BOOK NOTICES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 5229, 19 March 1904, Page 10

BOOK NOTICES

,• (From the “New Zealand Mail.”) 1 NEW BOOKS AND NEW EDITIONS GREAT STORY OF HALF A CENTURY. BRITAIN’S BRILLIANT ERA“A History cf Atodeni England.” Ry Herbert Paul. Vpls. I. and 11. - Macmillan and Co., London. The urst and second volumes of an important work have --just- been - pleted bv Air Herbert Paul from the' press of Messrs Macmillan anu Co. Tho last fifty years of _tho history of Enirland must ever constitute one ot the brightest periods in the anuato o the British nation. It, is halt a . c . oll ' turv of splendid achievement in staresmenshin.'politics, colonial expansion, law, letter's, and invention. Beginning with tho4«ramatio close ot fen - Jtebort official career, which' .according to Air Paul “marks a turning poaurm English History, tho story rings wiUi tho doings of statesmen, soldiers and Empire-bail dens, of which the presonu generation know so little, while reaping tho advantages, nevertheless, or their glorious attainments, io evoiy department of human activity our historian devote? attention. Ho cm os not regai-d a record of tue transactions pi Re Parliament a. history or any nation Abo ho gives ns portraits of the luon 'Y no I l °- the nation’s business ; and he likewise takes into account tne many vital elements of national progress which are beyond the influence of statesmen. “Modern England was not erected by Act of Parliament. Free-trade was essential to her commercial supremacy, and the establishment of trde-traao was a piece of practical politics; but ircotrade would iiave been comparatively useless without. steam,-. aud no Parliament ever yet made a scientific discovery.’,’ . . ■ ■ v Few subjects can bo more eutertaining than the study of tire last til by yeai-a of British history. Although we may bo as yet ratiicr close to the stage on which "tho great public actors performed, and although we may be unable to disabuse our minds of party and political prejudices, still the perusal of these pages must lead us to the conclusionthat Mr l?aui has laboured to bo so iiupartial that it cannot bo discovered to winch-party in the State he may belong. Ho is clear in lies vision and broad in his sympathies. Aloroovor, 110 is manifestly conscious the greatness of a nation does not consist in the number of its peojilo or in the square mileage of its area. Material progress is to be appreciated at its true vatu©. The contemplation of a nation’s wealth isi not satisfying- to the historian, tor the things which are seen are temporal, the tbingi which are not seen are eternal, and it is . with the deeds and attainments ot the men and women who have made history and have left permanent impress upon our national life that Mr Paul has to do.

Apart from the fact that- our author possesses a literary style which ri neither as "embellished as Macaulay’s, nor as matter of feet as Alacarthy’s, he has giveln. us a ’ histioiy .which for dipt-ion, - method 1 and symmetry, may not be surpassed. “The essence of history,” he tells us,, “is narrative; not .disquisition, and narrative must. do continuous.” lie therefore divides his book into periods, not into subjects; so- wo have a story ot all that is worth recording m every period. This is a simple method, and so long as the details preserve a duo proportion to tho whole the history thus compiled will absorb the attention of the reader .with all the power of the most fascinating -work of fiction. That is Mr Paul’s “Modern England.” In his opening chapter wo have tho fall or the Whig Government —fine succession of Lord John liussoll to Sir Robert Peel. How all embracing is tho writer’s style may bo measured oy in© following: “The Tories were now broken up, but tho Radicals were an uncertain element, and there was no majority ror the Whigs. The Irish were not more amenable to discipline. O’Gonnell, who liad given such powerful support to free-ti'ade. was merely the shadow of a great man.-"' His strength was broken, and ho was preparing ..himself, with the devotion of a good Catholic, for another world; The ’Whigs were no longer the favourites at Court they onco had been. jQueen victoria hau passed from the influence of- Lord Melbourne to the influence of Prince Albert, and Prince Albert was a Peehtc. But, indeed, it is a mistake, and an injurious mistake, to suppose that Lord Alclbourne made the Queen a Whig, He made her a Constitutional sovereign.”’

If public men nave fames, there is no need to refrain from mentioning them, but there is necessity at the same time to state their good points. ; Two samples of Mr Paul's method of summing up the statesmen of this period must suffice for tho present notice. W& will take Lord Melbourne. ‘As a statesman, with many faults, he possessed the rare and splendid virtue, for ’ whicii there ought to he a better name, m absolute disinterestedness. In tbc political education of a monarch ho never thought of his party, nor of himseli. He thought only of. England. Then. Lord John. Russell was not designed by nature, or disposed by ■inclination, to act. the part of a courtier. . . As leader of the House he belied the judgment of William IV., and commanded general esteem. Genial and conciliatory he never was to either friend or loe. .He had no tact, and he was not a man of tho world ; J but these deficiencies are comparative trifles, and they were tho worst faults that bad been discovered in him. , His intense zeal for social and political progress inspired him with'an eloquence not the less effective because he reserved it for great,,occasions.'' That is how, in a few lines between tho acts, so to speak, that make history, Mr Paul enables his readers to understand the characters of the great; men who helped to ‘'erect.” modern England and they help us to account for ana perhaps excuse a strengtn in one direction or a weakness in another.

We hare not time to even reflect the brilliancy of the narrative covering “Palmerston’s Foreign Policy,” which earned for him the title of being the greatest foreign Minister ■ of r nis time, nor need we pause to discuss now the English Court was estranged -rom the people, or how Prince Albert became unpopular. Suffice is to say that Mr Paul treats them with ability and good taste. We have a chapter devoted to ‘•Revolution : and re-action,'' in which the politics of Europe and the affairs of France are shown to have had a reflex action upon the national life’ of Great Britain. Next we have the Chartist rising and its collapse. Nevertheless it might be noted in passing that five ■o'ct of its six demands—annual Parliaments, universal suffrage, vote by. ballot, equal electoral districts, removal of property qualification for members of Parliament, and payment of members—bad all been granted to the people of New Zealand, and the political pnVi>ges of the cl colons of Great Britain have been greatly extended. Passing ■over the chapter on “Irish Bebels,” Who were more/sinned again than sin-, ning at this" iinie, we come to the “Expansion, England," and we take , leave to say than Mr Paul means the .expansion of Great Britain. 7 ' Through‘“Theology and literature’' we are -fallen 1 to “Lord Palmerston's Triumph,'’ and on to “The Development of the Colo-

nies.” Tliat was tno time when practical parsons with material views Ickaidecl “our colonial pcssossffms as a burden, and thought ,t-liat, the Sooner England got rid 01 them tho The “practical men with material views were cliiefly Bright, Cobdon and Lis-i-aeli, and yet tlioii- influence was not altogether harmful to tno colonies, for probably without thou- policy of separation the' colonies would- have been cared for and codded and deprived th© longer from the precious possession ot the right of solt-govermnent. It was, the- view that the colonies were a burden that stimulated ‘colonial cuterprise and independence; and although Mr Paul does not in so many words say so, we can infer that his opponents enabled Lord John Russell to still further liberalise tlio fre© constitutions ot t-lic Empire’s’ dependencies. So far we have been only able to review Mr Paul’s - work as our space will allow, and not as adequately as our inclinations and desires have prompted. Wc liavo not referred to the chapters dealing with those discoveries of. the period that.have “annihilated distance and almost destroyed time.” In closing this notice wo would saw., that Mr Paul's history is ot a permanent and abiding character, and; that those who see these, the first two volumes, will await the issue of the remainder with pleasurable anticipation, and peruse Mr Paul’s history with even greater avidity."""; ''A'.'■ V- ; ! : \ ' I:! f ’ A;■ j"