[38] (1) _The Russian Conquest of the Caucasus._ By John F. Baddeley. London, Longmans, Green and Co., 1908. (2) _Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier._ By J. L. Pennell, M.D., F.R.C.S. London, Seeley and Co., 1909.--_Edinburgh Review_, July 1909. [39] _Border Raids and Reivers_, by Robert Borland, Minister of Yarrow (1898). This valuable work, founded entirely on the study of original documents, may be heartily commended to all who are interested in the political and social life, the customs and traditions, of the old Border. [40] Gibbon. L'EMPIRE LIBERAL[41] The fourteenth volume of _L'Empire Liberal_, issued in 1909, carries M. Emile Ollivier's very interesting reminiscences of that eventful period up to the outbreak of the Franco-German War in July 1870. It contains many curious particulars of the incidents and transactions culminating in the rupture with Prussia that brought about the downfall of his ministry and the ruin of the Second Empire. Autobiographies by men who have taken a prominent part in the momentous scenes which they describe have often the powerful effect of a dramatic representation: the actors reappear on the stage; they plead for themselves; they give vivid impressions of the scenes; they repeat the very words that were spoken; they revive the intense emotion of the audience during the contest between those who are hurrying on toward some fatal catastrophe and those who are striving to prevent it. M. Ollivier's volume is the story of a great historic tragedy; the principal _dramatis personae_ are celebrities of the first rank; on their speech and action depend the destinies of France, and the spectators are the nations of Europe. If we make due allowance for the fact that the author's main object is to explain and defend the part which he himself played in these important affairs, we may credit him with an honest desire to set a strange, complicated, and oft-told story in a clear light before the present generation.