New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-14

ne founded his judgments. The authors style
is excellent, and this volume Is undoubtedly the
most readable and interesting general history of
the period that has yet appeared
The disadvantages Of the plan on which this
History is to be written are plainly visible
when turns from the last pages OF Pro-
lessor Adamss volume to continue the story in
Professor Tout's The first impression is that
the thread Of the story is lost; that the working
out Of cause and consequence has suddenly come
to an end: and although Professor Tout does
afterward pick up the thread and follow it out
with some consistency, there is not in his work
the sense Of unity of the exact fitting Of all the
parts into one definite and comprehensive
whole that characterizes Professor Adams's
fascinating story Of the Norman Conquest and
settlement OF England" Professor Tout is alive
to the danger which besets all historians OF at
tributing a definite and conscious policy In
the case Of actions and incidents which have
profoundly affected the course Of history and of
national life. The policy may not have existed
for the actors, it may In reality only be gathered
by historians from the after results. But in
endeavoring to avoid this cause Of error-and
PROFESSOR Tout by no means escapes 1t alto
gether-he sometimes errs too far in the other
direction, and relates the incidents and dotngs
in the lives Of kings warriors and churchmen
as though they were but the shifting patterns
of a kaleidoscope. without interrelation or con-
nection other than mere sequence. It is possible
to give as false reading of history by emitting
to take account Of the deeper forces at work in
a nation and by attributing events to coinci-
dence. or to puTposeless and unintentional ao-
tion as by attributing too definite and con-
scientious an aim to the actors-an aim which
could only have been suggested when in the
course OF Tina the actions had worked out to
their Inevitable consequences
In the story Of the defeat OF Prince Louis In
1916 by the English barons who rallied after
King Johns death around the infant Henry III.
1t is surely overcautiousness which makes Pro-
fessor Tout remark: 'It is tempting to regard
the defeat of Louis as a triumph Of English
patriotism. But 1t is an anachronism to read
the ideals Of later ages into the deings of
of the early thirteenth century" Professor
Tout may be right as regards the actions and
ideals Of the barons, but when ne has just told
the story of how the men Of the Weald-the
Angio-Saxon connonalty-broke down their
bridges, destroyed their mills and laid waste
their country to starve out Prince Louis and
his French forces, II is hard to believe that
there was no patriotism behind the forces which
replaced an English king on the throne Of Henry
I and Henry II. The author himself admits the
existence of a sense Of nationality, and suggests
present in the minds OF the actors few pages
later. when describing the drawing up of the
Provisions of Oxford in 1858. 1.-THE conception
Of limited monarchy he writes (which had
been foreshadowed in the early struggles of
Henrys long reign was triumphantly vindi-
Gated, and after weary years of waiting the
baronial vctors demanded more than had ever
been suggested by the most free Interpretation
Of the Great Charter. The barons tacitly
accepted the principle that England was a
unity, and that it must be ruled as a single
whole. The feudal period was over; the
rational idea was triumphant"
The period covered by Professor Tout's vol
ume extends from the death Of King John and
the accession Of Henry III. in 1916. to the death
Of Edward III, in 1877. There were only four
sovereigns during these 161 years. and the
long reigns of Henry III and the first and third
Edwards were crowded with events and
changes of immense import In the development
of the English nation. 1t is perhaps inevitable
that large part of the volume should be de-
voted TO the wars Of the three Edwards in
Scotland, Wales and France, to marches,
sieges and battles, but the crowdng of all these
transient though exciting incidents into Pro
fessor Tout's pages throws somewhat into the
background the story of the real development Of
the English nation. The appendix on authori-
ties is comprehensive and careful and the ac-
count given in it of the records whence modern
historians draw much Of their material is
particularly helpful to those students who have
yet to enter on original research.