A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FROM THE DEFEAT OF THE ARMADA
TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH. By Edward P. Cheyney. Vol. II. (Longmans. 30s. net.)
PROFESSOR CHEYNEY, of the University of Pennsylvania, is no hasty author. Thirteen years have passed since he published the first volume of his history of Queen Elizabeth's closing years. Yet those who know that masterly account of Tudor administrative methods—for that is its main subject—will welcome the belated second volume. They will find in it the fullest and best account yet produced of Elizabeth's dealings with her later Parliaments and an incisive study of local government at that time. The author makes it clear that -there was much distress through successive bad harvests, aria much unemployment, and that the stern rule of the Council was required to repress widespread discontent and occasional rioting. This aspect of the spacious days of great Elizabeth -has never been so clearly brought out before. The author's detailed exposition enables one to appreciate all the more fully that great piece of Tudor statesmanship, the Poor Law of 1597, re-enacted in 1601, which gradually restored domestic peace and contentment. The reign ended sadly with the Irish -wars and with the foolish insurrection=if so trivial an affair deserves the name—of Essex, for which he paid with his life. Professor Cheyney's narrative is exact and dispassionate.
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