Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/309

 1922 SHORT NOTICES 301 some of which are here reproduced for the first time. In particular there are two most interesting portraits of Charles II, one representing him as a young man, the other taken in his old age. Unfortunately the text of the book is less valuable. The absence of any private letters of Graf ton's deprives his biography of much of its unity, and almost compels the insertion of some general history to supplement the relatively few personal details. It is regrettable, however, that Sir Almeric thought fit to insert some very dubious and irrelevant generalizations about the foreign rela- tions of Charles II. ' The malice and misunderstanding of historians ' may have obscured the aims of that monarch and miscalculated their results, but it is impossible to accept the view here advanced without proof that French money enabled the king ' to pursue a policy which was neither Dutch nor French, but essentially British, or, in a larger sense, European '. The author's summing up of the evidence on single issues does not seem any sounder than his verdict on a whole period. An example is supplied by his account of Grafton's conduct in the autumn of 1688. According to an original memoir in the Life of James II, Grafton, disap- pointed at not being offered the command of James's fleet, tried to corrupt the sailors' loyalty and planned to seize Dartmouth, the admiral, on board Captain Hastings's ship. Sir Almeric calls this ' unsupported fiction ', and quotes a letter written by Pepys to Dartmouth that Grafton had the royal permission to serve as a volunteer in Hastings's ship. But if Grafton wished to plot against James in the navy, he could only be present as a volunteer since James gave him no official position. Furthermore James's account is not unsupported, for it is stated in the Memoirs relating to the Lord Torrington, who as George Byng was undoubtedly a leading conspirator on behalf of William of Orange, that there was a design to seize Dartmouth on board Hastings's ship and to give the command of the fleet to Grafton. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that there are also a number of minor errors, Sir Almeric has proved his contention that Grafton showed an unusual precocity in achieving so much in the twenty- six years allotted to him. G. D. In The Social and Industrial History of Scotland, from the Union to the Present Time (London : Longmans, 1921), Professor Mackinnon com- pletes the survey begun in the volume which he published in 1920. A book which in 274 pages deals with every aspect of social life during two busy centuries must necessarily omit much, and occasionally the author omits just what the reader would most like to know. In the 57 pages which are allotted to the eighteenth century the main thesis is that until about the year 1750 little progress was made in any direction, but that the second half of the century ' may be described as a period of revolution '. This is incontestable ; but the causes, and indeed the processes, of the great change are left tantalizingly vague. When, for instance, and how, did the Scottish farmer begin to bring his ' outfield ' under proper cultivation ? Considering the short space at his disposal it is too bad of Dr. Mackinnon to tell us twice (p. 33 and p. 37) of the school- master's perquisite of the slain fighting-cocks, and twice, in identical phrases, of the ' amateur devotees ' of vocal and instrumental music.