New-York tribune., 1870-05-11
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
MR. FROIInE,S HISTORY.

656 Charles Scffbner q Co
With these two volumes the eleventh and twelfth
Of the whole work, Mr.. Froude brings his task to
close. He has apparently found his original scheme
too vast for his patience if not for his powers, and
while in the title pages of the previous volumes ne
assigns the death of Elizabeth as the term of his un-
dertakng he now lays aside his pen while fifteen
eventful years, comprising a third Of EEzabeths
reign remain untouched Apart from the formida-
BILE length of the narrative Mr. Froude assigns In MS
closing pages such good reasons for breaking OH ID
1883 instead of 1603 that wonder those reasons
did not occur to him at first. His purpose was 10
trace the process by which England cast OH the oiu
faith and put on the new, abandoned the theory o
dominant and absolute church, and embraced INC
doctrine of individual liberty, and intellectual pro
gress That change was completed when the defeat
If the Spanish Armada destroyed the last chance of
the Catholic party for reconcling England with the
Papal See The subsequent incidents of Elizabeths
reign the adventures which carried England's COM
erce to all the ends of the EARTH and the growth OF
that literature which has been the delight OF all later
times belong properly to another theme. In reality,
therefore Mr. Froude has not covered the promised
number of years he has substantially performed the
promised task. That he has performed 1t to the fun
satisfaction of his readers generally we cannot VEN
ture to say Mr.. Froude, though he may have the
conscience of historian has all the hot feelings of
TO the service of any one party He defended Henry
VIII in his first volumes with ardOr that was al
most Ouixotic but he dssects the character of Eliza
beth with a sternness which is almost cruel. He
glorifed the founder of the Anglican establishment;
but he has little sympathy with the establishment
itself and looks upon it almost as failure The
worst legacy" he says which princes or statesmen
conld bequeath 10 their country would be the resou
ton Of all its perplexites, the establishment once
and forever Of finished system which would neither
require nor tolerate improvement" Naturally,
therefore the English Church exctes his enthusiasm
while it is struggling for independence, and hls dis
like while il is working for consolidation; and the graf
itude of the Angcans which he supposed TO have
earned by his earlier volumes he has sacrificed by the
later. The great mistake of the Church of England,
in his mind that it only half cut loose from the
Church of Rome. He ridcules the English reform
ers who persisted in regarding themselves as men,
bers of Church which cast them off, and clung to
the theory of apOstolical succession as their only
means Of establishing a divine inheritance The
conservation of Archbishop Parker, the one import
ant link in the chain of Anglican episcOpacy he dis
misses in a paragraph which is half cOntenptuous
and half jocular. Hcnry's revolt against Rome kin
died his enthusiasm but the cold policy with which
Elizabeth finished her fathers work enliss his
sympathies for an instant.
partisan: we might 90 further and say that he be-
trays prejudice and rancor; yet we do not mean to
imply that he is purposely dishonest. OF the cold
impartialty which has generally been thought the
crowning merit of historical writers he has more
conception than Macaulay. 1t would be wrong to
accuse either of distortng, coloring or concealing
facts: but Mr. Froude like Macaulay, had formed
judgments (unquestiOnably honest onesl upon per-
sons and events, and 80 wrote history as to set
forth those convictions in the most forcible manner
To do this he has arranged incidents with admirable
art distributed his elOquence where 1t would be
most effective and when be has reached clear
victon upon controverted point he sometimes does
not scruple to state it boldly without hint to the
unearned reader that there any dispute about the
matter or anything TO be said upon the other side.
How far he possesses the merits of accuracy and con-
scentiOusness cannot yet be determined. He has
written from unpublished materials. The archives
of Simancas the treasures of the State'Paper Office
and other comparatively inaccessible sources, have
yielded large proportion of his pages; and it must
be long before the researches Of later investigators
in the field test the truth of his conclusions
Meanwhile we may safely congratulate ourselves
that those mines of historical lore have
been explored by so patient and so
ingenious an investigator. The Spanish records
especially, embracing the correspondence between
Philip H. and his ambassadors in London, so rich,
that the history of Elzabeths reign, read by their
light, is almost a new revelation. Mr. Froude has
been enabled TO disclose the mysteries of long years
Of intrigue in which the astutest sOvereigns and
ministers of Europe were the actors and upon whose
Issue hung the peace if not the existence Of more
than one powerful kingdom. The narrative, set
forth with exquisite cleaness and perfect skill III
arrangement, is like the development Of drama.
We follow il with the same sort of interest which
belongs to absorbing story of personal adventure.
One disadvantage this dramatic method certainly
has. 1t shows us the secret springs of England's
public policy, but little nothing of the social
dition of the English people, or the development
of that luxuriant national life which made England
the nursery of literary grandeur, of daring enter
prise and little later of political liberty. OF En-
gland in the early years of Henry VIII there
admirable picture in Mr.. Froude's first volume; but
there are no such graphic descriptions in the later
part of his work; and if want to understand the
people out of whom the real greatness of the king
dom grew up the people who produced Shakespeare
and the wits of the Mermaid Tavern, Milton CrOm-
well the stern heroes of the Commonwealth, the
pioneers of America and the Indian Seas, the con-
querors of Hndostan, the fertile ntelects of later
times we must recur TO other authorities. And per-
haps there is no period in which study of English
life and the growth of English character would be
IN, re interesting than the period covered by these
twelve volumes.
OF Mr.. Froude's style and method we speak
with less than of his superior qualifications
He initiates Macauay in the minuteness of lis mar
ratve and in the introduction Of personal incidents
and descriptions 10 illustrate the history of great
events, with which historians of the old school
exclusively concerned themselves. He groups
characters and incidents with the skill of an
rlioba fief. bv