SIR JAMES RAMSAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.* IT is a pleasure

to congratulate Sir James Ramsay on the completion of a great and important task. Twenty-one years ago he published two volumes on the history of the fifteenth century. entitled Lancaster and York ; they were followed in 1898 by The Foundations of England, two volumes on the Anglo-Saxon period; and in 1903 and in 1908 by single volumes on The Angevin Empire and The Dawn of the Con- stitution. The last of these brought the narrative up to the death of Edward L, and the gap between the accession of

• Emma of Lancastor ; or, The Tame Reigns of Edward II., Edgard III., and Rickard II. By tia James H. Hammy of Bamff, LL.D., Littl). 5 rola Dxford, at the ClaYandon Eawas. [30a. not.]

Edward II. and the deposition of Richard II. has now been filled by the two volumes before us. The publication of the whole work has been taken over by the Delegates of the Oxford University Press as a history of England from the earliest times to the accession of the House of Tudor.

These eight substantial volumes represent the work of a much longer period than the twenty-one years in the course of which they have been given to the reading world.

"1 dose a work," Sir James Ramsay writes in his Preface, "that I never ventured to hope that I should live to finish.... The reader will stare if I inform him that it has been my standing occupation since the outbreak of the Franco-German War. My grown-up children do not remember the time when it was not in progress. A change of plan adopted after the work bad been carried a considerable length necessitated a re-reading of all the authorities, and a practical re-writing of the text. This must be offered as some explanation of the tardy output."

Finis coronet opus, and the publishers have claimed for Sir James Ramsay's book the dignified title of "The Scholar's History of England." We gladly acquiesce in the claim. It is a work of a type fortunately not uncommon in this country —a serious contribution to learning by a man who has never been a professional teacher or investigator. Sir James Ramsay hes not, indeed—like Grote or Dr. Hodgkin—added the cares of business life to the labours of an historinn, nor has be been an official administrator like James Mill. He is a Scottish country gentleman, the representative of an ancient family and the holder of an old title, who, some sixty years ago, distinguished himself at Oxford both in the more ancient studies of the University and in its infant historical school, A scholar by instinct and by choice, he has written the book to which other scholars will most naturally turn when they wish to reassure themselves on some doubtfel point, and to which the attention of younger students will be directed when they wish to observe the scientific employment a historical evidence. These eight volumes are based throughout on a personal study of the original authorities, including a cast mars of manuscripts, and even the adjectives and the epithets are there because the author has found justification for their use. The lover of a romantic narrative will not find in these pages "the little more—and how much it is !" which made Macaulay's History sell like a popular novel. Sir James Ramsay is no Dryasdust; he has always been on the outlook for "touches of life and colour to be picked up by one not too much pinched for room," and be has availed himself of the good fortune which has left the form of his work entirely in his own discretion ; but he has refrained from the temptation to add a jot or a tittle to the law.

The book, as a whole, also gains importance from its atter'. tion to topics generally neglected by historical writers. "Under two distinct heads," writes the author, "I claim to have brought to light a considerable array of drier facts never before communicated to the public ; and, so far, to have laid our knowledge on a firmer basis. I refer, of course, to military affairs and domestic finance." Sir James Ramsay's contribu- tion to military history is to he found chiefly in his account of the preparations for campaigns and in his criticism of the chroniclers' figures, though he has visited the scene of every important engagement which he describes. On the financial side, he has placed our knowledge on anew basis by his investi- gations into revenue and expenditure and by his treatment of the history of the Customs.

In the two volumes now before us there is a large amount of military history. Oddly enough, Sir James Ramsay remarks that the site of Bannockburn has never been disputed; his book must have been in the press when Mr. W. M. Mackenzie's Original and suggestive criticise' of the conventional accounts of the battle was published in the summer of 1913. In dealing with the results of Bannockburn, he accepts Mr. H. H. Lancaster's statement that "the triumph of Bannockburn bore no better fruits than the uncontrolled licence of a rude

aristocracy. . . and the profound misery of the people. . . . Scotland bought her independence at the cost of inconceivable

material wretchedness, the loss of constitutional liberty ... and the arrest for four hundred years of any real progress of civilisation." Sir James Ramsay retorts that the responsi-

bility lies at the door of Edward I., and that, once his attempt at conquest had been made, an English triumph could only have produced "a second Ireland with the Forth for its Pale."

The question has some interest, in view of the fact that Scot- land will celebrate next June the fire-hundredth =warms

of its great day, and it seems to as that Mr. Lancaster's glib phrases depend upon an entire misreading, if not upon mere ignorance, of Scottish history. We may place against his estimate the conclusion of Professor Hume Brown that the condition of the mediaeval Scottish peasant was not much worse than that of his English fellow and compares favourably with that of his -class in Germany and in France. In the early extinction of serfdom the peasants of Scotland were more fortunate than those of England. The statement that the Scotland of Queen Anne represents no "real progress of civilisation" from the Scotland of Robert Bruce is difficult to discuss seriously; the astounding thing is that Sir James Ramsay should have accepted it.

After the reign of Edward U. the interest of military history and foreign policy changes from Scotland to France,

end this book provides an admirable survey of the campaigns of Edward la, the Black Prince, and John of Gaunt, and much new information about the expenditure on the war and the wages of the soldiers. The 'view taken of Edward III. is unfavourable; he is described as "a man of the sensuo- athletic type, morally weak, easily led, fond of pomp and show, selfish, extravagant, and ambitious, without sense of duty or regard for justice." This is much the position of Stubbs, who once said that "Edward III. was chivalrous; he thought nothing of risking the lives of ten thousand men on an enterprise which could bring no good to any mortal man hut himself, involved Europe in a war in which he had not the shadow of a right, and brought more misery on England than any other man before or since." This is an exaggeration of the kind in which Stubbs loved to indulge (outside the pages of his Constitutional History), but Sir James Ramsay shows that some of the more independent Englishmen of the four- teenth century would have been disposed to agree with it.

He himself has no weakness for military glory gained in such a struggle, and his account of the battle of Crecy is severely scientific.

The hook is, of course, by no means confined to military history. Sir James Ramsay is much interested in the growth and development of the Constitution, and he recognizes the greatness of the work of Stubbs "My obligations to him will be found to be acknowledged at every step with a frank- ness that has not always been shown by those who have borrowed his ideas." These ideas have now become the common property of history, and no greater tribute can be rendered to Stubbs's memory, but the references in this book are a useful reminder to a younger generation which may tend to be unconscious of its debt. Social and economic history, the condition of the Church, the relations with the Papacy, the foundation of colleges in the Universities and of schools, all find their due place in thiscarefully arranged and proportioned narrative. Sir James Ramsay is especially happy in the plain and straightforward personal sketches into which he intro- duces the light and colour which be has picked from the Chronicles. Perhaps the best example is his description of the second Edward:—

" Physically, he was not unworthy of his sire, being tall, well- made, and good-looking. . . . lie had shown some interest i0 the

Scottish campaigns ; but it became clear in time that he had no taste for soldiering or even for the mimic warfare of the tiltyard. . . . The pursuit of pleasure was his business; and as his physique was his strong point he devoted himself to outdoor amusements, and athletic and manual exercises. Ho was fond of hunting, of coume, and devoted to horses and dogs; but he was also skilful in driving and rowing, and could even find vent for his energies in such humble work as ditching and thatching. Of an evening he could take up mechanical tools, and employ himself in metal-work or the like. But he was also very fond of theatricals. In a later

age, he might have figured as the President of a Royal Fear-in- hand Club ; Sr earned popularity as the Captain of a Boat Club. . . . Then the unfortunate thing was that the only companions with whom Edward cared to associate were the men with whom he cams into contact in connexion with his favourite pursuits,

such as coachmen, watermen, mechanics, play-actors, minstrels, and buffoons, With such as these he could °batter and drink at his ease ; the society of men of rank he habitually avoided."