“The literary effect of the work is successful; the elementary exposition is not unduly encumbered, and the chapters dealing with history and with legal relations are given a perfectly definite purpose. There is, even for a work of this kind, too large a number of technical inaccuracies.” Willard E. Hotchkiss.
+ − =Ann. Am. Acad.= 30: 172. Jl. ’07. 580w.
“The author is accurate and impartial: his work seems to have been slow, and some parts of the book are out of date. Few other faults could be found in Mr. Ashley’s studies. The volume is of high merit, and should be bought and kept for reference. The index is good.”
“It speaks highly for Mr. Ashley as a lecturer that he has produced so readable a volume out of material which in less able hands would have sufficed only for a dry compendium or a useful text-book.”
“It is no easy task to deal clearly, yet in sufficient detail, with all these matters in the moderate compass of the present volume, and it cannot be said that Mr. Ashley has been entirely successful. A certain political bias is discernible here and in other ‘obiter dicta.’”
+ − =Lond. Times.= 6: 27. Ja. 25, ’07. 900w.
“Mr. Ashley provides us with an accurate account of the administration, local and central, of England,—a subject which is often little understood even by those who take official part in it. In conclusion, we would specially recommend the chapter on ‘The control of local finance,’ a matter of very vital importance today.”
=Askew, Alice, and Askew, Claude Arthur C.= Shulamite. †$1.50. Brentano’s.
The Boer country furnishes the scene of a story which forces to the front of its little stage a hard-hearted, narrow-minded old Boer nearing seventy years, Deborah, his child wife, and a young English overseer. The latter’s courtesy and respect, unknown to the girl heretofore, awaken her to sense the sordidness of her lot, and arouse in her a love for the Englishman. To save the girl’s life, he kills the husband, actuated only by the chivalrous motives. When Deborah understands that he will wed the girl awaiting him in England, she resolves to say the word that shall put him into the hands of the authorities and result in his death.
“While it has its obvious shortcomings, it is not a book to be lightly laid aside or quickly forgotten.” Frederic Taber Cooper.