Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/634

 «26 SHORT NOTICES October had no marked peculiarities, and his followers maintained the fervour and the organization of Methodism. But Unitarianism was active at the time, and Cooke's disciples fell under its influence. In 1812 they formed themselves into the Methodist Unitarian Association, and their uneducated and unpaid ministers spread the teaching through east Lancashire, especially in Rossendale. For a generation they retained their Methodist ways, but about 1838 these began to decline, and in 1844 the association came to an end. From that time their chapels fell into line with those of other Unitarians, and by 18^8 Mr. McLachlan considers that all their peculiarities had disappeared. But in their day they had been a considerable force. They had been active in the cause of elementary education, of radical reform, of chartism, and of co-operation. With the exception of one family who joined them from Quakerism, they were people of the labouring class, who had their full share in the hardships of their time ; and the record is full of high examples of earnestness and public spirit. The subject is a small one, but worthy of the enthusiasm and industry which Mr. McLachlan has thrown into his monograph. E. W. W. Sir Adolphus Ward contributes to the series of ' Helps for Students of History ' a work on The Period of the Congresses (London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1919). This admirable little book consists of three sections. The first, which is ''introductory, begins with the congress of Westphalia and sketches the history of Europe, from the point of view of theoretical and practical efforts to restore and maintain peace, down to the end of Napoleon's empire. The second section covers the period from the opening of the congress of Vienna to the Second Peace of Paris. The third section covers that from the conference of Aix-la-Chapelle to the congress of Verona, which marked ' the collapse of the Concert of Europe '. There is little to be said in criticism of a work the quality of which is sufficiently warranted by the author's reputation. It is, I think, to be regretted that the book does not place in clearer relief the funda- mental principle underlying the refusal of Great Britain to be a party to Alexander I's project of a league of general guarantee, namely, that it is both wrong and inexpedient for a government to enter into general engage- ments for ' eventual exertion ' in circumstances that cannot be foreseen. The statement (ii. 13) that 'the real Congress had now become a Committee of Five ' is not quite accurate. It refers to the constitution at Vienna, on 8 October 1814, of the preliminary committee of eight ; but the all- important Polish-Saxon question continued to be discussed by the four powers alone, and it was not until December that this committee of four was turned into a committee of five by the admission of Talleyrand. The attitude of the British public towards the question of the dismemberment of France is somewhat obscured by seemingly contradictory statements (ii. 58, 59). It is correct to say that public opinion agreed with Liverpool's view that ' France should at last be taught a lesson ' (p. 59) ; it is incorrect to suggest that the wise and moderate counsels of Castlereagh and Welling- ton were inspired by the fact that ' British feeling, violent in the hour of danger, was no longer such in the hour of victory ' (p. 58). Neither of them was in the habit of taking much notice of public opinion, luckily for