Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/448

 REVIEWS OF BOOKS July represented the conscience of the emperor which they controlled, and had become one of the most useful and powerful personalities at the court of Vienna and within the sphere of its influence. The deed had been done, and the public invited to recognize its neces- sity ; but, even in an Apologia which added nothing material to Piccolo- mini's misrepresentations of Wallenstein's designs (it went back so far as the official inquiry into the Liitzen laches in order to prove his cruelty in the way of death-sentences upon military offenders), the defence was in so far treated as insufficient that it held out the promise of a forthcoming This was produced in an official manifesto, under the title of (transla- tion is not easy) the ' Detailed and Fundamental Report of the previous {vorgewest) Abominable Treason (Prodition) of Friedland and his Adherents ', which early in May was put into the hands of the Reichshofrat Prickelmayer for final drafting, and, after being approved by the council and communi- cated to Piccolomini and other generals in command for their confirmation, publicly circulated in the following October. But, before this final step was taken, the production had been submitted to the heir to the throne, whose appointment as commander-in-chief had been purposely delayed in order that it might be accompanied by the appearance of the vindication of the policy which had made it possible. King Ferdinand Ill's opinion was that the manifesto should not be published without a sententia post mortem : in other words, that the army, the empire it might be added Rome and the world should be satisfied by a judicial decision, in whatever way it might be reached, as to the question of the treason of Wallenstein and his associates. But the protest was overruled, and the manifesto placed on record the position assumed by the imperial government on the the agents of the execution, and that he and he alone remained responsible for the ending of Wallenstein. ' The Sienese ', in our author's words, ' had gained the victory over the emperor as well as over the dead commander.' And so the decision as to the problem of Wallenstein's guilt, which is in reality but a part of the problem of his whole character and career, and of their relation to the political and religious future awaiting Germany and the world, was left to the only judge capable of indicating, if not of formulating, its solution to history. Neither Piccolomini nor Ferdi- nand II could determine, as neither of them could arrest, that judgement when, in its own time and later, it came. Ritter von Srbik, in the fascinating work before us, has not failed to show his consciousness of the tenor of the ultimate verdict ; but he has set his own contribution limits the wise observation of which is not the least of its merits. A. W. WARD. Struensee og den Danske Centraladministration Statsstyrelse og Statsfor- valtning i det 18 Aarhundrede. Af AXEL LINVALD. (Copenhagen : Pios Forlag, 1921.) IN an essay of barely 140 pages, Dr. Linvald has thrown more light upon Stiuensee and his work than has issued from far more ambitious publica- tions. The destined continuator of Edvard Holm's great history, he has
 * deduction ' for the satisfaction of Christendom and posterity.
 * information ' of Piccolomini, that the emperor's action covered that of