REVIEWS 
49 
Reminiscences of Travel in Australia, America, and Egypt. By Bichard 
Tangye. 8vo., 290 pp., illustrated. Price 6s. Cornish Brothers. 
If it be wondered how so busy a man as the head of a great engineer¬ 
ing firm could find time to write a book, the explanation will be found 
in the preface to this work, from which it will be seen that it was 
accomplished during the enforced leisure of a long voyage. As for the 
book itself, we may at once say that there is not a dull page in it. 
Many years ago we visited the Australian Colonies, and we have 
certainly never since met with so vivid and accurate a description of 
life on board a passenger ship, and the conditions of existence in that 
new world across the sea, as are contained in this most interesting 
volume. 
For natural phenomena the author has a keen eye; take his 
description of the shadows of opaque objects in tropical regions—“In 
passing under a vertical sun the old proverb * may your shadow never 
grow less ’ is entirely out of place .... When standing upright 
my shadow was about two feet in diameter, 'and it looked like the 
shadow of the brim of my hat all round my feet.” 
In the account of the visits made to Victoria and to New South 
Wales respectively, perhaps the most important point is the testimony 
which Mr. Tangye bears to the ill effects of the system of protection 
in the former colony as compared with the prosperous condition of its 
neighbour under free trade. Melbourne is so thoroughly permeated 
with the principles of “ protection,” that a Bill lately introduced into 
the Local Legislature permitting the construction of tramways in the 
very wide and long streets of Melbourne “ had to be abandoned in 
consequence of the determined opposition of the cab-drivers, the 
majority of whom own the vehicles which they drive. These men 
argued, naturally enough, that as the manufacturing trades (of 
Victoria) were protected against foreigners, their business also should 
be protected against competition in the only form in which it could 
arise.” 
In the author’s American experiences we get a glimpse of the 
magnificent “Palace Hotel in San Francisco, containing over a 
thousand rooms, and with rarely less than a thousand inhabitants.” 
Then we are told of the journey eastwards, via Salt Lake City, to 
Chicago, in a Pullman train, life in which is said to be uncommonly 
like travelling in a ship over dry ground. Diverging to visit Niagara, 
we there hear of “the peripatetic photographer, who endeavours to 
persuade you that you are greater than the ‘Falls.-’ . The Falls, 
indeed, are made to seem a mere background to your photograph, in 
which the artist is careful to show you nearest the camera, and hence 
proportionately by far the most imposing object.” 
