In announcing works of a ~technical character, it is not unusual for reviewers to say this or that volume,. P. Johnson on "The Specific Gravity of Alcohol," or M. Bronstein on "The Ethics of Expropriation," and such like, whilst composed particularly for the expert, may not be without appeal to the general reader. "general reader" may be defined as any reader who will read any book, like his Patron Saint, Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was once discovered sitting at the fireside ting apples and reading a his-of Birmingham; and who would doubtless have read '"'Bradshaw'? with equal avidity had Bradshaw been the only volume available at the convent. One may therefore with some confidence commend to the general reader a work in two substantial volumes just issued by Macmillans—"A Guide to Dipomatic Practice," by: the Rt. Hon. Sir Ernest Satow. OF course, it is essentially "a work for the expert.'" One might almost call it the Diplomat's Bible so fully does it advise the reader in the forms and ceremonies of statecraft. But these ample pages also contain a rich harvest; for the general reader," for they are—most enlightening upon a sphere of polities but little known to the public and. they constitute an authoritative guide to the thousand and one unwritten laws of international deportment and standardized intrigue (which description of the contents 1s of course not of the distinguished author).
The most seasoned "general reader'? may have some little difficulty in becoming enthusiastic upon a glance at the contents: Diplomatic privileges and practices, the classification of diplomatic agents, the position of Sovereigns and of property owned by them in foreign countries, the framework of Treaties and Conventions, records of Congresses and Conferences. Declarations and other forms of International Compact: all of which matters, says Sir Ernest Satow, may doubtless be found dry reading by those who do not desire to study these subjects in close detail. But, for those gentlemen who participate actively in matters of State, the information must be priceless. These volumes are a "most complete survey of the Diplomatic service, with its elaborate unwritten laws almost amounting to ritual, and extreme niceties of precedent, and the appendix contains a valuable list of references and authoriafive works which should be found in the library of a diplomatist.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.