"Aout OTHERS sup Myseur.'? By General Sir A, E. H, Anson.—(John Murray.)
The author at the age of 94 has. produced a volume of reminiscent ces the principal charm of which. lies in the contrast between former times and to-day. When the reader finds such a statement as that schoolboys'did not wash "'all over," when he hears of flogging in the army and branding of deserters,. he realizes the truth of the maxim autres temps autres incurs. The book has its merit as a work of reference to those who seek for information on men and matters: of bygone days. The author, who entered the Royal Academy, Woolwich; in 1841, first saw service in the Crimea. When one reads of' the nature of the fighting and the faulty arrangements for the sick and. wounded, it is realized how science has advanced both in methods of killing and of curing. He next proceeded to Mauritius, where-he was Inspector General of Police parties, But Browning had not 'a tea party imagination; Tennyson, in a and where his efforts in turning great degree, had. the police force into an_ efficient body received appreciation in the Tre Critic's Task. proper quarters. Whilst stationed"
There is nothing extravagant in }in Mauritius he was sent to Madathis kind of portraiture for it gascar as one of the British Mis-comes a clear critical vision, not a sion who went to that country for mere rapture of the eyes: it is the coronation of King Rodama graphic and it is helpful. The rea-TT. and in his memoirs brines out son, moreover, why Mr. Lynd is many interesting facts as to the beth graphic and helpful is customs of the inhabitants who that, for all his abstention from the were then independent but have philosophy of criticism, he has the naw been for many years wndersoundest views of art. He insists French rule. more than once that art is not an Carty History 1N tae Sreairs. esoteric mystery, but that a universal potentiality of beauty exists in From Mauritius General Anser all men. Poetry is a natural hu-went home on leave, and was there man activity, but only developed selected by the Colonial Office to great capacity by great genius; proceed to the Straits Settlements: and true criticism is not the imwhere he remained many years as position of theoretic laws, but an Governor of Penang, and also of attempt to catch the "inner light"
Singapore. His first' governorship and to comuiunicate its secret. was that of Penang Settlement, "The end of criticism." says Mr. which had then been but recently Lynd, "'is less law-giving than con-transferred from the jurisdiction' version," and he makes clear what of the Indian Government. The he means in the noble passage in conditions then prevailing in the which he illuminates Shelley as the} Straits Settlements were vastly poet of hope.
Again, he catches, different from those of to-day, and hold of the truth—an. old truth, but much misunderstood—when he says "it is the function of the critic the reader wonders over such statements as that former Governors: were allowed to trade, the preval—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.