A THWARTED KING

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 98, 19 January 1935, Page 19

A THWARTED KING

The Story of Janies the Second “King James The Second,” by F. M. G. Higham (London: Hamish Hamilton). The period before the accession of James, the second Stuart King of that name to reign on the English throne, was a disturbing one for the England that had just left behind the Commonwealth and the iron rule of Cromwell. On every hand knowledge poured in, stimulating interest and mockins: restraint. The splendid autocracy of France dominated a world that was witnessing the first faint glimmerings of imperialism. The period saw the first banks, the growth of journalism, the philosophy of Locke and the science of Newton. An age brimming with life and movement, it was barren only in a robust moral code and firm convictions of right and wrong. It was necessary for the author’s purpose to capture the atmosphere of a country under these conditions, for, finding in the least known of the Stuarts that fascination in their character that made them so irresistible to most Englishmen and all Scots, she has endeavoured to explain, not to excuse, that strange and thwarted character. The story of James’s downfall is told with sympathy and without bias, giving a fair trial to the king while justifying the Revolution as a vital chapter in the history of a people, whose characteristics were never before more clearly manifested Little of James’s life can be left untouched in the complete account that this book presents to us; we read of his childhood escape from England to join his exiled mother in France, his return at the restoration, after serving in the continental wars, his period as Lord High Admiral, his second marriage, the accession, and struggle with Monmouth, and his final downfall and death at St. Germain “to his own Joy and relief,” in 1701. James has not been spared: even the generous gesture which caused him to marry Anne Hyde is not made an excuse for his faithlessness to her, and his mistresses are mercilessly catalogued. But other characters serve both to relieve and accentuate our concentration on the dominant figure. Charles 11, Marlborough, Mary of Modena, Samuel Pepys, William Penn, Monmouth, Turenne, Conde, and King Louis XIV of France are only a few who pass through the story of James’s life. The conclusion we are led to make shows James a vigorous man, unhappy if not expressing himself in action, but worn out later in life by his excesses. His main failings seem to have been due as much to bad luck, which perpetually dogged all his actions, as to any inherent detects in character. There must have been some good in a man who made so many worthy friends, and he deserves to be judged as much by his achievements in early life, including his great work for the English Navy, than by his later failure.

CANDID CHRONICLES “The Old Mill” (being the candid chronicles of Penelope Potter). (Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.) The somewhat mysterious author of "The Private Papers of a Bankrupt Bookseller” and “Hades! The Ladies” gives us in “The Old Mill” another brilliantly penetrating character-study—-this time of a woman Penelope Potter is a product of the war years One wonders what effect a less hectic and bewildering period would have had on a character so sensitive, so lonely and introspective. At eighteen she found herself in a job in the- War Office Within a month she fell in love and became engaged to “dear, dear Arthur Francis” a man of forty, who returned to the front and died of wounds a few weeks later. “How fine he was to me and how little I understood him,” says Penelope . . . “he knew me, I suppose, but I never really understood him. . . . In a way I liked him.” He left her his money, and Penelope departed to the Continent to see life. Of her experiences there she has promised to write some day—under a nom-de-plume. In speaking of love, she always harks back to this somewhat unsatisfactory first affair leaving the puzzled reader like herself, with an undefined sense of lass —of something vital missed. Later Penelope buys the old mill of her ancestors and opens a novel and most successful teashop. She loves the mill. If in her desperate determination to protest her love, she again “puts across” that queer sense of loss, well that is Penelope Porter, child of the war years, hardened, cynical, full of kindly wit but empty—empty of something. This delicately balanced study ends on a tremulous note of hope: No. the song is not ended It is only just begun! THREE REFERENCE BOOKS The, nin th—l9,3s —edition of “Who’s Who in Australia,” has been received. The editor is Errol G. Knox, who is also editor of the Australian Year Book. This Who's Wlto incorporates John’s “Notable Australians,” includes an Australian knightage and coinpaiiionage, ami is a record of the careers of prominent and representative people of the present time. It has been published by I lie Herald and Weekly Times, Ltd., Melbourne. Also there have been received “The South ami East African Year Bonk ami Guide for 1935,” the 41st issues, an attractive work, published for the UnionCastle Mail Steanishin Company Ltd by Sampson, Low, Marston and Co., London ; ami the “Scots Year Book,” a varied publication whose object is to show ‘what Scottish people think of themselves. both favourable and critically ” and is a link between' Scottish sociel'ics the world over.