Sir Owen Burne joined the 20th Regiment (now the Lancashire Fusiliers) in 1855. He came in for the end of the Crimean War and served throughout the Indian Mutiny, receiving two steps in rank for gallantry in the field. Not long afterwards he became Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Hugh Rose. He was Private Secretary to Lord Mayo until his assassination, and made a personal report on that tragic event to the Queen. Later he became Secretary in the Political and Secret Department of the India Office. He was also Private Secretary to Lord Lytton, when Viceroy, and served ten years as a member of the Council of India.
An interesting chapter of Sir Owen’s reminiscences deals with the year 1873, when, as Political A.D.C. to the Secretary of State for India, he assisted Sir Henry Rawlinson in taking charge of the Shah of Persia during his visit to England. Copious extracts are given from His Majesty’s diary, which has come into Sir Owen’s hands.
The book is a lively record of a distinguished career, freely interspersed with amusing stories, and illustrated with photographs of some noteworthy groups.
LONDON: EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.
SOME PROBLEMS OF EXISTENCE.
By NORMAN PEARSON.
Demy 8vo. 7s. 6d. net.
Dealing with such Problems of Existence as the origin of life, spirit and matter, free will, determinism and morality, and the sense of sin, Mr. Pearson lays down as postulates for a theory which philosophy and religion may be able to accept, and which science need not reject—(1) the existence of a Deity; (2) the immortality of man; and (3) a Divine scheme of evolution of which we form part, and which, as expressing the purpose of the Deity, proceeds under the sway of an inflexible order. The author’s method is well calculated to appeal to the general reader, though some of his conclusions as to the past and future of humanity differ considerably from popularly received opinions on the subject.