This volume is a political-historical study of the great change which took place in British commercial and financial policy mainly between the years 1840 and 1850. The writer examines the state of things in these respects which existed before this revolution, and describes the previous protective system, navigation system, and colonial system. He then narrates the process by which those systems were overthrown, devoting special attention to the character, career, and changes in opinion of Sir Robert Peel, and to the attitude and action of the Tory, Whig, and Radical parties, and of their leading men, especially Mr. Disraeli, Lord John Russell, and Mr. Cobden. He analyses with care the arguments used on all sides in these controversies, especially with regard to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, and he shows the extent to which questions of imperial preference and the relations between the United Kingdom and the Colonies entered into the issues. One chapter is devoted to the Bank Act of 1844, and to the consideration of its causes and results. The author concludes by tracing very briefly the chain of events which connect the period in question with our own day, in respect of commercial and fiscal policy, and expresses his own views as to existing tendencies and future developments.
Mr. Bernard Holland is known as the author of the Life of the Duke of Devonshire, and of "Imperium et Libertas." In a sense the present volume is a continuation of the latter book, or rather is an attempt to deal more expansively and in detail with certain history and questions connected with the same theme, for the full treatment of which there was insufficient space in that book. Mr. Holland having acted for a number of years as Private Secretary to two successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies, has been brought into close touch in a practical way with colonial questions. This book, it is hoped, will be of some service both to students of economic history and to politicians in active life.
PAINTING IN THE FAR EAST.
By LAURENCE BINYON.
A New Edition, thoroughly Revised, with many new and additional Illustrations. Crown 4to. 21s. net.
Since the first edition of this book was published in 1907, much has happened, and a quantity of new material has been brought to light.
Interest in the subject has been immensely widened and strengthened. The museums of Europe and America are vying with each other to procure fine specimens of Chinese and Japanese art. The opening this autumn of a new museum at Cologne, exclusively devoted to the arts of Eastern Asia, is a symptom of the times. Collections, public and private, both European and American, have been greatly enriched; and the exhibition in 1910 at Shepherd's Bush, of treasured masterpieces lent from Japanese collections, has provided a standard for the student.
Six years ago, again, scarcely any of the voluminous literature of art existing in Chinese and Japanese had been translated. On this side, too, an added store of information has been made accessible, though still in great part scattered in the pages of learned periodicals. Above all, the marvellous discoveries made of recent years in China and Chinese Turkestan have substituted a mass of authentic material for groping conjectures in the study of the art of the early periods.
In preparing a new edition of this book and bringing it up to date, Mr. Binyon has therefore been able to utilize a variety of new sources of information. The estimates given of the art of some of the most famous of the older masters have been reconsidered. The sections dealing with the early art have been in great measure rewritten; and the book has been revised throughout. In the matter of illustrations it has been possible to draw on a wider range and make a fuller and more representative selection.
PAINTING IN EAST AND WEST.
By ROBERT DOUGLAS NORTON,