CARDINAL BEAUFORT.
Cardinal Beaufort. By Lewis Bost's& Radford, B.D. (Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. 8s. Od. net.)—Mr. Radford uses a com- mendable impartiality in dealing with his subject. Henry Beaufort is known to most of us by his portraiture in Shakespeare. His latest biographer thinks that the colouring is far too dark, and prefers the picture drawn by the Croyland Chronicler. The general impression left by his own study is that Henry Beaufort, "Bishop, Chancellor, and Cardinal," was not above, was probably even below, the average standard of his age. He was an eminently self-seeking politician, with about as little sense of the responsibilities of his position as a man could well have. The best that can be said of him is that he was an opportuuist statesman of considerable dexterity, quite remote from any ideals of saintliness or patriotism. Great eoclosiasties almost monopolised the administration of the commonwealth, to the damage of their own spiritual character, and seldom to the public advantage. If Henry Beaufort had genius, it was in the direction of finance. For many years he was a pecuniary Providence to the English Kings. Mr. Radford thinks that he acted for a syndicate of men who had money. Large as wore his own preferments, they could hardly have sufficed for opera- tions of such magnitude. But wherever the money came from the handling of it did not tend to improve the man's character.
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