Everyone who read Purcell’s Life of Manning must have felt that, however fascinating its pages, much remained to be written before a true estimate of the Cardinal’s character could be formed. His biographer was so anxious to expose every weak spot in Manning’s complex character that in spite of the splendid material in his hands the result was a painfully one-sided portrait of a really great man. Unfortunately, Mr. Leslie’s book appears so long after the publication of Purcell’s Life that very few people are still alive who knew Manning during the last decades of his life, and can make a just comparison between the first and the second biographer. Still, there can be no doubt Purcell’s volumes have been widely read, and Mr. Leslie’s work will do much to remove some of the uncomfortable impressions made by several of its chapters. He has been singularly fortunate in obtaining much fresh and rich material for his book, so much that one could have wished he had written two volumes instead of one. Manning must always be an enigma to many people. Conscious of great powers, and filled with a desire to use them to the utmost, in public life he inevitably incurs the hostility of those who resent ability and dub it ambition. In any career with his fine gifts of manner, of speech, of writing, with his comprehensive grasp of human affairs, with his power of managing men, in a word with his practical ability, he was bound to outstrip other competitors in the race for success. In politics, in diplomacy, in the higher walks of business, he would have come to the top, spite of every obstacle smaller men might have put in his way.