New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-28

Octave. pp viii 36i: viii S26; viii. as Charles
Scribner's Sons.
Tt is said that the war in the Transvaal has
caused the publishing business I'm London TO
suffer. Books about South Africa and the
struggle there sold in large numbers how
ever. All war books. in fact. have a certain
market DR. Fitchetts new work will probably
be very popular But If it should fail of
its audience it is to gain it later.
How England Saved Europe" is a capital per-
Torrance, calculated 10 thrill the most indiffer-
ent II 4deT Is fl a history? Not in the strictest
sense OF that term. Compared with the stand
ard writers on his great theme, the author is
informal and impressionistc indeed. But he is
not for that reason any the less worth reading.
He uses now the same method that eff
fective in his earlier books Deeds That Won
the Empire" and Fights for the Flag" He is
not disposed TO phiosophize overmuch about
the events which he surveys. Though he has
opinions of his own he devotes himself chiefly to
TWO objects-to be patriotic and pictorial. He
wishes 10 stir his reader with a sense of British
heroism and might. and in order to do this he
paints the extraordinary pageant of war that
eliminated in Waterloo with q free and vivid
brush. He leaves TO others the calculation Of
deep problems of strategy. the apprisal of this
action that a lesson in the art of war He
cares not who shall weigh his material in the
balance of scholarship, that he may fashion
Il into series of brisk emotional chapters into
informal and exhilarating prose
When DR.. F1tchett refers TO French privateers
swarming in the English Channel he scorns
technical details to their build. They are
lean. hungry, tireless." He is not afraid to
Enoralize in hearty fashion where the more
stately historian would set forth cause and
effect as in scientific formula. There is a
moral providence in history he declares. and
the scenes of after years-Moscow in flames and
the French troops marching in triumph through
the streets OF Vienna and Berlin-may be re-
gaTded as part, at least of the penalty the Great
Powers of Europe paid for the theft of Poland.
What-a cost in gold and in blood England, too.
might have escaped had she been steadfastly
loyal to unself1sh purpose in the opening
stages of this great conflict: 1t is all very ami
mated and amusing; sometimes little naive,
sometimes patriotic than historical, as
when the author plainly shows his adherence 10
the old popular conception Of Napoleon as
"Bony" and the Corsican Ogre" But it never
fails TO interest A dramatic instinct underlies
the seemingly rhetorical scheme. One of the
best illustrations Of this occurs at the opening
of the work. good place, because the attention
is at seized. DR.. Fitchett sketches first the
scene-on the parade ground of the Horse Guards,
when, on the morning of February %, 1893.
three battalions Of the Guards, equipped for for
eign service, were reviewed by the King, the
Prince of Wales and brilliant staff. He de-
scribes. from the Annual Register how the
King was mounted a beautiful white charger
and wore generals uniform. adding, in order
TO get every possible detail into the realistic
picture, that it may be suspected that His
Majesty, with his red face. his saucerlike eyes
his stumpy figure. not looking very martial
in spite Of curvetting steed and gIittering uni
FORM There follows a passage on the moving
troops from which take these sentences:
LAS the long line swung into column for its
march, there stretched unseen before its files a
hundred fields of battle. The roll of its drums
was to sound across half the world. The tramp
OF the disciplined feet ran forward through
twenty years, till it deepens into the mighty tu-
multi Of Waterloo" Then. with delightful deft-
ness, DR.. Fitchett thus completes his fntroduc-
f1ion:
As a companion piece TO that scene in front
of the Horse Guards in 1893. let another picture
be drawn. On July 81, 1915, the Belerophon
Is lglng at Portsmouth, stately lne-of- battle
ship, Of the old, massive, bluff bowed tyne In |
It's cabin are four persons. Two are British Of |
ncers' Lord Keith and Sir Henry Bunbury, a
third is their secretary, the fourth is Napoleon
his sallow face furTowed with the passions OF
so many battlehelds and the pride of so many
years of empire. Waterloo is six weeks mast.
the Empire has faded Ike d vision the armies
OF France have persisted. These British officers
have come to tell Napoleon that St Helena.
splintered rock set in the solitary wastes of the
Atlantic, is henceforth be his prison.
Napoleon protests vehemently. St Helera is |
hateful TO him; he would prefer. he saws death
or Botany Bay" Remember" he cries what
i have been. and how / have stood among the
soVereigns Of Europe" Il have made war upon
you for twenty years, he tells this little erouD
OF Englishmen; but England he urges is the
mightiest and most stubborn, is also the most
generous of all his foes. He asks for nothing
better, indeed, than TO spend his last davs
breathing its air and cultivating domestic Brit
ish virtues. He will become British citizenI
Il demand" he eXclairns, ITO be received as an
Engish cluzen How many years entitle
me TO be domiciliated?" He will wait un-
der parole for the necessary four years before
ne can take out letters OF naturalization. HaV-
ing Yainly tried overthrow these obstinate
islanders, in brief, he viii now renounce France
and himself become Englishman, and wear
broadcloth. and devote himself to the sober
suited pieties of civil life! And with that scene
Napoleon practically vanishes from history.
Nothing is LETT but those six shrewsh and ieno-
ble years at St Helena.
This fragment is characteristic in its insuIar
tone and in its vividness. A grave student of
history might vince at the contemptuous dis
Inissal Of fallen foe the reckless suppression
of all half tints Of all the tragic implications
of the scene IN the cabin Of the Bellerophon
But DR.. Fitchett writes in such good faith he is
such e devoted citizen Of the British Empire
such a whole souled admirer of the British
arms, that in the long it is impossible to
resist him. He is teller OF war tales pure and
simple, and such he has many virtues he
has color, picturesqueness fervor, conciseness
and rapidly. There is not a dull page in these
three volumes and the fourth will, of course be
equally spirited and readable. With the index
that we may expect in that concluding volume
and with the excellent illustrations provided for
the work, it is beyond question that How
England Saved Europe" will secure the wide
circulation that II deserves.