Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/468

 460 REVIEWS OF BOOKS July Of his old love of idleness no sign appeared, and with it disappeared his constant depression : he could return home at two in the morning during a crisis, tired but cheerful and to sleep more than usual, and throughout the varying fortunes of the struggle was not only calm but apparently in continual good spirits, astonishing friends accustomed to his reserved manners by an unwonted geniality. And his patience was wonderful ; it was sorely tried by his impracticable son-in-law, Durham, and not less sorely, one may imagine, by his intriguing chancellor. He expected, we are told, that the working classes would at once warmly welcome the reform bill, but for some months a large number of them regarded it with indifference as ' a middle-class affair '. Their support was gained by democratic leaders of a higher class, such as Attwood and Place, with whom Melbourne put himself in communication ; opposition to the bill excited them to fury, and their violence added greatly to the difficulties of the cabinet. Mr. Trevelyan evidently considers that if the duke had been able to form a ministry in May 1832 the plans prepared by the democratic leaders would have been carried out, and an armed rebellion would have taken place. This is, I venture to think, extremely doubtful. Serious indeed the riots of 1831 had been, and far more serious and wide- spread rioting would probably have broken out if a tory ministry had come into power ; but Englishmen have ever been unwilling to join in an organized and armed rebellion against government, and Mr. Trevelyan tells us, as something * most strange ', that neither in the correspondence of the ministers with one another, nor in that of the tory leaders, is such a catastrophe discussed as ' relevant to the question whether the duke should take ofl&ce '. From this it may surely be inferred that, though the ministers must have known of the threats of violence and the preparations for it, they did not consider that they portended a possible rebellion, and they were better able to estimate the real significance of these things than we can be now, or perhaps than even the organizers of resistance were at the time. But as the crisis ended with the king's grant of full authority to Grey for the creation of as many peers * as shall be necessary to enable him to carry the bill ', what might have been had the event been otherwise must remain a matter of opinion. William Hunt. History of the Great War ; Naval Operations. By Sir Julian S. Corbett. Vol. i. (London : Longmans, 1920.) This history of the naval operations during the first four months of the great German war has been produced imder the auspices of the committee of imperial defence and not of the admiralty, who disclaim all responsibility for the presentation of the facts. It contains a complex mass of informa- tion lucidly arranged, but probably incomplete. From the nature of the case there is difficulty in so presenting it that justice is done to the actors in the great drama, while help is given to their successors of the future. In threading his way through the tangled story the reader should con- stantly bear in mind that in war at sea the primary military aim of each side is to destroy the opposing armed ships and attendant aircraft in