mere attempts to inaugurate their principles. Timidity and conservative short-sightedness created for a time an atmosphere utterly hostile, not only to reform, but to the simplest principles of Liberal policy. Mr. Murdoch has let most of the great leaders speak in their own words, either in support of, or in opposition to, reform, and sometimes, at considerable length, adding his comments when necessary, and a connecting narrative giving dates and facts. His book, therefore, necessarily takes more the form of a volume of public speeches than that of an ordinary historical review. Though it may be that, in showing so much the merely Parliamentary side of the question, our author has somewhat neglected the influence and power of the popular movement, this was his purpose and plan, with which we are not disposed to quarrel, as he has produced a book which, on the whole, is suited for its purpose, and gives a fair idea of the Parliamentary history of Reform. Mr. Heaton's Three Reforms of Parliament' goes over much the same ground as Mr. Murdoch's book. But, if less exhaustive, it is more fitted to be generally useful and effective. Mr. Heaton trusts more to his own power of narrative and explanation than to extracts from speeches, &c. The book has grown out of a lecture which he delivered last winter in several towns in the north of England; and though it bears some marks of its origin, it is the more fitted to be popular and effective on that account, notwithstanding omissions that would at once be patent to the critic and politician. Mr. Heaton has done no slight service by his compact and expressive chapter on the condition of representation prior to the first Reform Bill. The House of Commons till then, he shows, was a representation of owners, and of owners alone. The electoral process was a disgrace, seats were openly bought and sold. Even in our day an acute thinker like Mr. Bagehot, looking at matters in the light of the old Whigs, earnestly defended pocket-boroughs, as affording to young and able men the best and earliest introduction to political training. That proves how deeply the virus had entered into political thought, tainting and polluting it. We find Mr. Heaton saying here that not a single member of the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet in 1828 obtained a seat by anything approaching to open and free election. According to Mr. Bagehot, it should have held a rare quota of able politicians. Mr. Heaton gives admirable summaries of the three great Reform Bills, with lucid statements of the influences which went to make their passing possible; and especially is he exact and careful in setting forth the circumstances amid which the great Bill of 1884 became law. Such books as these are powerful educative forces. Let the people once know the evils of the past from which they have suffered, and their causes, and there is not much fear of any lasting reaction or relapse. Lectures Iutroductory to the Study of the Law of the Constitntion. By A. V. DICEY, B.C.L., of the Inner Temple, Barrister-at-Law, Vinerian Professor of English Law, Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, Hon. LL.D., Glasgow. Macmillian and Co. Mr. Dicey is very careful to warn his readers that this is not a history of Constitutional law, nor is it, like Mr. Bagehot's book, an analysis of the practical workings of the Constitution. It is simply what it claims to be, an Introduction. The first lecture is devoted to The True Nature of Constitutional Law;' the second to the Sovereignty of Parliament;' the third to a Comparison between Parliament and Non-sovereign Lawmaking Bodies;' the fourth to Parliamentary Sovereignty and Federalism;' the fifth to The Rule of Law: its Nature;' the sixth and seventh to The Rule of Law: its Applications; ' and the eighth to The Connection between the Law of the Constitution and the Conventions of the Constitution.' The main points of importance in the work, as we judge, are the luminous manner in which the position of the sovereign in the Constitution is set forth; the true position of Parliament as a sovereign, in which we meet with the statement that Electors have no legal means of initiating, of sanctioning, of repealing the legislation of Parliament, the sole legal right of electors under the English Constitution being to elect members of Parliament;' the definition of the right of non-sovereign lawmaking bodies, as, for instance, railway companies; and the description of Federalism in relation to Parliamentary sovereignty (which is perhaps the most original and practical lecture in the book). Mr. Dicey holds that Federal government means weak government. A Federation will always be at a disadvantage in a contest with unitarian States of equal resources. Nor does the experience of the United States of America, or of the Swiss Confederation, really invalidate this conclusion. The Union has no powerful neighbours, and has no foreign policy whatever. Circumstances unconnected with Constitutional arrangements make it possible for Switzerland to preserve her separate existence though surrounded by powerful, and at times hostile, nations; and the mutual jealousies incident to Federalism do, no doubt, in some respects visibly weaken the Swiss Republic.' We have the results of wide study and much thinking in the two lectures on the Nature of the Rule of Law-a masterly statement, more fitted, however, to be recommended to the lawyer or the student than to the general reader. It is very odd to find that such a book as this, dealing with abstract doctrines of law, must continually graze the edge of current political questions in the most obtrusive manner. For instance, in the last lecture we find this passage, which indicates how long it was before the foundation of the Constitution in the people was recognized and admitted: Any one who studies the questions connected with the name of John Willks, or the disputes between England and the American colonies, will see that George the Third, and the great majority of George the Third's statesmen, maintained, up to 1784, a view of Parliamentary sovereignty which made Parliament in the strictest sense a sovereign power. To this theory Fox clung, both in his youth as a Tory, and in his later life as a Whig. The greatness of Chatham and of his son lay in their perceiving that behind the crown, behind the revolution families, behind Parliament itself, lay what Chatham calls "the great public," and what we should call the nation, and that on the will of the nation depended the authority of Parliament.' It does seem a remarkable thing that a fact which is so simple and so evident was so long in making itself clear amid the strife of Whigs and Tories. Mr. Dicey's book is of value for making points of this sort clear in relation to its theme, as well as for a skilful presentment of facts and able and lawyer-like argument. The Ocean: a Treatise on Ocean Currents and Tides, and Causes demonstrating the System of the World. By WILLIAM LEIGHTON JORDAN, F.R.G.S. Second Edition, Abridged and Revised. Longmans, Green & Co. Mr. Leighton Jordan, who has made valuable contributions to different fields of science in the shape of an essay on Wind Currents and another on Bi-metallism, here reprints an improved version of his laborious work on Ocean Currents. He has made some additions, more especially some demonstrations on the action of vis inertia in the heavens. The idea so long held that the winds were solely the causes of ocean currents has been abandoned: Lieutenant Manry having been the first to show that the fall of the solar rays on the water and other causes producing differences of temperature had much to do with it. Mr. Jordan does not regard these consideratious as exhaustive, and here carries the inquiry some steps farther, and in various ways demonstrates the existence of a series of causes due, first, to the earth's axial rotation; next, to the earth's onward motion, and then to what he calls vis inertia and gravitation. This is followed by an investigation of the moon's movements and of the tides. In the course of the argument errors in the views of Sir Isaac Newton and other distinguished men of science are pointed out. Mr. Jordan does not proceed a step without careful examination of all the data; he illustrates his various propositions by the most beautifully drawn and elaborate diagrams. It is possible that, on some points, investigators may disagree with him and present opposing arguments. To many of the most likely arguments Mr. Jordan has himself replied here by anticipation. His book is one that embodies the results of much thought and observation, and must be regarded as a valuable and stimulating addition to the literature of oceanic phenomena. The sciences osculate, and Mr. Jordan's study of the winds has enabled him to deal the more effectively with Ocean Currents. History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. By AGNES. M. CLERKE. A. and C. Beach. Miss Clerke has here accomplished, with no slight success, a very large and arduous work. She writes in a clear and finished style, and adds interest to her pages by little biographical passages, always bright and readable. She is mistress of her subject, and has neglected nothing of any importance. In the earlier portion of her volume, her account of the results of the labours of the Herschels, of Newton, of Flamsteed, as well as of the more prominent foreign astronomers, are summarized with no little art. But what is likely to prove the most fresh and interesting portion of her work are the chapters dealing with the development of spectroscopic science, and the wondrous revelations achieved by its aid. In dealing with advances in astronomical instruments, we have some facts put with great freshness; and the chapter on 'Solar Observations' is marked by much insight and capability to deal with complex subjects. The summary of the results of the work of men like Sir George Biddell Airy is admirably done. Mention, too, should be made of the admirably clear manner in which sun-spots are treated. The sketch of the work of Mr. J. Couch Adams, in applying his fine mathematical faculties to the clearing up of certain points in astronomical study, is also excellent. In a word, Miss Clerke has written a wonderfully correct, careful, and attractive book on a great subject, which it was very difficult to bring within assigned limits. But she has studied proportion, and shows no partiality to any department of the work or person engaged in it, and so has produced a very valuable and popular addition to the literature of astronomy. But was it not a fact that William Herschel deserted from the Hanoverian army, and that he solemnly received the pardon of the English king (who was then also King of Hanover) after he had gained fame and honour in the country of his adoption? The Story of the Heavens. By ROBERT STAWELL BALL, LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Vice-President of the Royal Irish Academy, Andrews Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin, and Astronomer-Royal for Ireland. Cassell and Co. This is certainly one of the most masterly and successful attempts to |