New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-02-24
NEW PUBLICATIONS.
GREEN'S CONQUEST OF ENGLAND.
TIT CONQUEST OF ENGLAND. BY join IIOHE NJ
.sr,rx NJ A IL Id With Portrait and Naps. III


than the simple statement in the preface 70 'n
voun,e of the long contest between the indomtaDie
mind of the author and the disease 10 Wui." ~
last he WAS forced TO yield. The work "hch n'
had IN do WAS ever before him, and lie selIeu every
opportunitv, every relaxation oil pam " iu'N ~
with II. The preceding work. "Ihe M"k'hs U.
EncIondv was written "under the snauo" VI
doth - and we are told that it was the opinion OF
his doctors that life was only prolonged from gay
70 dav throughout that time by the astonishing
force of his own will by the consistency Of resolve
that had wholly set aside all personal aims Anu
from the conclusion of that work until the pen
ell. fou from his exhausted hand and for the
ers, time he said u am weary: can do no
more p-tbe daily and hourly struggle with death
,vos maintained Knowing the conditions OF MS
,yorl il vould be impossible TO deal with II other
wise than tenderiy but the truth is that wherever
II has been permitted him TO finish 1t, the task is SO
faithfully and thoroughly performed as to make no
appeal for lenient treatment. His wife tells us IN
The preface that "with such sustained zeal, such
eager conscieniousneSs was his work done that much
of il was wholly rewritten five times, other parts
three time" and it is only in regard to those parts
of the present volume which are printed from ms
unrevised manuscript and to the small portion near
the end which his wife has compheu 10 give
harmony and completeness to it, that any suspicion
of haste will apply.
THE ncriod dealt with is that between the latter
half of the eighth century to the Norman Con
quest While much obscurity still hangs over
part of these centuries, and the rapid changes OF
sovereignty are often only to be explained by
inference many events of the deepest historical
interest may vet be traced, and the broad general
outlines of the picture can be grasped without
much danger of misinterpretation. The England OF
the eighth. NINTH and tenth centuries was a wild
land. The people IN the time OF Egbert and much
later were still discOrdant. rude independence
prevented that organization when could alone nave
enabled them to withstand external attacks But
the forging of the English people was rough
nrocess. They were very literally rendered
homogeneous by constant exposure to violent
shocks. The Danes forced them to organize for
selfprotectlOn; to exchange loose thirty-day
service system for a landwehr system which in the
hands of such leaders as the House of Cerdic sup
plied sufficed to postpone for a long time, If II
could not prevent, the Danish Conquest. In the
same way external pressure drove the poor
husbandman to seek protection from the thegn,
and by degrees raised the latter to position OF
feuoatory power. But the growth of feudalism
was checked in England by the power of the kings
from the time they aspIed to rule the whole
country. The struggle between the eaidomen and
,be kings doubtless paved the way for the Norman
81,
however, with his body-guard of huscarls, showed
how the caldormen could be kept in check, and his
example was followed for some time. One of the
most suggestive facts brought out in this history.
however is the failure of all the invaders of Eng
land to graft their own national habits and ways
upon the ople The Romans Romanzed all the
world, wherever their eagles flew, but the fierce
pirates that descended upon the English coast and
that again and again conquered the greater part of
the country, no sooner settled down in their new
home than they became Angliczed. The con
summation of the Danish Conquest would seem TO
have assured the establishment of a Scandinavian
nationality, but Cnut made haste to show that he
meant to be an English king and throughout his
reign he labored to fortify English law and custom,
and TO revive that English literature and culture
which his countrymen had done so much to
destroy. The Vikings indeed answerable for
deplorable mischief in this respect. There can be
no doubt that their wanton extirpatiOn of the
onasteres and their destruction of all the instru
ments of education retarded English civilization
full century, and perhaps more, and brought to
nought the labOrs of many men who were in
advance of their generation.
1t is satisfactory TO find that the character of
Alfred suffers no obsouratiOn from greater fuiness
of research. lie is still in Mr. Green's hands what
he was in the hands of earlier and less disc minat
ing historians, a ruler who stands ont from the
mass of his contemporaries with distinction
earned by lOftness of ideal. humaneness of
conduct ripeness of Judgment genuine Chris
tianity of spirit startlingly unlike the dominant
traits of his generation.
But while there is much of abiding interest in this
period the story far too complicated, and too full
of mere animal conflict. to follow proftaby in
review The salient outlines alone will continue to
attract general attention: the gradual changes in
IL. Il. 1,,li nf fha Eatr.t
The substitution of the social for the family bond
the growth of laws for the protection of prOperty
the influence of Christianity upon popular habits
the organization of frithglds" -; the evolution of
an arstocracy; the development of the FokmOOte
and the WtenagemOte-an these subjects may be
studied with profit. We gain, for instance, very
clear idea of the times when We know that in the
ninth century there no laws for the protection
of property but only laws relating to acts OF bodily
violence 1t was fighting age when every man
was within certain rude limits, his own Judge
Jury and executi0ner In the tenth century slaves
formed the only exports from England. That too is
a pregnant historical fact. 1t was only in the reign
of Athestan that wealth began to be manifested,
and II NAV interest believers in Mr.. Georges
theories to know that the gulf between rich and
poor soon became very much wider than il is to-day.
How the masses became attached to the land
through the general insecurity of life which forced
them to bind themselves TO some powerful thegn
how al Last the unbound or landless man came TO
be regarded as an outlaw the foxes who had lost
their tails refusing to recognize tailed foxes as
legtimate); yet how through all this degradation n
certain ndyidualism persisted, and grew into what
is now called the English character-may all be
traced here but need not be further examined
The sources at the historians disposal were. of
course, in few instances new and much if not all Of
-. Iof, ,-Io
study many OF ~ subjects cited in fuller detail
will have to go to Freeman and Stubs, but We
know of no single volume in which the main events
IL rcrnl NM resnntnl