THE HOUR. 'Mr. GARDINER is a careful student of the records of the time, with special We have no preconceived theory advantages as regards his sources of information. to be illustrated and enforced, as in MACAULAY, or FROUDE, or CARLYLE, but a careful, vivid picture of the men who made the history of these four years. The work, however, is not in any sense dry. Though full of detail, there is no surplusage. One chain of events after another is presented in a Trifles are carefully put aside. clear, succinct narrative, and interspersed we have life-like studies of the leading characters.' SPECTATOR. The period is one of special historical interest and attraction, and by the light now concentrated on it one is enabled to follow the course of events with a clearer understanding of certain matters hitherto but half explained, and a better appreciation Probably the most noticeable feature in of the motives of the chief actors. these volumes is the thorough and intelligible account of Parliamentary procedure, illustrated, when occasion required, by extracts from the important debates; and from one source and another Mr. GARDINER has been able to unfold a good deal of new information. The careful arrangement of events as they occurred, and their dovetailing into very readable history, are two points in Mr. GARDINER's historical writing that should not be lost sight of. Valuable, too, for its trustworthiness, acquired by long and patient investigation of official materials, for the judgment shewn in the selection of those materials, and the endeavour to write without bias, this instalment will not fail to sustain the good name Mr. GARDINER has won by his previous works. The descriptions of individuals are, as usual, given with a distinctness and delicacy of touch that indicate the hand of an artist as well as of an historian.' PALL MALL GAZETTE. 'Mr. GARDINER's work is by far the most comprehensive and accurate study of its subject that has yet appeared, and is quite worthy to take its place beside those earlier volumes on the reign of JAMES which have made their Author the first living authority on an era of high importance. He has been lucky enough to discover documents which throw an unexpected light on many intricate passages in the career of CHARLES and BUCKINGHAM, and these he has interpreted with the skill of one accustomed to distinguish between the essential and accidental elements in the The most characteristic quality of the book is its absolute sources of history. . As Mr. GARDINER points out, historians who have treated this impartiality of tone. period have always felt it incumbent upon them to take a side. They have been fierce partisans either of CHARLES or of Parliament. We are gradually learning that this is not the true spirit in which to approach the study of the past. It may be impossible in investigating a great struggle to avoid sympathy with one party or the other; but nothing is more certain than that we shall never obtain a faithful picture of a period unless we endeavour to place ourselves at the point of view of both combatants.' THE STANDARD. 'Mr. GARDINER's book is a most useful and interesting contribution to the history of the seventeenth century. His estimate of CHARLES the FIRST is, on the whole, fair and philosophical. His partial vindication of BUCKINGHAM seems justified by the evidence adduced; and in the married life of the royal couple he presents us with a picture that will be as new, we think, to many of his readers as it must be interesting to all of them.' THE LITERARY WORLD. 'Mr. GARDINER writes with perfect clearness and not a little animation. His narrative proceeds rapidly, and he has no bad habit of pulling up and inflicting on us ethical or statistical lectures. He has evidently read extensively in the old treatises, letters, and parliamentary notes and chronicles, which constitute the dreary sources out of which the historian of the seventeenth century is expected to distil a charming literary beverage for the modern reader. On some important points he takes those views which, after investigating the matter at first hand, we are prepared to pronounce just.' WESTMINSTER REVIEW. 'We do not hesitate to say that Mr. GARDINER has done more for history than the Eight Translators. His book is a bit of honest, original work. He has taken the period extending from the death of ELIZABETH to the assassination of BUCKINGHAM in 1628, and he has illustrated it in three excellent works. The present work is the last of the trilogy. . . . . Mr. GARDINER's view of the character of CHARLES is judicial and extremely just. As an instance of historical narrative few stories are better told than Mr. GARDINER'S account of the assassination of BUCKINGHAM by FELTON. Those who have followed Mr. GARDINER in his masterly delineation of the characters of CHARLES and BUCKINGHAM will not wonder at the fate of the unhappy monarch.' THE GLOBE. 'Mr. GARDINER is a historian in the truest sense; that is, he does not merely repeat in new forms the conclusions of others, but goes directly to the original authorities, reconstructs in imagination the periods of which he treats, and gives prominence only to such causes as lead to important effects. . . . In the most troubled ages, which are generally judged from a strictly party standpoint, he strives after complete impartiality, doing justice to the actions and motives even of those with whom he has no personal sympathy. His History of England from the Accession of James I. to the Disgrace of Chief Justice Coke, and Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage, have cast a flood of fresh light on an epoch of high importance; and in the present work the story is continued with as thorough a mastery of detail and as profound an understanding of the great movements of the time as were exhibited in the previous volumes.' THE ACADEMY. To say that the present work is based on varied, original, and most conscientious research, and that, consequently, it does not leave the history of the period as it found that history, but contains new facts and sets off old facts in new and more authentic light, is only to say that it is Mr. GARDINER'S. For the diplomatic transactions of the period Mr. GARDINER has explored so many new sources of information, whether in collections of the contemporary despatches of foreign agents, or in the foreign series of our own State Papers, that he may be said to have made these transactions his own property, and to have unravelled them intelligibly for the first time. But not for the story of the foreign transactions alone has he sought and found new material. His researches for the proceedings of the first three Parliaments of CHARLES have enabled him to correct and modify at various points the hitherto received accounts-most notably, perhaps, for the great Parliamentary Session of 1628. In short, so far as matter is concerned, we may congratulate Mr. GARDINER on having now added to the list of works bearing his name, and already known and honoured, one which will certainly take its place as a standard authority for the history of England, or, at least, for the history of the government of England, from 1624 to 1628.' London, LONGMANS & CO. |