New-York tribune., 1919-03-08

HOW FRANCE IS GOVERNED BY Raymond
Ps0ead e ss5 ,5I5sr ,,.l s{ 4eF@ara Mall lo
1TIE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND. BY David
Duncan Wallace. syo. %. 3si. G. 2. Putnam 8
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
By William Bennett Munro. syo. ID. l. o4S.
Tho Macmillan Company
At a time when insidious at
tacks are being made from various
quarters upon the principle of ma
tional sovereignty it is desirable
that men of thought and purpose
shall refresh their knowledge of
what national sovereignty is and what
1T means. particularly in those three
great republics which, without vain
glory. we may properly regard as the
most important nations of the world
and those best fitted to impress their
genius upon mankind at large. 1t is
an interesting circumstance, too, that
these three present examples of the
three principal types of republic. Thus
in the republic OF Great Britain they
have permanent hereditary President
acting through a Prime Minister and
other secretariss responsible to Parlia-
mcnt. In Franco they have a President
elected by Parliament for limited
term and q ministry responsible to
Parliament. In America wc have a
President elected by the people through
the states, and a Cabinet chosen by
MIN, he and it being irresponsl TO
Congress.
e could wish no more authoritative
exponent of the French system of gov
ernment, in general and in detail in
theory and in practice, than President
Polncare himself who, beside being a
statesman OF long experience and en-
cycIop@dlc knowledge, is a man of let
ters of much eloquence and charm. The
result Of his writing is u volume of
singular clarity and defniteness. which
tells US directly just what we want to
know-practlcally everything that we
could want to know upon the subject.
Small as the work is, it is encyclopedia
IN its comprehensiveness, and must
stand as one of the best authorities on
the constitution Of the Third Repub-
lie
DR.. Wallace has dealt in somewhat
similar fashion with the British gov
ernmental system. He tells US tersely
and explicitly what it is and what it
does, in national and in local matters.
without burdening the average reader
with long dlsquisitions upon the origin
and development of every feature of
it and upon the political and social
philosophy of it all. Of course, these
latter things are mighty desirable and
profitable for study, to those who have
time and inclination or need to study
them, and 1T is we'll that they have been
provided in other works But there is
widespread need for just such work
as this, and in this volume the need is
admirably met.
Much more elaborate than either of
the foregoing is Professor Munro's
masterly treatise on American govern
ment, national, state and local and that
is fitting, because American readers
ought to know more about their own
government than about any other. But
even it is not at all overburdened,
while its arrangement is so perspicu-
Gus and its style so lucid that it is
equally serviceable for occasional ref
erence and for consecutive and sus-
tanned reading. It's publication frees us
from the reproach of having to look to
foreign authors for adequate works on
our own government, and gives us an
American book on America worthy to
rank with the best from any source.