"THE CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY."
[To THE EDITOR OF TRH "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—I observe a letter by Mr. Alison Phillips on the subject of his article in Vol. X. of "The Cambridge Modern History." Without desiring to enter into the question raised as to the review in the Spectator, I might perhaps be permitted to give an opinion on the value of that article. As one who has, in a humble way, tried to elucidate some part of the period traversed by Mr. Phillips's article, and who has had occasion to read much of the original sources at the Record Office, I perused his article with great care. I can only say that, to one acquainted with the period at first hand, the depth, originality, and mastery of material displayed by Mr. Alison Phillips are in the highest degree impressive. Very often the balance of a sentence or the nice choice of an epithet alone shows these traces, but the whole chapter gives a clear and consistent account of a period very little known hitherto to English historians, and presents, moreover, the only really intelligible account of Castlereagh's later policy ever revealed to the English public. I believe that the testimony which may be given by one who has to some extent worked over the same materials will not be lessened in its weight when I state also that I do not agree with all Mr. Alison Phillips's con-
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