n by Lord CHARLES himself, and the world is richer by a
book which, instructive in many ways, valuable as throwing side-lights
on the slow advance of the Navy to the proud position which it holds
to-day on the North Sea, bubbles over with humour.

Record opens in the year 1859, when Lord CHARLES entered the Navy,
closing just half-a-century later, when he hauled down his flag and
permanently came ashore. Within the space of fifty years there is
crammed a life of adventure richly varied in range. A man of exuberant
individuality, which has occasional tendency to obscure supreme
capacity, of fearless courage, gifted with a combination of wit and
humour, Lord CHARLES is the handy-man to whom in emergency everyone
looked not only for counsel but for help. It is a paradox, but a
probability, that had he been duller-witted, a more ponderous person, he
would have carried more weight alike in the councils of the Admiralty at
Whitehall and of the nation at Westminster.

As these memoirs testify, behind a smiling countenance he hides an
unbending resolution to serve the public interest, whether aboard ship
or in his place in Parliament. Perhaps the most familiar incident in his
professional career is his exploit during the bombardment of Alexandria,
when the signal flashed from the flag-ship, "Well done, _Condor_." A
more substantial service was his command of what he describes as "the
penny steamer" _Safieh_, whose manoeuvring on the Nile amid desperate
circumstances averted from Sir CHARLES WILSON'S desert column, hastening
to the rescue of GORDON, the fate which earlier had befallen STEWART.

Another splendid piece of work was accomplished when, after the
bombardment of Alexandria he was appointed Provost-Marshal and Chief of
Police, and had committed to his charge the task of restoring order. His
conspicuous success on this occasion bore fruit many years later when he
was offered the post of Chief Commissioner of Police in the Metropolis.
His story of the Egyptian and Soudan Wars, carried through several
chapters, is a valuable contribution to history. It suggests that, all
other avenues to fame closed against him, Lord CHARLES would have made
an enduring name as a war correspondent.

It is a circumstance incredible, save in view of the authority upon
which it is stated, that, as part of the reward for his splendid service
in the Soudan, Lord CHARLES narrowly escaped compulsory retirement from
the Service before he had com