Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/316

 308 SHORT NOTICES April book gives an amusing account of the discomfiture of the imperial police, of the certainty with which they promise a successful ' round up ', and the ease with which their victims escape. There are the typical figures of any post-revolutionary period, leaders of the Terror who become respect- able bureaucrats, such as, for example, the accusateur. public of the Department of Loir-et-Cher (and member of the Legion of Honour), who was consistent only in his appropriations of public money. M. de Chauvigny's sketches are, on the whole, good. Sometimes he quotes so fully from minor documents that the wealth of detail is too great and the story too rambling. E. L. W. A Short Fiscal and Financial History of England, 1815-1918, by J. F. Rees (London : Methuen, 1921), though not a work of original research, is based on a careful study of some primary sources, and shows an adequate appreciation of the theoretical problems which are suggested or elucidated by the history of our modern fiscal system. Mr. Rees distinguishes seven stages of financial policy, each of which is characterized by some urgent difficulty or some programme of reform. In dealing with each stage he supplies a precis of the principal budget-speeches, adding a useful commentary and references to other documents of cardinal im- portance. He gives a clear account of the aims of each great chancellor of the exchequer; but it is a pity that he has not endeavoured to summarize on broad lines the general development of financial policy in his period. A useful starting-point for such a summary is provided in his appendix, which contains (pp. 232-5) a table showing the yield of the chief groups of taxes from 1815 to 1918. But it would have been well to analyse on similar lines the national expenditure for these years, showing what new items have crept in, and how the relative importance of various items has altered. The subject of local taxation is almost entirely neglected. A more systematic and comprehensive bibliography would have been welcome. Mr. Rees is bold in his attempt to survey the financial policy of the years 1893-1918 in fifty-four pages. He writes this part of the book with com- mendable impartiality, but so short an account is necessarily jejune. M. Dr. P. H. van der Kemp has added to his works on the history of the Dutch East Indies during the same period Sumatra in 1818 naar Oorspron- Jcelijke Stukken (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1920). The present volume is mostly occupied with the controversies with Sir Stamford Raffles, then lieutenant- governor of Bencoolen on the west coast of Sumatra, and goes fully into the action taken by him in the Lampongs, his objection to the surrender of Padang, and his military expedition to Palembang, which was foiled by the energetic action of Muntinghe. It refers also to his claim to Billiton, and has a chapter on his attempts to influence public opinion in England. This he hoped to do by publishing a statement, but his action was contrary to all established usage, and did not save him from, if indeed it did not precipitate, his disavowal by the government. Raffles's action is examined in great detail, supported by numerous quotations of a damaging character, and any future biographer of that able and restless man will have to take