Chapter XXV: Appendix: The Literature of the Revolution (2)

Sybel's view is that the Revolution went wrong quite naturally, that the new order was no better than the old, because it proceeded from the old, rose from an exhausted soil, and was worked by men nurtured in the corruption of the old _regime_. He uses the Revolution to exhibit the superiority of conservative and enlightened Germany. And as there is little to say in favour of Prussia, which crowned an inglorious war by an inglorious peace, he produced his effect by piling up to the utmost the mass of French folly and iniquity. And with all its defects, it is a most instructive work. A countryman, who had listened to Daniel Webster's Bunker Hill oration, described it by saying that every word weighed a pound. Almost the same thing might be said of Sybel's history, not for force of language or depth of thought, but by reason of the immense care with which every passage was considered and all the evidence weighed. The author lived to see himself overtaken and surpassed, for internal history by Taine, and for foreign affairs by Sorel.

Taine was trained in the systems of Hegel and Comte, and his fundamental dogma was the denial of free will and the absolute dominion of physical causes over the life of mankind. A violent effort to shape the future by intention and design, and not by causes that are in the past, seemed to him the height of folly. The idea of starting fresh, from the morrow of creation, of emancipating the individual from the mass, the living from the dead, was a defiance of the laws of nature. Man is civilised and trained by his surroundings, his ancestry, his nationality, and must be adapted to them. The natural man, whom the Revolution discovered and brought to the surface, is, according to Taine, a vicious and destructive brute, not to be tolerated unless caught young, and perseveringly disciplined and controlled.

Taine is not a historian, but a pathologist, and his work, the most scientific we possess, and in part the most exhaustive, is not history. By his energy in extracting formulas and accumulating knowledge, by the crushing force with which he masses it to sustain conclusions, he is the strongest Frenchman of his time, and his indictment is the weightiest that was ever drawn up. For he is no defender of the Monarchy or of the Empire, and his cruel judgments are not dictated by party. His book is one of the ablest that this generation has produced. It is no substitute for history. The consummate demonstrator, concentrated on the anatomy of French brains, renounces much that we need to be told, and is incompetent as to the literature and the general affairs of Europe. Where Taine failed Sorel has magnificently succeeded, and he has occupied the vacant place both at the Academy and in his undisputed primacy among writers on the Revolution. He is secretary to the Senate, and is not an abstract philosopher, but a politician, curious about things that get into newspapers and attract the public gaze. Instead of investigating the human interior, he is on the look-out across the Alps and beyond the Rhine, writing, as it were, from the point of view of the Foreign Office. He is at his best when his pawns are diplomatists. In the process of home politics, and the development of political ideas, he does not surpass those who went before him. Coming after Sybel, he is somewhat ahead of him in documentary resource. He is more friendly to the principles of the Revolution, without being an apologist, and is more cheerful, more sanguine, and pleasanter to read. A year ago I said that, Sybel and Taine being dead, Sorel is our highest living authority. To-day I can no longer use those words.

On Ranke's ninetieth birthday, Mommsen paid him this compliment: "You are probably the last of the universal historians. Undoubtedly you are the first." This fine saying was double-edged, and intended to disparage general histories; but it is with a general history that I am going to conclude what I have to say on the literature of the Revolution. In the eighth volume of the _General History_, now appearing in France, Aulard gives the political outline of the Revolution. It may be called the characteristic product of the year 1889. When the anniversary came round, for the hundredth time, and found the Republic securely established, and wielding a power never dreamed of by the founders, men began to study its history in a new spirit. Vast pains and vast sums were expended in collecting, arranging, printing, the most authentic and exact information; and there was less violence and partiality, more moderation and sincerity, as became the unresisted victor. In this new school the central figure was M. Aulard. He occupies the chair of revolutionary history at Paris; he is the head of the society for promoting it; the editor of the review, _La Revolution_, now in its thirty-first volume; and he has published the voluminous acts of the Jacobin Club and of the Committee of Public Safety. Nobody has ever known the printed material better than he, and nobody knows the unpublished material so well. The cloven hoof of party preference appears in a few places. He says that the people wrought vengeance after the manner of their kings; and he denies the complicity of Danton in the crimes of September. As Danton himself admitted his guilt to no less a witness than the future king of the French, this is a defiance of a main rule of criticism that a man shall be condemned out of his own mouth. Aulard's narrative is not complete, and lacks detail; but it is intelligent and instructive beyond all others, and shows the standard that has been reached by a century of study.

Where then do we now stand, and what is the elevation that enables us to look down on men who, the other day, were high authorities? We are at the end, or near the end, of the supply of Memoirs; few are known to exist in manuscript. Apart from Spain, we are advanced in respect of diplomatic and international correspondence; and there is abundant private correspondence, from Fersen downwards. But we are only a little way in the movement for the production of the very acts of the government of revolutionary France.

To give you an idea of what that means. Thirty years ago the Cahiers, or Instructions, of 1789 were published in six large volumes. The editors lamented that they had not found everything, and that a dozen cahiers were missing in four provinces. The new editor, in his two volumes of introduction, knows of 120 instructions that were overlooked by his predecessors in those four regions alone; and he says that there were 50,000 in the whole of France. One collection is coming out on the Elections for Paris, another on the Paris Electors, that is, the body entrusted with the choice of deputies, who thereupon took over the municipal government of the city and made themselves permanent. Then there is the series of the acts of the Commune, of the several governing committees, of the Jacobins, of the war department, and seven volumes on Vendee alone.

In a few years all these publications will be completed, and all will be known that ever can be known. Perhaps some one will then compose a history as far beyond the latest that we possess as Sorel, Aulard, Rambaud, Flammermont are in advance of Taine and Sybel, or Taine and Sybel of Michelet and Louis Blanc; or of the best that we have in English, the three chapters in the second volume of Buckle, or the two chapters in the fifth volume of Lecky. In that golden age our historians will be sincere, and our history certain. The worst will be known, and then sentence need not be deferred. With the fulness of knowledge the pleader's occupation is gone, and the apologist is deprived of his bread. Mendacity depended on concealment of evidence. When that is at an end, fable departs with it, and the margin of legitimate divergence is narrowed.

Don't let us utter too much evil of party writers, for we owe them much. If not honest, they are helpful, as the advocates aid the judge; and they would not have done so well from the mere inspiration of disinterested veracity. We might wait long if we watched for the man who knows the whole truth and has the courage to speak it, who is careful of other interests besides his own, and labours to satisfy opponents, who can be liberal towards those who have erred, who have sinned, who have failed, and deal evenly with friend and foe--assuming that it would be possible for an honest historian to have a friend.

INDEX

Adams, John, 23

Agra, bishop of, 308-9

Aiguillon, Duc de, 99, 154

Alsace, 206, 208, 211

Amsterdam, 329

Anglas, Boissy d', 293, 337-8

Archives, Austrian, 364

Argenson, d', 8-9

Argenteau, Mercy, 147

Armand, Colonel, the Marquis de la Rouerie, 302-3

Arneth, 364

Artois, Comte d', 59, 69, 178-9, 204, 339

Auckland, Lord, 320

Aulard, 371-2

Baillon, 183, 187, 189

Bailly, 71, 74, 88

Bale, peace of, 327

Barante, 355

Barbaroux, 267

Barentin, 55

Barere, 99, 117, 257, 273, 289, 295, 332, 335

Barnave, 91-3, 109, 191, 195, 200

Barras, 298, 344

Barthelemy, 337, 365

Bastille, 84, 85

Batz, Baron de, 354

Baudot, 280

Bazire, 271

Beaumetz, 128

Becard, 85

Beccaria, 18

Belgium, 330

Bentham, 106

Bernier, 307-9

Bertrand, 246

Besenval, 84

Beurnonville, 217

Billaud-Varennes, 284, 274, 280-2, 294-5, 333-5

Blanc, Louis, 349-50

Bonchamps, Marquis de, 305, 310-312 ff.

Bordeaux, archbishop of, 102

Bouille, Marquis de, 174-5, 181, 367

Bouille, de, the younger, 185

Bourbon, House of, 260, 337, 340

Bourdon, 298

Breteuil, 83, 175, 231

Bridport, Lord, 339

Brissot, 205, 209, 226, 243, 259

Broglie, Marshal de, 80

Brunswick, Duke of, 211, 231

Brussels, 221

Burke, Edmund, 29, 31, 126, 183, 204, 213

Buzot, 249, 267, 334, 367

Cabanis, 268

Calonne, 45, 178-9

Cambaceres, 274, 299, 337, 341

Cambon, 293-4

Campan, Madame, 128

Camus, 105

Carlyle, 358

Carnac, 339

Carnot, 258, 274, 290, 318, 324-6, 334

Carnot the younger, 359

Carrier, 93, 315, 333, 334

Cassagnac, Granier de, 349

Castlereagh, Lord, 324

Cathelineau, 304, 308, 310-11

Cazales, 75, 110, 193

Cerutti, 92

Chabot, 264

Charette, 237, 304, 307, 310-14, 335, 339-40

Charleroi, 328

Charles, Archduke, 328

Chartres, Duc de, 257

Chateaubriand, 115, 348, 353

Chatelet, Duc de, 101

Chatham, 26-7

Chaumette, 272, 276-7, 278, 280

Chauvelin, 318-19

Choiseul, Duc de, 181, 185

Cholet, battle of, 313

Chouans, Chouannerie, 302, 303, 339-340

Clerfayt, 216-17, 221-2

Clermont, Count Tonnerre de, 82, 98, 102, 230

Clermont, 188-90

Cloots, Anacharsis, 277

Coburg, Prince of, 320, 325-6, 328

Coffinhal, 294, 297, 299

Collot, 289, 292

Conde, 325

Condorcet, 261, 267-8

Cook, Captain, 149

Corday, Charlotte, 265-7, 349

Cordeliers, the, 128, 227, 229

Cormatin, 335, 341

Corsica, 322

Cottereau, 302

Courier, Paul Louis, 348

Courmenin, 354

Couthon, 286, 297-8

Croker, 350

Custine, 220, 253

Cuvier, 357

Damas, 188, 189, 191

Danton, 84, 226, 234, 238, 241, 242-4, 257, 261, 273-8, 282-3, 318, 349,
352, 372

Dareste, 359

Daunou, 341

Delauney, 85, 86

Delessart, 202, 208-9

Desaix, 325

Deseze, 252

Desmoulins, Camille, 84, 226, 248, 280, 282

Diderot, 31

Domat, 2

Dreux-Breze, 74

Drouet, 186-8, 191-2

Droz, 346-7, 350

Dumouriez, 209, 215, 221, 222-3, 262, 319, 366

Dunkirk, 320, 326

Dupont de Nemours, 51, 62, 116

Duport, 98, 99, 100, 155

Egalite, Prince, 221

Eglantine, Fabre de, 277

Elbee, de, 303, 305

Elizabeth, Princess, 181, 246

_Emigres_, the, 129, 178, 201, 240, 260, 313-14, 338-40

Estaing, Count, 127, 136

Favras, Marquis de, 145

_Federes_, the, 229

Fenelon, 3, 4

Fersen, Count, 176, 182-4, 188, 206, 213, 365-7

Feuillants, 194, 226, 230

Fleurus, battle of, 290, 328

Fontenoy, Madame de, her note to Tallien, 293

Fouche, 289 ff., 324

Foulon, 90

Fouquier-Tinville, 332, 335

Fox, 259, 320

Francis, king of Hungary, 209

Franklin, 126

Frederic William, 211, 219

Freron, 226

Gabourd, Amedee, 354

Garat, 254

Genoude, 353

George III., 202, 259, 320, 329

Gobel, 171, 277

Godoy, Manuel, 329

Goethe, 218

Goguelat, 189

Gouvion, General, 182-3

Gower, Lord, 155, 318

Gregoire, bishop of Blois, 171, 278

Grenville, 318, 320

Guadeloupe, 322

Guizot, 355

Gustavus III., 178

Guyot, bishop of Agra, 309

Hamilton, Alexander, 34, 36

Hanriot, 295-6, 299

Hauranne, Duvergier de, 357, 359-60

Hayti, island of, 322

Hebert, 272, 276, 281

Herbois, Collot de, 247, 274, 295, 333-335

Hervilly, de, 236, 238, 338

Hoche, 244

Hohenlohe, 329

Holland, 260, 329

Hood, Lord, 315

Howe, Lord, 322

Hunolstein, 363

Isnard, 205, 228, 337

Jansenists, the, 2, 169

Jefferson, 92, 126

Jourdan, 326, 328

Joyeuse, Villaret, 322-3

Jurieu, 2

Kaiserslautern, battle of, 329

Kaunitz, 126, 203, 207-8, 212

Kellermann, 217-28

Kleber, 312-13, 314, 325

Klopstock, 126

Korff, Madame de, 184

Kozsiusko and the Polish insurrection, 328

Laboulaye, 359-360

Lafayette, General, 32, 38, 88, 124, 130, 134, 137, 152, 182, 183, 196,
201, 229-30, 233

Lally Tollendal, 88, 90-91, 101, 110, 143, 230, 346

La Marck, 131, 147, 155

Lamartine, 345, 347-8

Lamballe, Princess de, 245

Lameth, 109, 155

Lanfrey, 360

Langres, bishop of, 111, 118, 133

La Jaunaye, treaty of, 335

Lanjuinais, 103, 144, 252, 261, 264, 337, 340

Lasource, 262

Latour Maubourg, 191

Lavallee, 359

Lavergne, 215

Lavoisier, 91

Lecointre, 333

Legendre, 226, 228, 264, 298, 333

Leonard, 181, 185, 188

Leopold, 177-8, 202-3, 208, 367

Le Quesnoy, 326

Lescure, 305, 308, 311, 313-15

Lewis XIV., 337

Lewis XVI., 40-43, 49, 72, 75, 87, 89, 118, 140, 170, 180-90, 195, 198,
204, 206, 227, 228, 231, 232, 233-5, 236-7, 242, 251-3, 255, 346

Lewis XVII., 338

Lewis XVIII., 313, 339

Liancourt, Duc de Rochefoucauld, 87, 233

Limon, 213

Longwy, 215, 242

Louchet, 332

Louis Philippe, 223

Louvet, 250

Lubbock, Sir John, 352

Lubersac, bishop of Chartres, 100, 159

Luckner, General, 229

Luxemburg, Duke of, 61

Lyons, 315, 327

Machault, 42

Mack, Colonel, 325

Mailhe, 251

Maillane, Durand de, 293, 295

Maillard, 129, 131-2, 244

Malesherbes, 42, 252

Mallet du Pan, 212, 361

Malmesbury, 328

Malouet, 51, 54, 230, 346, 366

Mandat, 235

Mantua, 178, 179

Manuel, 248

Marat, 93, 113, 128, 226, 241, 262, 266, 333-5, 353

Marceau, 312, 325

Maret, 275, 319

Marie Antoinette, 55, 59, 131, 138, 140, 141-2, 177-8, 197, 180, 200,
206-7, 213, 275, 348, 363-4

Marigny, 311

Martin, Henry, 359

Massena, 274, 325

Maulevrier, Count Colbert de, 343

Maultrot, 3

Maurepas, 43

Maury, Cardinal, 110, 147

Mayence, 312

Menou, 343

Mentz, 326

Mercier de la Riviere, 13

Merlin, 288, 341

Michelet, 351, 360

Mirabeau, 37, 62, 63, 64, 82, 105, 110, 125, 131, 148, 151, 153, 154,
156-7, 347, 361

Moellendorf, Marshal, 329

Mons, 328

Montagu, 322, 323

Montalembert, 356

Montciel, Terrier de, 226, 229

Montesquieu, 7, 220

Montlosier, 65, 144, 366

Montmedy, 180

Montmorin, 153

Moreau, 274, 325

Morris, 82, 230

Mounier, 60, 61, 95, 109, 111, 118, 122-3, 132-3, 137, 143

Mousson, 251

Murat, 344

Nantes, 311, 333

Napier, 313

Naples, 321

Napoleon Bonaparte, 61, 115, 216, 236, 259, 274, 316, 325-6, 344

Narbonne de Lara, Count, Minister of War, 201-2, 208

Necker, 43, 46, 47, 49, 56, 64, 70, 73, 75, 83, 88, 101, 124, 135

Neerwinden, 325

Ney, Marshal, 325

Niebuhr, 355, 369

Noailles, 87, 99

Orange, the Prince of, 329

Orleans, the Duke of, 135-6, 253

Orleans, the Duchess of, 349

Paine, Tom, 126, 249

Pamiers, bishop of, 175

Panis, 226, 281

Panizzi, 358

Paris, archbishop of, 81, 167

Penthievre, Duc de, 339

Petion, 201, 226, 235, 249, 267

Pichegru, 329, 337

Pilnitz, declaration of, 202

Pitt, 210, 216, 254, 314, 318, 321, 329, 338, 346

Pius VI. and the Civil Constitution of the clergy, 170, 172-3

Plain, the deputies of the, 291

Poland, 320

Polignac, the Duchess of, 65, 83, 88

Pontecoulant, 349

Portugal, 321

Precy, 269

Priestly, 248

Prieur, 274

Provence, the Count of, 48, 50, 145-6, 181, 337

Prussia, 329

Puisaye, Count de, 265, 313, 338

Quiberon, battle of, 340

Quinet, 360

Ranke, 371

Raynal, Abbe, 18

Rebecqui, 251

Reinhard, 200

Reynier, 325

Richelieu, Duc de, 135

Rigby, Dr., 86

Robespierre, 117, 226, 270, 273, 275, 278, 280, 284, 285, 294, 298,
299-300, 330, 332, 351

Rochefoucauld, La, Duke de Liancourt, 87, 233

Rochejaquelein, Henri de la, 305, 309, 314

Roederer, 225, 236-7

Roland, 228, 238, 243, 249, 251, 264

Roland, Madame, 225, 267, 367

Romeuf, 183, 188

Romilly, Sir Samuel, 94

Romme, 277, 336

Rouerie, Marquis de la, 302-3

Rousseau, 14-17, 285, 333, 348

Royer Collard, 122

Saint Victor, 348

Sainte Marie, Miomandre de, 138

Santerre, 226-8, 235

Sardinia, the king of, 220

Sauce, 189

Saumur, 308

Savenay, 315

Scheldt, opening of the, 318

Sechelles, Herault de, 269, 271, 281

Semonville, 275

Sergent, 226

Serre, De, 114

Sieyes, 67, 101-2, 110, 119, 121, 159-62, 163, 249, 261, 340-41

Simolin, 208

Smith, Adam, 22

Sombreuil, 246, 338-40

Sorel, 367, 371

Spain, 260, 321, 329, 337

Spencer, Lord, 329

St. Cyr, 325

St. Just, 251, 273, 280-81, 290, 295, 297

St. Menehould, 186-7

St. Priest, 130, 135-6, 355

Stael, Madame de, 137, 201

Stofflet, 305, 310-11, 314-15, 335, 339

Swiss Guard, 238

Sybel, Heinrich von, 356, 360-70

Taine, 93, 353, 360, 367, 370-71

Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, 69, 75, 79, 110, 156, 167, 171, 319,
347, 365-6

Tallien, 243, 281, 292, 295, 332, 337, 340

Tallien, Madame, 331

Talmond, Prince de, 314

Target, 116

Ternaux, Mortimer, 360

Thibaudeau, 341

Thierry, 353

Thiers, 357, 369

Thouret, 119, 123

Tocqueville, 157, 350, 356, 359-60

Torfou, 312

Torquemada, 352

Toulon, 315, 321

Toulouse, archbishop of, 46, 148

Tourzel, Madame de, 245

Tronchet, 252

Turgot, 10, 11, 14, 42

Tuscany, 337

Ushant, 290

Vadier, 295

Valenciennes, 312, 325

Valmy, 216, 218

Vancouver Island, 149, 150

Varennes, 120, 179, 189

Vendee, La, 260, 303-4, 334, 337

Verdun, 215, 244

Vergniaud, 209, 225, 223, 231, 238, 249, 253, 261, 267

Versailles, the march to, 129-30

Villaret-Joyeuse, 290

Villiaume, 353

Vincent, 273, 276

Virieu, 99

Volney, 123

Voulland, 297, 298

Washington, 126

Wattignies, 326

Weber, 246, 365

Webster, Daniel, 25

Weissenburg, 327

Westermann, 226, 238, 281

Wilson, James, 35, 36

Windward Islands, 322

Wurmser, 327

York, the Duke of, 325-6, 328-9, 339

THE END

_Printed by_ R. & R. Clark, Limited, _Edinburgh_.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

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THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM AND OTHER ESSAYS

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REGINALD VERE LAURENCE, M.A. FELLOW AND LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

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SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

_GUARDIAN._--"The publication of the literary remains of Lord Acton
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and for this we owe our warmest thanks to Mr. Figgis and Mr.
Laurence. The two volumes before us reveal better than anything
that has yet been published the extent of Lord Acton's knowledge
and the force of his mind.... Powerful and closely reasoned essays
and lectures, which bear on every page the stamp of learning and
judgment and righteousness, which are worthy of a great scholar and
a good man."

_TIMES._--"These volumes must be regarded, not as the support of
an existing reputation, or as a bid for the establishment of
posthumous renown, but as the record and memorial of a rare and
attractive personality. The accurate, insatiable, and broad-minded
student is revealed; the generous champion of a noble cause which
has suffered temporary defeat is seen on the field of his eager
endeavour in controversy with Popes and Cardinals for the sake of
freedom and truth; and the principles which he brought to the study
of history or elicited from his observation of men and affairs
throughout the centuries are set forth for all to read. The
resulting picture of the great student, the partisan striving for
impartiality, is admirably put together in a sympathetic and lucid
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_ATHENAEUM._--"We have said enough to indicate the varied
attractions of this volume. It shows us, indeed, the great scholar
at his best, in his wide knowledge, sound judgment, and intense but
restrained moral fervour. It is a book which does more than add to
our information: it strengthens and inspires."

_SPECTATOR._--"These thirty-seven lectures, essays, and reviews are
but a small part, the editors tell us, of Lord Acton's literary
'output.' Let us say at once that they are sufficient to convince
us, if we had needed conviction, of the prodigious learning, the
consummate literary ability, and the unfailing candour of the
writer."

Mr. Oscar Browning in the _CAMBRIDGE REVIEW_.--"The perusal of the
volumes before us will confirm the opinion already formed by those
who are best acquainted with Lord Acton, that he was one of the
most distinguished men of his age, and that he claims to be placed
in the first rank of English historians."

_ACADEMY._--"We can imagine no better mental training for any
reader of history than a study of Lord Acton's methods of inquiry
and criticisms as exemplified in these learned treatises. The
teacher of history will find that these two volumes have a value as
books of reference, which will aid his judgment on many constantly
recurring historical problems--a reference made easy by the
admirable indexes, which in themselves are a testimony to the
immense range of Lord Acton's erudition."

_DAILY NEWS._--"The present volumes, prefaced by an admirable
editorial essay, contain a large number of the writings by which
Acton won the reputation of the most learned Englishman of his
time, together with addresses and unsigned articles that are little
known.... The articles and reviews which he contributed to the
pages of the _English Historical Review_ are reprinted in these
volumes, and contain the ripest and most valuable work of his life.
There is, indeed, nothing like them in English historical
literature."

_NATION._--"It is no exaggeration to say that Lord Acton's Essays
are the book of the season, and that their publication is an event.
Their author stood in the first rank of _Gelehrte_. His reading was
immense, his memory unfailing. He added to his learning a
considerable knowledge of affairs and an almost passionate moral
energy. The former kept him in touch with life, the latter with
principle; he lived in the world of men without descending to its
level; he raised and inspired. The works of such a man are of
public, it is not too much to say of European, interest."

_MORNING POST._--"Nobody can read these two volumes, so massive in
their learning, so moving in their grave and eloquent appeal,
without feeling the moral grandeur of the life of which they form
the most adequate commemoration. Only one of the papers printed in
this collection, an address upon the causes of the Franco-Prussian
War, positively sees the light for the first time, but we question
whether any one of the other essays was known to the general
reading public, or whether there are ten historical experts in the
country who had tracked Lord Acton through the many devious
periodicals in which he deposited the results of his genius and
industry. These volumes, then, to all intents and purposes form a
new book. It is to them, and not to the 'Cambridge Lectures,' that
we should look for Lord Acton's most finished literary work, for
the expression of his deepest convictions upon the most profound
problems of faith and morals, and for the most convincing proofs of
the wide span of his interests and the inexhaustible arsenal of his
knowledge. They enable us to understand the animating conception
which guided his life of arduous toil, and indicate the lines of a
historical apologetic for the Catholic Church more just, original,
and profound than any which the writers of the Ultramontane School
have offered."

_DAILY TELEGRAPH._--"There is so much of fine thought and brilliant
expression in these volumes, and so diverse a variety of themes,
that it is difficult to do more than indicate the treasures which
they offer to intelligent readers."

_Globe 8vo. 2s. 6d._

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DELIVERED AT CAMBRIDGE, JUNE 11, 1895

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LECTURES ON MODERN HISTORY

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

JOHN NEVILLE FIGGIS, Litt.D. SOMETIME LECTURER IN ST. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

AND

REGINALD VERE LAURENCE, M.A. FELLOW AND LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

SOME PRESS OPINIONS.

_TIMES._--"The treatment is personal, fresh, and original
throughout. Lucidity is unfailing. Learning is marshalled behind
_every_ paragraph, and almost behind every sentence, and yet is
never obtrusive. The lectures are equally adapted to illuminate the
scholar and to introduce the novice to the study of the mighty
scheme of human affairs in its dynamic flow. The selection of
detail is governed by consummate judgment; and frequently
information drawn from sources alien to the matter in hand is
dropped into its place with a sureness and precision which
astonishes; controversial questions, when introduced, are
legitimately brought forward as an illustration of historical
method, and not as the diversions and digressions of an overstocked
mind."

_ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW._--"Three hundred years of European
history are covered in these nineteen lectures, masterpieces of
lucid statement, of suggestive and stimulating criticism.
Everywhere, whether the lecturer be sketching the salient features
of the sixteenth century or of the eighteenth, whether he be
dealing with Italy or America, we feel the sureness of touch of one
who is familiar with every detail. Although we may often not agree
with his trenchant judgments, with his paradoxes, or even with his
interpretation of the teaching of history, we are made to feel that
his ample knowledge would never have been at a loss for weighty
arguments in answer to every objection."

_TRIBUNE._--"The pages abound in indispensable corrections of
popular and pedagogic errors, and in revelations of new facts. No
one could do this so well as Acton, because no historical scholar
who ever lived kept himself so well abreast of Continental research
or so completely in touch with the world of scholars. All archives
were open to him, and all archivists put their knowledge at his
disposal; wealth, social position, and leisure gave him advantages
denied to almost every other scholar."

MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd., LONDON.