REVIEWS 527 



-competency for breeding or affect their constitutional germ-plasm. Wounds 

 inflicted in war similarly leave no hereditary taint. 



Here, then, is an illustration of a deficiency in our knowledge, sufficient to 

 preclude action until it has been made good. And if so discerning a thinker as 

 Mr. Ellis has neglected this point, what chance is there of ensuring that popular 

 government shall be delivered from all risk of oversight ? In proportion to the 

 immense consequences of action must be the precision and completeness of our 

 knowledge. 



The longest of the essays is one on Psycho-Analysis, in the course of which a 

 wholly admirable criticism is given of the doctrines of Freud and Jung. It is 

 interesting to note that Mr. Ellis was one of the first to introduce Freud's 

 Psychology into England. But, after all, we can give no higher praise to this 

 most suggestive book than by saying that it is fully worthy of the author's 

 reputation. 



Hugh Elliot. 



Th3 Book of the Lews. By W. C. Mackenzie, F.S.A. (Scot.). [Pp. 276 + xv.] 



(London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd.) 

 THOUGH neither the most picturesque nor the most fertile of the Hebrides, 

 nevertheless Lewis, or "the Lews," as it is sometimes called, is far from being 

 devoid of interest, and under its new ownership the island has great possibilities 

 before it. 



Although it was probably inhabited many centuries before the Christian era, 

 the real history of the island commences with its occupation by the Norsemen. 

 Indeed, Norse blood flows in the veins of a very considerable proportion of the 

 inhabitants of Lewis, and up to the time of the battle of Largs the island re- 

 mained, nominally at any rate, under the sway of the Kings of Norway. The 

 character of the " hardy Norseman " engrafted on that of the native stock has 

 produced a race not inferior in quality to any of the inhabitants of Great Britain. 



The history of the old castle of Stornoway, which was destroyed during the Pro- 

 tectorate, and which has no connection with the present castle, is inseparably 

 connected with the name of MacLeod. The MacLeods are, even to-day, the most 

 considerable clan in Lewis. Their chiefs, who were probably of Norse descent, 

 were vassals first of the Lords of the Isles, and then, after the fall of those 

 potentates, of the Crown of Scotland. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, 

 however, the island fell into such a state of anarchy and misrule that King 

 James VI granted it to a certain company of" gentlemen adventurers "from Fife, 

 in order that they might develop the " extraordinary rich resources " of the island 

 " for the publick good and the King's profit," and incidentally that they might 

 " ruit out the barbarous inhabitants. " But the efforts of this company to take 

 possession of Lewis were met with such strong opposition from the " barbarous 

 inhabitantis " that the adventurers were at length compelled to abandon their 

 claims. As a sequel to the struggle between the islanders and the adventurers, the 

 island passed out of the hands of the MacLeods into those of the Mackenzies, 

 Earls of Seaforth. 



The attraction which Lewis had for "foreigners" was owing largely to its 

 excellent fisheries. Hence we find continual exploitation of the waters of the 

 Minch by various English companies and, of course, continual quarrels between 

 the Scotch and English fishermen. However, the fisheries of Lewis appear now 

 to be in a more prosperous condition. 



If the Earls of Seaforth, proprietors of Lewis for two centuries and a half, had 



