New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-06-02
Cecil Of men and affairs are always Interesting
and often Instructive.

and often instructive.
Mr. Julian Ralph needs no introduction to the
American reading public. nor does his pook'
Toward Pretoria" require commentator to
vouch for its vivacity and style and It's COM
pIehensiveness of view. Mr.. Ralph has served
as the war correspondent of THE London Daily
Mail" and this book is chiefly a compilation or
his letters to that journal Naturally, 1t Is IN a
measure sketchy and incomplete. but it is full
of life and human interest, and 1T probably
gives as good an account of the campaign as
shrewd American observer has seen 1t we
are likely to have. It brings the narrative down
to the relief Of Ladysmith and the capture OF
Bloemfonten. Another running account or the
same period, from different point Of view, is
found in Mr.. Wilkinson's Lessons OF the war.
Mr.. Wilkinson wrote the letters of which his
book is composed in London, as weekly COM
ments calculations and criticisms OF the war
news that came to hand. His work was partly
that of record. partly that of prophecy. The
former feature of it supplies good historical
outline the war. while the latter is an interest
ing study in the ability of military expert
TO forecast the progress of the campaign.
Even so grim tragedy that of war must
have its touch OF comedy. or perhaps of farce
This is happily supplied, unconsciously and I'M
Intentionally In Mr. Stickney's treatise, which
is properly announced remarkable" work
Mr.. Stickney is an ardent sympathtzer with the
Beers and has a profound distrust of and con-
tempt for the British His discusses with ao-
mrable military acumen the Civil War In the
United States the Nile campaign, the Afghan
war the Crimean War, the wars of James and
Charles l. and various other conflicts, and de-
duces therefrom the conclusion that British sue
cess in South Africa is physically and morally
impossible The therefor is that the
British War Office is ignorant and incompetent
and that is the case because of 1.-The incapacity
Of hereditary kings and hereditary classes to do
the severe, steady hard work which is abso-
lutey essential to the proper handling Of affairs
of State in general and of army affairs in par
ticuar.' With that sweeping dismissal Of the
vast bulk of the worlds statecraft and military
prowess we might rest content; but Mr.. Stick
ney does not. He proceeds with the assurance
that for the British troops to get beyond the Or
ange River is-or was-"quite beyond the bounds
of reasonable military probabilities" His law
of probabilities having thus played him false, he
adds in postscript, after the relief Of KIM
berley, that should Lord Roberts succeed in
reaching Bloemfontein Bloemfontein might be-
come another Moscow. The obvious lack of
the book is that Of a colophon emblematic of
Pretoria as a second Waterloo. Perhaps this
will be supplied in a new edition.
Mr.. Pratts Leading Points In South African
History" is an invaluable little work Of refer
ence. His material has been skilfully condensed,
and the chronological arrangement is the right
for book which aims at putting the reader
in possession Of bald facts with the least pos
sible expenditure Of time. The index runs to
nearly forty pages putting the finishing touch
to work which will keep its place the table
of the journalist and historian.