Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Saturday 6 November 1897, page 4


CURRENT LITERATURE.

" The Battlefields of Thesealy; with Personal Ex

periences in Turkey and Greece. By Sir Ellis Ashmead Bartlett, M.P. London : John Murray.

1897.

Since it became the fortune of Sir Ellis Ashmead Bartlett to be captured by a Greek cruiser during the late war, before personally interviewing the Sultan as an English sympathiser and member of Parliament, his name has become closely identified with the Greco

Turkish struggle. Even so tragical a matter as war has its absurd side, and it has given to Sir E. A. Bartlett to personify this ; not less so because throughout his experiences and this volume, he persists in taking himself with un-broken seriousness. The book is mainly offered as "a narrative of my own and myson's personal experiences " but these experiences are made to confirm the writer in the conviction that the traditional policy of England towards the Ottoman Empire is the right and just one. He explains that the eternal necessities of strategy, race, and politics demand the ratification of Beaconsfield's policy, and tho substitution of hostilty for friendship to-wards the chief independent Mussulman Power of the world means mischief to British interests in Europe and Asia, but above all in India. Coming lo tho war itself, he does not dignify it by the name of a great one, but regards its im-portance as part of tho development of that "eternal Eastern Question," as he calls it, which has such a gravity for England. It has strengthened Mussulman solidarity, he thinks, and has impressed the " remarkable sove-

reign who holds the north western gates of India,"-a delicate reference to the Ameer of Afghanistan which will doubtless be duly appre

ciatod in the proper quarter. He thinks it also means the serious decline, if not tho total loss, of British influence at Constantinople ; while Germany is said to have secured the support in case of European war of the splendid Ottoman army.

He deprecates in the most censorious terms what he describes as the violence of language and reck lessness of abuse towards the Sultan and his Ministers and officers in which cortam British politicians and a scot Ion of tho press aro snid to hav o índulgod, thoueli ho is caroful to add that ho does not inoludo in this censuro " suitable ami iv ell-conbidored reprobation of tho ov ii deodH that woro dono in Armonía during tho last threo months of 1805 " But ho speaks of journalistio fictions about Sassun, tho atrocities alleged m connection with which placo, this writer arers nov er had any existence at all There waa aro volt, and it was Mipprossod at tho cost of from 262 to 000 lives as variously ostimatcd, ia his ox planation AU other stonos woro fiction, paid for by that Gront Tower whoso obioot is to destroy tho Ottoman Empire, and in so doing dell n deadly blow nt tho dominion of Imgland, Still, it is comforting to loam from tho author himself that when ho had tho opportumtj of speaking to tho Sultan ho impressed on that monarch tho disastrous effect of evil deeds such as thoso porpotuated in Asia Minor m lb!)5, and ox nctcd n premiso that caroful nieasuros would bo taken to provont their rocurrenco

This worthy mombor of Tarliamont throw lum Belf headlong into tho voitox of wat botwoeu Turkoy and Groecc, ho cxplnins, so that ho might observo tho Ottoman army, watch its treatment of a beaten foo, and help to mako penco botw ecu the belligerent« But the principal object-it weighed moro with Sir E Ashmo/id Bartlott than Iho others, ho himself assures ti6-was tho supremo wish to gain knowledgo and Bxponouoo to aid him in promoting at homo the old and necessary policv of friendship tow irda tho Ottoman Lmpiro With thoso preconceived in tonhons it is obvious that tho book -was to all in-tents and purposes planned boforo ho etarlod IIo took Ins son 3 His w ith htm und the two divido tho interest of tho roador Wo follow the pair to the front, and to Larissa, and thou to Vnlostinoa and Domokos Wo aro permitted to seo them captured by tho Groek ships, and earned off to Athone, whero thoy improvo tho occasion by an lntemow with tho King of Greece Thcnco thoy go to Oonstantmoplo to mtorviow tho Sultan, so having tho nniquo oxpononco, ns Sir Lilis Ashmcad Bartlett modestly boasts, of having nudiencos within threo days nnd during a condition of actual warfare, "by both tho Sovereigns of the two combatant« " Tho Greok inhabitants of tho provinces aro m general denounced for their barbarous treatment of TurkB, tho courage of tho Sultan's troops is lauded throughout, and tho book is dedicated to the Ottoman army, " that gallant, lughly-dlBoiplinod, pabont, and indomit-able soldiery "

In his new volume " Australian Fairy Tales" (Ward, Lock, and Co.), Mr. Atha Westbury makes a claim to the liking of Australian children based upon a performance very different from those of the majority of writers for the young here. He simply takes the unkind and the kind spirits of earth and air, as they are in Andersen, or Grim, or d'Aulnoy, or in the "Thousand and One Nights," and makes them perform their magic service for young and old in Australia. The beautiful prince, hidden under an animal disguise, is restored to his own again, birds and animals speak, the "good people" themselves appear--certain with a mellow brogue, immi-grants, no doubt All these wonders are strictly in the interest of good morals. Grumbling, idle, and otherwise troublesome people are punished, and the contrary virtues suitably rewarded. The human guests of faery go up in mar-vellous balloons, ropes of silk and sails of sendai, or down in boats, where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns

measureless to man down to a sunless sea. and through it all, somehow, our gum trees and kangaroos, and Blue Mountains and River Torrens, and Mount Pleasants, Williamstown and Mel-bourne, interfere. All the work of magic belongs to the land of the Arabian Nights, and one feels puzzled to meet brownie, kobold, gnome, dwarf, prince, and the rest under our skies. Perhaps their small Highnesses whose age is undor double ligures may approve.

Lady Howard of Glossop, having, in 1895 made A tour of Canada, the United States, Mexico, presents tho vv orld with tho journal of a good humoured and talkativo lady in a hurrj (" Journal of a Tour m the United States, Mexico and Canada," by Winofrod, Lidy Howard of Glossop, Sampson Low, Marston, nnd Co ) The author appears toha\o had a very good time, indeed, and to havo boon simply indefatigable in hor vocation of sight-seeing and note taking Iho illustrations are not tho loast ugreeablo feature of

this rather breathless book

Tho Rev Dyson Hague, i Canadian Church man, has thought it well to write a study of "The Church of England before the Reforma-tion" (Hodder and Staughton). Since his object has been to show how complete is the contrast between the position of that Churoh then and now, ho is hardly likely to pleaBo that largo section of tho Church of England tho members of which hold to tho historical and doctrinal continuity of tho Church Against this doctrino Mr Hague marshals his ronding of history It IB not easy to roconoilo with the position stated m tho first part of his proface this clause from a later portion of tho samo dooumont -" I earnestly trnst that this volume will givo the render a clearer grasp of tho profound diffcronco between tho Romanised National Church of tho pre Reformation ago an! the Nationnl Church of Lngland since, and of tho marvollous change that was effected m tho dootrino and ritual of the Church without alteration of its episcopal order on tho ono hand, or of its orgamo identity on tho other " If there is profound difference, complots contrast, where is organic identify f

Two now volumes of Mr James Bowden's colonial library are Mr Shan T Bullock's "The Charmer " and "A Deserter from Philistia," by E Phipps Train. Mr Bullock's Irish sketches aro now woll know ii, and for a North of Ireland town or oountry group ho is perhaps as capable a writer na MIBB Emily Lawless of tho South-western Irish In this tale, which ought to havo been ranch I shorter, ho tolls of the glamour of a young English lady who is spending tho honoJTnoon at au Irish ooaat tow n, her husband and self, to escapo cinbairassmonts, passing for brother and sister But though the book ha« good work, tho story is impossible out of Bedlam " A Desertor from Thihstia " is all about a young lady of mixed antecedents, who marnas a clergyman m America and runs away to danoo into famo, wealth, and advontures at

Now York

In Messrs Ward, Lock, and Co.'s series also come two new books Mr Headon Hill has written in " Beacon Fires " a batch of readable short stones of land and sea along the English Channel when Napoleon contemplated in vasion. " Pharisees " is a long story of a girl's career in New York. It contains some sadden-ing descriptions of the search for daily bread to whioh a girl may be reduced, and the episode of Paul Simms is skating on thin ice/ At length all nomos nght, and tho British nobility is balked of &n Amencan heiress by her constanoy to Mr

Simms

Messrs Angus and Robertson send us a clever and amusing novel in Lorin Kaye's "Drawing-room Cynic." The dialogue, the people, the

situations, the author's asides are all very smart. Mrs. Melville's Chicago mother-in-law, who darkened the doctrines of theosophy by publicly expounding them, is one of a series of portraits of women, all of them brilliantly clever, whether at full length or smaller, but few sympathetic.