Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/138

 130 REVIEWS OF BOOKS January these difficult times, in the carrying on His Majesty's concerns in the commerce of his subjects, which is at this time greater than ever in this place, and by consequence more envious and more exposed ' (p. 288). Of the state of British commerce in Turkey and the many obstructions it met with from the Turkish rulers these pages gives a full and vivid picture, and in that consists the value of Mr. Abbott's book. It will serve as an introduction to the study of any other embassy from England to Turkey during the later seventeenth century. The unpublished authorities used are the Turkey Papers and Levant Company's Papers in the Public Kecord Office, and the Coventry Papers at Longleat. Mr. Abbott has made good use of the older published litera- ture such as the works of Sir Paul Kycaut and the Life of Sir Dudley North ; and of recent publications such as the Diaries of Dr. John Covel ; the first volume of the Historical Manuscripts Commission's report on the manu- scripts of Mr. A. G. Finch (which deals with the correspondence of Sir T. Winchelsea, ambassador from 1660 to 1668), and Dr. A. Mattoch's Finch and Baines. Vandal's Voyages du Marquis de Nointel has also been freely employed, as Nointel was the contemporary representative of France at Constantinople. Mr. Abbott does not appear to have used Paul Masson's Histoire du Commerce Francais dans le Levant au XVII 6 Siecle, which is to be regretted, for it throws light on some of the questions dealt with, and might have suggested to him the more systematic account of the development of English commerce during the same period which he fails to give us. A little more study of the economic side of the subject and a somewhat briefer treatment of personal and incidental matters would not have made Mr. Abbott's book less interesting and would have increased its utility to historians. C. H. FIRTH. Sir Francis D'lvernois 1757-1842, sa Vie, son (Euvre et son Temps. Par OTTO KARMIN. (Geneve : Revue Historique de la Revolution Francaise et de I'Empire, 1920.) JUST before his death at the age of thirty-eight M. Otto Karmin completed this exhaustive study of one who is barely remembered to-day, but was of some importance in his life-time by reason of his close contact with certain British ministers during the war with France and his activity as a publicist. The book is complete. M. Karmin studied all likely sources published and unpublished, and he wrote with critical acumen and a good knowledge of general history. D'lvernois left a large collection of papers, now in the Geneva Library, which M. Karmin used very fully, his other chief source being the Bexley Papers in the British Museum, four volumes of miscellaneous correspondence addressed to Sir Nicholas Vansittart, first Lord Bexley, chancellor of the exchequer from 1812 to 1822. A considerable portion of the book deals with Genevan history, and particularly with the ' little revolutions ' which established political equality in place of an aristocratic republic in the city. D'lvernois's father was an admirer and helper of Rousseau, and his own first political action was on the democratic side. His first contact with British ministers was when he attempted without success to persuade Charles James Fox