Bygones Worth Remembering

s nothing in this book which he will ever regret having written. It is full of life and stir and variety and incident but every page of it is informed by the spirit of sobriety and mature wisdom. Personal self-suppression is no doubt a matter of policy with the author. Never was a self-styled agitator less eager to display himself, and it is the conspicuous absence of this too demagogic feature which has helped to make Mr. Holyoake one of the most respected leaders of the people. Bradford Observer. One cannot help feeling astonishment at the constantlyrecurring proofs of great activity and capacity for strenuous exertion. The writer of so entertaining a book must have had the knack of being on the spot when anything was about to occur. As Mr. Bright expressed it, he was sure to turn up somewhere. Good stories and characteristic epigrams stud these pages in away that will not surpriseany who really know the author. ... It would be deplorable that our young politicians should have no due appreciation of the labours of those who laid the foundations of liberty amid danger and detraction. Co-operative News. Mr. Holyoakes life has not been of a common type, and those persons who did well. We have several urged him to put his experiences on record certainly bundles of recollections giving some incident, some enterprise, or some achievements in which he was concerned and of which he knows the secret. The interest they excite has carried us through every page. It is needless to recommend these volumes there is a wealth of amusing comment and shrewd reflection scattered through their pages. Manchester Guardian. Some of his pen pictures of public men are very cleverly done. It is unnecessary to say that he is .naster of a good English style. These volumes sparkle with epigram, and there is occasionally a vein of humorous description running through his descriptions ofmen and incidents. The Manchester Examiner. Only perusal of Mr. Holyoakes two portly volumes can give any idea of their social and political interest. Liverpool Daily Post. Sixty years agitation in English social and political life is sure to yieldan abun- dant crop of observations on men, mannersand opinions worthy of being put on record by a man who has any gift for speaking his mind. Notoriously this is a gift which Mr. Holyoake possesses by nature and has assiduously cultivated for a lifetime. He has studied to good purpose the art of terse and pithy expression. The Scotsman. By tar the most interesting book of reminiscences which has appeared for some time is Sixty Years of an Agitators Life. Mr. Holyoake is one of the best types of the popular agitator in England. He stands in the same category as Paine and Cobbett. The Scottish Leader. Mr. Holyoake ranks himself among the unimportant and unknown, but the whole of the two volumes gives evidence to the contrary. There is an almost bewildering succession of figures whose names are famous in political, social, and literary history. This is a book before which criticism finds itself disarmed. One can only dip into it and enjoy the revitalisation of departed heroes and forgotten incidents. The Glasgow Herald. Unlike most of those who turn their energies into practical and experimental channels, Mr. Holyoake can write. He has the power of drawing nice distinctions...