BOOKS.
STUBBS'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY.* PROFESSOR STUBBS has with this volume completed a work which entitles him to a permanent place in the front rank of English historians. He has achieved for the first half of English history what Hallam has done for the period of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties. He has produced a history of the growth of the English Constitution during the period within his ken which, for completeness, for accuracy, and for fairness, leaves nothing to be desired, and which may reasonably be regarded as final. And it is no disparagement to Hallam to say that Professor Stubbs's task has been the harder of the two, as regards both the amount of labour and the extent of knowledge required, if not in the difficulty of preserving an impartial attitude. The work -of tracing the early growth of any set of institutions down to an era of maturity is obviously likely to be more difficult than that of describing their subsequent history, even through a period of great changes, and Professor Stubbs has undertaken the most difficult of all such teaks. The English Constitution is the most complicated political system which the world has seen, and it has had the longest history. In tracing its origin and development, he has had to follow through centuries the diverse threads of primitive Teutonic customs, ecclesiastical institutions, feudal organisation, all of them suffering changes in their own structure, and receiving modifications from one another -and from the direct authority of successive rulers, and to give a
• The Constitutional History of England in no Origin and.Development. Vol. III. By William Stubbs, M.A., Regius Professor of Modern History. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1878.
clear idea of the fabric produced by interweaving them. To succeed in such an undertaking implies the possession of the highest gifts of an historian, and the general verdict has em- phatically pronounced that Professor Stubbs has succeeded. It is not necessarily to be inferred from this that his book is above all criticism, but that the critic admits beforehand, as in dealing with such works as Hallam's Constitutional History or Austin's Province of Jurisprudence, the substantial greatness of the achieve- ment, and limits his strictly critical remarks to questions of style and arrangement. And even in respect of such minor mat- ters, it is hardly fair to be very critical. No one who has not tried some similar task can appreciate the difficulty of arranging the enormous mass of materials which demand treatment. When the relations of King and Parliament, of clergy and laity, of Pope and realm, of Baronage and Commons, have all to be described, it is probably necessary, as Professor Stubbs declares, to accept a considerable amount of repetition, in order to attain clearness ; and certainly if the choice lies between greater brevity with. obscurity, and greater clearness with some repetition, no sensible reader would hesitate in respect of a constitutional history, what- ever he might choose in an epigram. Similarly, the nature of the subject inevitably renders the book liable to the charge of being dull. Mr. Gladstone is the only statesman, we believe, who was ever credited with the power of making a financial. statement interesting, and even his eloquence would fail, if he were restricted to stating facts, instead of expounding a policy. We doubt whether Macaulay himself could have thrown any glamour of style over such topics as necessarily fill many pages of a constitutional history,—the places and dates of holding Parlia- ments, the sums of money levied, the forms of summoning the Peers. And no one, we think, without an interest in the subject would be attracted to it by dipping into Professor Stnbbs's book. Every reader would probably feel that he could rely on under- standing the most complicated matter on Mr. Stubbs's explana- tion, by taking the necessary pains ; that everything would be set forth clearly and orderly, with due regard to proportion ; but ho will not find the path of constitutional lore strewn with flowers of rhetoric, or made specially easy to his feet. As compared with Hallam, one would say that Professor Stubbs gives us, in many parts of his book, considerably heavier reading ; that a much larger portion of it, perhaps necessarily, is hard to remember, and devoid of interest to all but students ; that tho sustained quasi-judicial eloquence which distinguishes Hallam is wanting. And yet there are passages in which he rises above Hallam's level altogether, which impress the mind as forcibly as any historical or political language in the English tongue. Another difference between them is rather of substance than of style. The weak point of Hallam's great work, to most historical students, is that he always seems bound by legal fetters ; he pronounces ver- dicts according to the legal evidence forthcoming or the legal rules applicable, rather than historical judgments, based on know- ledge of human nature and a full appreciation of the power of circumstances. Professor Stubbs has less critical times to deal' with, from the point of view of political principle, than the epochs of the Reformation, of the Great Rebellion, of the Revolution of 1688, times above all which are unconnected with modern party cries ; but if we may judge by his treatment of Simon de Mont- fort, of Edward I., of the rivalry between York and Lancaster, he would deal with the more burning questions in a spirit not merely of impartiality, based on judicial reticence, but of full appreciation of all the issues involved, and consequent sympathy with all the parties concerned.
The volume now immediately before us is, in several respects, a contrast to its predecessors. In the first chapter, which fills nearly half the volume, the history is traced, from the constitu- tional point of view, from the accession of Henry IV. down to the death of Richard III. Even this part is written at greater length and with more reference to the strictly political events than any earlier portion. In fact, there is little except military narrative which an enlightened reader would miss, so long as the attention is closely confined to England, and little reference is expected to Scottish and French affairs, for instance, or to the first dawn of the Renaissance. Indeed, there is no other history. from which it is possible to obtain so clear and coherent a view of the points at issue between the Houses of Lancaster and York, and of their respective merits and demerits. It is, no doubt, possible to take different views ; to go into extremes, and denounce the Henries as reactionary bigots, or Edward IV. and Richard III. as selfish tyrants without an honest plea for their ambition ; to see in the Kingmaker a patriot hero, or a scheming scoundrel. But no extreme theory will tally with all the facts ; the ecrupn-
lonely moderate one, which sees the good and bad points of both, which refuses its sympathy to neither, is at once in best accord- ance with what is known of this obscure period, and most intelligible on general grounds of probability. Every point in the contest, except, perhaps, the value to their cause of the military skill of Warwick and of Edward IV. himself, receives ample attention in these pages. The peculiar position of the Beauforta, close to the Throne, yet excluded, so far as Henry IV. could control the matter, from any prospect of succession, is very clearly brought before us, not only in the reign of Henry IV., during the rivalry between the Cardinal and Gloucester, but also, per- haps most effectively of all, in describing the rivalry between the Dukes of York and Somerset, in the days when the incapacity of Henry VI. was becoming evident, though he had not yet be- come liable to mental derangement. So, too, the effect of the birth of Henry VI.'s son, in forcing on the Yorkist claim, and the unfortunate influence on her husband's cause of Margaret of Anjou's inclination to rely on foreign support, are fully noted. The succession question itself, about which the ordinary writer dogmatises so freely, proclaiming York the rightful heir and Lancaster the usurper, is treated in the manner which one might hope for, from an historian possessing a thorough command both of precedents and of constitutional principles. Professor Stubbs makes us see clearly how the House of Lancaster reigned by a valid title, and that they governed in a harmony with Parliament which were very near to dependence, not because they had no title except one derived from Parliament, but because it was their family tradition and their personal choice so to do. He shows us how the House of Lancaster fell through their own failure to rule successfully, the substitution of the House of York being acquiesced in through the hope of better government, not from any general belief in their superior right ; how this main issue was obscured by personal and family rivalries among the Barons, who by these wars committed virtual suicide politically ; how the doctrine of indefeasible hereditary right was rather an effect than a cause of the revolution which dethroned Henry VI. Above all, he shows us the true light in which we are to regard the part played by the nation in these faction-fights ; how thoroughly the upper classes were divided, while the great mass of the people cared but little, so that a little thing really turned the scale either way ; how inevitably all tended to the aggrandisement of the Crown. So, too, other interesting points, before and after the succession contest, receive ample elucidation, such as the causes of Henry IV.'s weakness and com- parative failure, the relations of Henry IV. and Henry V. to the Church, and especially to religious persecution, and the character of Edward 'V.'s government. In fact, this volume contains an adequate history of England during the fifteenth century, from the politician's point of view, whatever the man of arms or of letters may think.
The remainder of the volume contains three chapters, beaded respectively, "The Clergy, the King, and the Pope," "Parlia- mentary Antiquities," and "Social and Political Influences at the Close of the Middle Ages." The first of these contains by far the best description yet written of the extremely complicated relations of Church and State in medimval England,—complicated by the double allegiance of the clergy to the King and the Pope, by their double attitude as an Estate of Parliament and holding separate Convocations of their own, by the antagonism of regular and secular clergy, by the want of conformity between the letter of the law and its practical working. With the accession of the Tudors, the clergy seem to be left standing alone, as the only Order retaining any influence as such, apart from the Crown. Under Henry VIII., their power vanished beneath royal aggression and popular hatred, so that their opposition had no practical effect in impeding the Reformation. Those who would understand how their position came to be so imposing, yet so hollow, so easily over- thrown, yet capable of transmitting so large a share of their power to the Anglican hierarchy under the Stuarts, cannot do better than study this chapter, and we can assure them that they will not find it dull reading. It is, perhaps, scarcely possible to say the same of the next chapter, the very subject of which necessarily involves much discussion of technical details. But those who are interested in the origin and growth of our Parliamentary pro- cedure, whether in elections or within the walls of the two Houses, will find every matter which dates back to the middle ages (and there are few which do not) duly elucidated. The title of the last chapter speaks for itself, and it will probably be to most readers the most interesting of the whole. It would be impossible to summarise the contents of a chapter which is itself a summary, written by a master in the art of compression. We prefer to refer our readers to the book itself, and to conclude by extracting a few of the weighty sentences in which Professor Stubbs closes his survey :— "The historian turns his back on the Middle-ages with a brighter hope for the future, but not without regrets for what he is leaving. He- recognises the law of the progress of this world, in which the evil and debased elements are so closely intermingled with the noble and the- beautiful, that, in the assured march of good, much that is noble and beautiful must needs share the fate of the evil and debased. If it were- not for the conviction that, however prolific and progressive the evil' may have been, the power of good is more progressive and more pro- lific, the chronicler of a system that seems to be vanishing might lay. down his pen with a heavy heart. The most enthusiastic admirer ef meditoval life must grant that all that was good and great in it was languishing even to death ; and the firmest believer in progress must admit that as yet there were few signs of returning health. The sun of the Plantagenets went down in clouds and thick darkness; the coming of the Tudors gave as yet no promise of light ; it was 'as the morning spread upon the mountains,' darkest before the dawn. The- natural inquiry, how the fifteenth century affected the development ef national character, deserves an attempt at an answer ; but it can be little more than an attempt, for very little light is thrown upon it by- the life and genius of great men . It is the same with the Barons; such greatness as there is amongst them,—and the greatness of Warwick is the climax and type of it,—is more conspicuous in evil than in good. In the classes beneath the Baronage, as we have them portrayed in the Paston Letters, we see more of violence, chicanery, and greed, than of anything else. Faithful attachment to the faction which from hereditary or personal liking they have determined to maintain,. is the one redeeming feature, and it is one which by itself may produce as much evil as good ; that nation is in an evil plight in which the sole re- deeming quality is one that owes its existence to a deadly disease. All else is languishing ; literature has reached the lowest depths of dulness ; religion, so far as its chief results are traceable, has sunk, on the one band into a dogma fenced about with walls which its defenders cannot pass either inward or outward, on the other hand into a mere war-cry sof the cause of destruction. Between the two lies a narrow borderland of pious and cultivated mysticism, far too fastidious to do much for the world around. Yet here, as everywhere else, the dawn is approaching. Here, as everywhere else, the evil is destroying itself, and the remain- ing good, lying deep down and having yet to wait long before it reaches the surface, is already striving toward the sunlight that is to come. The good is to come out of the evil ; the evil is to compel its own remedy; the good does not spring from it, but is drawn up through it. In the history of nations, as of men, every good and perfect gift is from above ;- the new life strikes down in the old root ; there is no generation from corruption."
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