1905. By Joseph Whitaker, F.S.A. Half-bound, 8vo., 792 pp. London: 12, Warwick Lane. (2/6 net.)
Whitaker's Peerage for the Year 1905. Half-bound, 8vo., 707 pp. London: J. Whitaker & Sons, Ld. (3/6 net.)
The encyclopedia of indis knowledge known as " Whitaker " has become one of the pillars that support the fabric of British society, and if by any, chance it failed to make its appearance at the end of a year, an Act of Parliament would have to be rushed through declaring that there was to be no change in the date of the year, and that the previous year would be lived over again, so that the calamity caused by the non-appearance of " Whitaker" might be alleviated 4s much as possible. A steamer can do this on the Pacific with a day, so that an empire could certainly do it with a year. No ordinary mortal knows how much, there is peerage 4 no-one has every read through the 472 pages of the sleaanack proper, but everybody consults it sometimes for something and never in vain. Then there is the Supplement, which is simply s mine of condensed and accurate knowledge. This portion is full not merely of dry facts and figures, but of reading about the British Empire is carried down to the 24th of November, NOTICES OF BOOKS, and the book is in Shanghai by the first week of January.
"Whitaker's Peerage" is not such an in-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.