English Church History : 1649-1702. By the Rev. Alfred Plummer.
(T. and T. Clark. 3s. net.)—Dr. Plummer begins with a disquisition, which seems to us irrelevant, on the execution of Charles I. Surely the King was not a "prisoner of war." Had Cromwell been captured, be could have put in no claim to be so considered. He would have been condemned as guilty of treason, and the King bad committed treason against the nation. This commencement is not a happy one, but it gives no idea of the sound sense which characterises the book as a whole. Dr. Plummer may exaggerate the number of the clergy expelled by the Puritans, but he is nearer the truth than are some 'advocates on the other side. His remarks about the St. Bartholomew affair are moderate and just. Non-episcopal ministers could have been included in the Established Church, but a modus vivendi might have been set up if there had been the wish to do it in the dominant party. The portrait of James II. is drawn by Dr. Plummer in sombre colours. That King was, in a way, sincere. He had convictions, and could not hide them. Yet what could they have been really worth when they did not keep him from the most flagrant immorality P One sentence about William III. we must quote, because it seems eminently true :—" Both in Church and State the generation of William and Mary was labouring more for posterity than for themselves."
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