Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/791

 Avenel : La Noblesse Fraiifaise sotis Richelieu 781 the same events continually recur. Nevertheless, Dr. Ingram has studied the printed sources and even some manuscript sources, and occasionally his points are well-made. In minor matters he furnishes corrections to Lecky ; he is justified in laying stress upon the political side of the penal laws, and upon the fact that the Catholics in a measure provoked the passage of such laws ; it is true, too, that the Irish woolen industry was of little moment when it was suppressed by the English in 1699 ; that the Irish Parliament was venal and corrupt, and that the estates of ab- sentees should have been taxed ; but even when right it is inevitable that he should not receive the credit of being so, since the reader is rendered suspicious by the violence of his tone, his evident bias, and his indiscri- minate abuse of his opponents. Ralph C. H. Catterall. La Noblesse Fraii^alse sons Richelieu. Par le Vicomte G. d'A'enel. (Paris: Armand Colin. 1901. Pp.355.) The matter in this book is not new. In his elaborate and valuable work Richelieu ct la Monarchie Absoliie, published twenty years ago, the Vicomte G. d' Avenel treated of the condition of the nobility when Riche- lieu ruled over France. What was there said formed a part of three large volumes. The author has now printed by itself the portion which relates to the nobility, in one moderate-sized volume. For the most part, the matter contained in the former work is re- printed word for word. Some additions have been made, of no great importance, and some slight changes made in the text. We notice that in giving the relative values of money, the author formerly estimated that a livre in the days of Richelieu had a purchasing power equal to six francs in our times. He now gives the equivalent value as five-fold. Such a multiplicity of circumstances have to be considered in estimating the relative values of money at different epochs, that at best one can only make a rough guess. It was probably judicious to select the portion of the former work wlfich treated of the nobility, that it might be presented in more con- venient shape to the reading public. For the majority of readers, the French nobility is the most interesting of the institutions of the old regime. Certainly it was the most picturesque, though it was far from being the most useful. The Vicomte d' Avenel thinks that the forms of freer government still existed when Richelieu assumed power and should have been utilized by him, yet he finds little fault with the Cardinal's treatment of the French nobles. Indeed, his judgment upon the body of which he is a member has become more unfavorable, after twenty years of reflection. In 1881 he wrote : " History has been severe toward the nobility, sometimes even unjust." In the present volume he contents himself with saying that "History has been severe," without suggesting that it has been unjust. No follower of the Cardinal could have de- fended his policy toward the French nobility with more vigor than our