The May Movement: Revolt and Reform. By Touraine Alain. Translated by Mayhew Leonard F. X.. (New York: Random House, 1971. Pp. 373. $8.95.)

the way in which the new institution was to operate. The Government was twice defeated in standing committee but easily able to reverse the defeat on the floor of the House of Commons in the case of the amendment to which they continued to object. All this, of course, does not mean that the parliamentary consideration of the bill was a waste of time, for the changes made were viewed as improvements by nearly all concerned including the Government. Mr. Stacey's "third book" opens with a chapter on the first months of the Commissioner's activities, about half of which is an account of the much publicized Sachsenhausen Case. This is followed by a long chapter on the Parliamentary Select Committee to which the Commissioner reports. The author is undoubtedly right in stressing the importance of this committee, which is more influential than the legislative committees attached to other national ombudsmen. He concludes with a rambling evaluative and prescriptive chapter which among other things sets forth suggestions for strengthening the new British institution. Like many other commentators on the British ombudsman, Mr. Stacey believes that he falls short of the much admired Scandinavian models in not frequently finding fault with the quality of "unreasonable" discretionary decisions. What such critics fail to realize is that the Scandinavian ombudsmen in this respect in fact resemble their British counterpart more closely than the image of them held by British reformers.