ENGLISH PUBLIC OPINION AFTER THE RESTORATION.
English Public Opinion after the Restoration. By Gerald Berkeley Hertz. (T. Fisher Unwin. 39. 6d.)—Mr. Hertz here deals in a concise and yet bright fashion with a subject which he says "has rarely been examined and never explained." We are so apt, thanks mainly to Macaulay and other historians, to think of the period of English history which immediately suc- ceeded the Restoration as one of scandalous levity and shame- less immorality, that such a book as this, which proves that "an increasing purpose ran" even through this time, is emi- nently worth reading. Mr. Hertz has his "point of view," which he perhaps expresses better in this sentence than in any other :--" After all, Cavours are more useful than Mazzinis, and a sensible conservatism is the first requisite of a well-ordered community." Certainly the reading of his book leaves one with the impression that beneath the frivolity of Court and society there was a good deal more of seriousness both in thought and in politics after Charles II. ascended the throne than ordinary historians allow. The chapters dealing with the English view of the Dutch and the French are remarkably good. "The chief contrast," we are told, "between the hostile view of the French and the earlier enmity towards the Dutch was that the former was much more free from apprehension. The competition of Holland was an evil which really weighed on the people's happiness; that of France was as yet hardly taken seriously." The inevitable growth and development of the English hostility to France are also well stated. Mr. Hertz's volume has a special interest for the present time; it is a study in early Imperialism.
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