Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/381

 Riiville: Ullliain Pitt Graf von Chatham 371 These views as to the English Commonwealth, and this larger and more interesting significance of Vane, American writers have fully pre- sented. Of these views Mr. Ireland has no knowledge — or, knowing them, is not impressed. They are worthy of notice, if only to he pro- nounced unsound and extravagant. While finding Mr. Ireland's book lacking in some ways, its good purpose, scholarship, and sound republi- can spirit lead the reviewer to commend it as throwing much light upon its hero and the age in which he moved. William Pitt Graf von Chatham. 'on Albert von Ruville. (Stuttgart and Berlin: J. G. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Nach- folger. 1905. Three vols., pp. xii, 447; viii, 480; viii, 456.) This is a book of unusual merit. Unfortunately, the author had no sooner published it than M. Mantoux discovered a mass of material for the history of England in the eighteenth century in the unpub- lished reports of parliamentary proceedings transmitted by the French ambassadors in London to the French government. These would un- doubtedly have thrown much light on some of the episodes of Pitt's early parliamentary career. Similarly, the author would undoubtedly have found some shreds of information in the archives at Vienna, Dres- den, and St. Petersburg, and might have added something by consulting the Shprnik. These sources, however, could have yielded but little information which was not already at the writer's disposal and which he has given us in a book whose construction is a model. He has analyzed his sub- ject carefully and has allotted to each part of it its proper space. He has in addition remarkable ability in presenting in a brief space the principal elements in a situation, an excellent example of which is afforded in his resume of the political, military, and economic condi- tions in America before the Seven Years' War. Again, he has exer- cised admirable judgment and great critical acumen in treating his facts. In particular he possesses what most English writers lack, a proper appreciation of the importance of continental affairs in English history. As to matters military, which play such an enormous part in this period, he shows unusual information ; and, while wasting no time over military details, he is able to explain the essential features of a campaign in such a manner that the veriest military tyro can grasp the situation. In his judgment of Pitt the author is so far from being an advocate that he errs rather in being too severe. This is probably due in part to a healthy reaction against the usual uncritical panegyric which one finds in most English books on Pitt. Nevertheless, it is possible to go too far in reaction, and this von Ruville seems to have done. This is particularly the case when he attempts to explain the reasons for Pitt's acts and policies. He is constantly attributing to Pitt the meanest motives, as in regard to his attitude toward 'alpole, which the author