New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-03-02

FISHER n A. CVol. Of The Political History
- Freland Edited by William Hunt, u. Lift,
ana R !. Poole. NJ. Al Svo. pp. Xxx. SlS Long
mans Green q co.
~ Fisher lays all the stress in this interest
An, volume upon the personality Of King Henry
-1ryr and the enormous change that was brought
about in the religious and political complexion
~ England by his policy a statesman and
his dominating force as a man. The first quar-
,or n the work is devoted to an account OF
4Ienrv VII and Of England under the rule of
,his FIRST and least attractive Of the Tudor SOW
.rsiens But these chapters are only prepare
.r,- 70 the reign of the greater Henry They
describe the modernization of England that was
,ban going on, and they also show the slow.
laborious process by which Henry VII laid up
she wealth which was TO do such effective SER
rice IN the hands Of HIS more prodigal and Os-
,,entatious SON The problems of tho England
IF Henry VII were the problems OF the nation
NJ shopkeepers tariffs reciprocal and retalia-
torv: shipping and trading restrictions; dis
putes between employers and laborers; ques-
,ions o. land tenure and yeoman farmers: of
cold export and alien immigration of rural de-
popuIation and the rush Of population into the
towns and many other questions which have a
strangely modern sound. Such problems were
well suited 10 the genius of Henry VII, and so
strongly was he possessed of the trading in
stinct that al his death he left fortune in
bullion of four and half million pounds ster-
ling-probabIy the greatest fortune ever amassed
in Europe, so long as there no other keep
ing Mace for wealth than the strong box. This
immense fortune was the result of eXactions Of
all kinds but. roughly speaking. it may all he
accounted for as the proceeds of traffic in royal
Justice and royal prerogatives-5,00O marks for
the royal confirmation of London's city liberties
f2.000 fine for things done by a Mayor during
III II CT
utes which had long been obsolete; payments
on succession TO estates; heavy sums 10 pur-
chase charters Of freedom for outlaws royal
justice and royal power in the market. TO be
obtained only by those who were willing TO
pay at the highest rates.
AT the age Of ifty-two the careworn, unheroic
figure Of this most businesslike OF English SOY
ereigns passed from the stage. leaving record
Of hard solid and enduring achievements
ton rescued from civil war and from foreign
entanglements. led in the ways of peace and
economic development; an England peaceful,
prosperous, wealthy. awakening TO the new
culture OF the South and East; the England of
Erasmus and Colet And yet the reign OF Henry
VII is remarkably devoid Of lustre or romance.
There is nothing in It 10 stir the blood or
the pride OF Englishmen. The amassing of
mighty fortune, coin by coin, never yet evoked
an epic poem, and the best business man is
rarely the best beloved OF kings.
Mr.. Fishers analysis OF the character Of Henry
VIII is probably the best that has yet been
written OF this great English sovereign. With
less brilliance than Froude. in his celebrated
history Of the same King Mr.. Fisher has more
grace and delicacy; and, what is Of far more
value TO an historical writer, he has the gift Of
humor and the power, that always goes with
this gift, of seeing both sides of the shield,
Ia sIe Ia
hero worship OF Frouae. he keeps a steadier
hand than Brewer between the King and his
great Cardinal-he does not permit Wolsey.
even at his zenith, 10 eclipse the sovereign
Henry VIII presented by Mr.. Fisher. is tho
embodiment Of much that has since come to
be recognized as best and worst in English char
acter. His overweenng pride, his insolence to
those Who claimed equality his good humor
and generosity 10 interiors, his tenacity of pur-
pose. and. above all, his implacable conscience
a conscience which was so conveniently obedient
10 his desires as 10 win for him the accusation
Of hypocrisy from unsympathetic critics-au
these traits 60 make up the character Of John
Bull as he is known on the Continent OF Eu-
rope. and. perhaps with a little more sympa-
thetic insight in the United States What could
better Illustrate the self-righteous Englishman
whom the French set down as an arrant hypo-
critic, than Mr.. Fishers description of how tho
successive deaths Of five Of his children affected
the conscience Of Henry VIII?
To a man SO prosperous. so splendid so con-
scious of nobility Of rectitude Of special service
70 God and the Church, there seemed to be some
mysterious paradox in the strange succession
OF calamities which had overcome the children
OF this dubious marriage What could God mean
by deprving the defender Of the faith the ham
mer Of the heretics, the hope Of Christendom.
way
athlete, Of just that one common thing ac-
corded 10 peasants. 10 heretics to Turks. without
which HIS kingdom could not stand? II was i'm
possible that God could be unjust He must
wish Henry TO have his way: Henry who save
IN one thing had always had il. There must lie
meaning in the riddle. and the meaning could
only be that the marriage with Catherine was
looked upon with disfavor from above. that il
was no marriage, that it had never been a
marriage.
This reasoning Mr. Fisher does not regard as
wholly dsinterested. The logical process was
quickened. he asserts, by the fact that Henry
had fallen in love. Yet throughout the whole
tangled and disagreeable story of the five later
marriages-it is, by the way only in the com
putation Of the profane that Henry was six
times husband; in his own estimation he was
only twice married. TO Jane Seymour. the
mother OF Edward W. and 20 Catherine Parr-
M Fisher insists on Henry's domination by
his distorted conscientiOusness. To MI Fisher
Henry was no more a hypocrite than was the
heTy Democrat OF the South, who insisted on the
Justice OF slavery while he detained AGAINST
the tyranny OF monarchy; or the Englishman
who blazed cut in sympathy for the oppressed
Greek or Pole. while he insisted on his right n
work the children in his factory twelve or four
teen hours day. That Henry found in ODE
cienoe 10 conscience, constant profit 10 himself
does MT irnnlr insinceri4r en- his n,,,no,...s.