19 JUNE 1897, Page 24

gives a very able summary of the character and policy

of this Monarch, one of the ablest—if not actually the very ablest—in the succession of French Kings. Philip Augustus was great, both as a soldier and as a statesman ; if he could have mastered him- self he would have accomplished even more than he did. As it was he did more than any one else for the consolidation of the French Monarchy. But he must have wasted much energy in his long struggle with Innocent III. The story of his reign of forty- two years — he came to the throne at the age of fifteen, and died, worn out, at fifty-eight—is one of great complexity, but Mr. Hutton contrives to tell it very clearly.