Even the English critics themselves could not accept the _Britannica_ as a source for “the most comprehensive, thorough and absolutely precise statements on every subject of human interest.” Many legitimate objections began appearing. There is space here to quote only a few. The London _Nation_ complains that “the particularly interesting history of the French Socialist movement is hardly even sketched.” And again it says: “The naval question is handled on the basis of the assumption which prevailed during our recent scare; the challenge of our Dreadnought building is hardly mentioned; the menace of M. Delcassé’s policy of encirclement is ignored, and both in the article on Germany and in the articles on Europe, Mr. McKenna’s panic figures and charges of accelerated building are treated as the last word of historical fact.” The same publication, criticising the article on Europe, says: “There is nothing but a dry and summarized general history, ending with a paragraph or two on the Anglo-German struggle with the moral that ‘Might is Right.’ It is history of Europe which denies the idea of Europe.” Again, we find evidence of a more direct character, which competently refutes the amazing announcement of our voluble Ambassador to Great Britain. In a letter to the London _Times_, an indignant representative of Thomas Carlyle’s family objects to the inaccurate and biased manner in which Carlyle is treated in the Encyclopædia. “The article,” he says, “was evidently written many years ago, before the comparatively recent publication of new and authentic material, and nothing has been done to bring it up to date.... As far as I know, none of the original errors have been corrected, and many others of a worse nature have been added. The list of authorities on Carlyle’s life affords evidence of ignorance or partisanship.” “Evidently,” comments a shrewd critic who is not impressed either by the Ambassador’s panegyric or the photographed letters, “the great man’s family, and the public in general, have a reasonable cause of offense, and they may also conclude that if the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ can blunder when handling such an approachable and easy British subject as Carlyle, it can be reasonably expected to do worse on other matters which are not only absolutely foreign, but intensely distasteful to the uninformed and prejudiced scribes to whom they seem to be so frequently, if not systematically, assigned.”