GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.
Gentlemen of the House of Commons. By T. H. S. Escott. 2 vols. (Hurst and Blackett. 15s. net.)—These two volumes do not contain, as the title might possibly lead one to expect, personal details about Members of the House. If such there are, they belong to generations long since past. The last seventy years are disposed of in but little more than half as many pages, while to the sixty or less that passed between the last Parlia- ment of Elizabeth and the first of Charles II. a full third of the whole book has been allotted. We are not disposed to complain. This period was a critical time in the history of the English Constitution, and we cannot have too full an account of the scene where one part of the battle between absolutism and freedom was fought out. In fact, this is the most valuable part of Mr. Escott's book. He does not entirely overcome the difficulty which is inseparable from his task. His business is to relate the history, not of the nation, but of the House, and it is very hard, perhaps impossible, to keep steadily to this point of view. It is, in strict- ness, irrelevant to discuss, however briefly, the Stuart title to the Crown. But when Mr. Escott goes on to analyse, and to give picturesque examples of, James I.'s first speech to his Parliament, he is strictly relevant. On the whole, the work has been well done; possibly Mr. Escott may find time hereafter to give us a detailed narrative, for which indeed there are to be found abun- dant materials, say, of the Parliaments of Queen Victoria. If he does, let him not make the omission, the almost fatal omission, of an index.
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