Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/481

 1920 SHORT NOTICES 473 British statesmen — for instance, Walpole, Addington, and the fifth duke of Newcastle— through their ignorance of naval history committed serious political errors. In attempting to prove that the treaty of Amiens and the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle were settlements which 'ignored the teaching of history and the promptings of experience', his criticism does not take into account the military and political failure of British policy on the Continent and its natural result. What he elsewhere terms ' the conditions of the time ' made a satisfactory peace impossible. Dr. J, R. Tanner's Lees Knowles Lectures, Samuel Pepys and the Royal Navy (Cambridge : University Press, 1920), illustrate the advantages of specialization in history. In eighty pages he sums up the result of many years' labour on the navy under Charles II and James II, setting forth in a clear, orderly, and interesting shape the main facts and the general conclusions to be drawn from them. It is a wonderful example of com- pression, but nothing of importance is omitted and each topic touched seems to be adequately treated. Any student of the later history of the navy will be well advised to preface his researches by mastering Dr. Tanner's four lectures, and any one working on the naval records of the seventeenth century will find them an indispensable companion. C. H. F. A good example of the sound and careful studies of Dutch foreign rela- tions which are founded on the theses for doctors' degrees is MejufErouw S. W. A. Drossaers' work, Diplomatieke Betrekkingen tusschen Sfanje en de Republiek der Vereenigde Nederlanden, 1678-1684 (The Hague : Nijhoff, 1915). From the records at The Hague and Brussels, the writer has put together a fuller account of the negotiations than has hitherto been avail- able. She shows herself somewhat anxious to make the best case for the action of the Dutch government, which evaded its obligations under the treaty of 1673, and left the Spaniards without support in a war which, although technically declared by them, was actually forced on them by France. Although this attempt does not lead to any serious modification of the accepted view, it has the result of throwing into prominence the extreme weakness and confusion of the Spanish government at this time. The most attractive chapter in the book is the first, which describes, partly from the reports of the worthy Dutch dij)lomatist Heemskerk, the condition of Spain. G. N. C. No one has previously fulfilled so thoroughly as does Professor C. H. Firth in his Political Significance of Gulliver's Travels (from the Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. ix. London : Milford, s. a.), the hope of Swift himself that posterity might ' have curiosity enough to consult annals and compare dates, in order to find out ' the hidden meanings of the satire. In this pamphlet of rather more than twenty pages there is not only a systematic exposition of what was already established, but a sur- prisingly copious contribution of new suimises. The most interesting are those which bring out the influence of Swift's experiences and opinions of Irish questions (pp. 13-22). The conclusion is drawn that, in the last stages of the work. Swift's mind was absorbed in Irish affairs, and the Yahoos are shown to be sketched not merely from the model of humanity