СНАР. John Adolphus. b. 1764. d. 1845, His History of for the strong party feeling and personal resentments of which they are the vehicle. (C.) Later Historical Writers.-The History of England from the Accession to the Decease of King George III (7 vols., 1840), by JOHN ADOLPHUS, passed through four large editions in the course of thirty-eight years. The writer was a barrister, in good practice, in the early part of the present century, and his undertaking was much England. patronised by the aristocracy. His mode of treatment, however, is now somewhat obsolete, and it was difficult for one writing within so short an interval from the period, to describe either the chief actors concerned or the political questions then at issue with the desirable degree of impartiality and candour. In the 'Additional Preface' to the edition of 1840, he specifies the sources from whence his work is derived,—a list in which much of the material noted in the present chapter is wanting. A more recent production is that by CRAIK and MACFARLANE,' which is a compilation of considerable merit. Here the writers aim at the study of the national development rather than at the recital of political events, their facts being grouped under the different heads of 'Civil,' Religious,' 'Laws,' 'Industry,' 'Literature,' 'Manners and Customs,' and 'People.' MR. MASSEY'S able work 2 is written with much the same purpose. It commences with an introductory sketch of events from the fall of Sir Robert Walpole, and reaches to the year 1802. The work is dispassionate and impartial in its tone, but the writer has been considered 1 The Pictorial History of England during the Reign of George III.: being a History of the People as well as a History of the Kingdom. By G. S. Craik and C. Macfarlane. 4 vols. 1853. 2 A History of England during the Reign of George III. By William Massey, M.P. Vol. i. (1745-70); vol. ii. (1770-80); vol. iii. (1781-93); vol. iv. (1793-1802). 1855-63. X. to incline somewhat to the side of severity in his estimate CHAP. of the character of George III. May's The Constitutional History of England by SIR ERSKINE Sir Erskine MAY (2 vols., 1861), has been generally recognised as an Constituadequate continuation of the labours of Hallam on the tional same subject. It reaches to the year 1860. Much sound and able criticism on the Administrations of this and the following period will be found in the Essays on the subject by the late Sir G. C. Lewis,' the first of which treats of the administrations of lord North, lord Rockingham, lord Shelburne, and Mr. Pitt. History. Sir G. C. Lewis's Essays on the Administra tions. Lord Hol land's The Memoirs of the Whig Party, by the third LORD HOLLAND, although a production hardly worthy of either the writer or the subject, contains some interesting Memoirs of the Whig facts, especially with respect to the character and policy Party. of Lord Shelburne. Caricature Another volume, edited by Mr. T. Wright, A Cari- Wright's cature History of the Georges, supplies us with an History. illustration of the satirical literature of the period; and, if furnishing amusement rather than instruction, affords also significant evidence of the contemptible spirit in which the warfare of political parties was then often carried on. 1 Essays on the Administrations of Great Britain from 1783 to 1830. By the Right Hon. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Bart. Edited by Sir Edmund Head. 1864. 2 2 Memoirs of the Whig Party during my Time. By Henry Richard, Lord Holland. Edited by his Son, Henry Edward, Lord Holland. vols. 1854. 3 Caricature History of the Georges: or, Annals of the House of Hanover, compiled from the Squibs, Broadsides, Window Pictures, Lampoons, and Pictorial Caricatures of the Time. By Thomas Wright. 1867. 396 СНАР. already de scribed. CHAPTER XI. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. (A.) Contemporary Writers.-Among the authorities described in the preceding chapter, the third and fourth Authorities volumes of the Buckingham Memoirs may be consulted for details connected with the contest on the Regency question, the French Revolution, the war against France, the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and the Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland. These volumes, having been edited by another hand, are free from the glaring inaccuracies which belong to the former two. To the whole work, the Memoirs of the Court of the Regency, issued under the same auspices, form a kind of continuation which dates from the year 1811 to 1820. The Malmesbury Correspondence supplies a good account of the negotiations with the French Republic in the years 1796-7, and afford convincing evidence, in disproof of the insinuations of Thiers, that the English government and their representative were alike actuated by a sincere desire for peace. The concluding volume of the Life of Lord Shelburne supplies an interesting study of one who, amid the general panic that followed upon the excesses of the French Revolution, remained faithful to the principles of his party. To the Rose Correspondence may now be added George Rose's Diary, which dates from Pitt's resignation in 1801 to the year 1815. The CHAP XI. Correspondence of lord Cornwallis may be consulted for the history of the Rebellion in Ireland, for the Union with England, and for the Peace of Amiens (1802), in both of which latter measures he was the leading negotiator. The Correspondence of Sir Samuel Romilly, especially that with M. Dumont, continues to offer some good illustration, of the state of the political world, and to this must now be added his private Journal of his parliamentary life, during the years 1806 to 1818. The second, third, fourth, and fifth of Sir G. C. Lewis's Essays treat successively of the Administration of Pitt and the Catholic question; the negotiations of lord Cornwallis and the Irish Union; the Addington, Pitt, Grenville, Portland, and Perceval Administrations; and lord Liverpool's Administration, down to 1822. The second volume of lord Holland's Memoirs of the Whig Party gives some interesting details respecting the formation of the 'All the Talents' Ministry, their administration and dismissal. BURKE'S Reflections1 (1790), on the one hand, and Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH'S Vindiciae Gallicae (1791) and ERSKINE'S View of the Causes and Consequences of the Present War with France (1797) on the other, exemplify Revoluthe widely different sentiments with which the outbreak and progress of the French Revolution were regarded by the two chief contemporary parties in England. (B.) Biographies and Correspondence. The Diary and Correspondence of LORD COLCHESTER2 illustrate the views and character of a moderate Tory, who, while a zealous promoter of schemes of public utility, was throughout his career a steady opponent of all innovation, and especially distinguished by his opposition to the removal of the 1 Reflections on the French Revolution. Vol. ii. of Works, edited by E. J. Payne. Clar. Press. 2 The Diary and Correspondence of Charles Abbot, Lord Colchester: Speaker of the House of Commons, 1802-17. Edited by his Son, Charles, Lord Colchester. 3 vols. 1861. Burke, tosh, and Mackin Erskine on the French tion. Diary and Correspondence of Lord Colchester. СНАР. Life and dence of Lord Sid mouth. political disabilities to which Roman Catholics at that time were still subjected. LORD SIDMOUTH'S Life and Correspondence, edited by Correspon- PELLEW, though a work of but slight literary merit, contains many interesting facts. It serves also to explain the policy of a statesman on whose behalf his defenders urge that he was called to the head of affairs under circumstances of exceptional difficulty, and that his genuine merit was obscured by the brilliancy of Pitt; while by less favourable critics he is censured for a repressive rather than remedial policy, and is held to have been mainly responsible for the massacre at Peterloo. Twiss's Life of Lord Eldon. Yonge's The Life of Lord Eldon, by HORACE TWISS,2 pourtrays with greater success the experiences of a politician of the same school as the two foregoing. It is derived partly from autobiographical materials left by lord Eldon himself, and partly from numerous letters addressed to him by George III., George IV., and other members of the royal family. The long administration of LORD LIVERPOOL is to be followed in the Life by MR. YONGE.3 His highly encomiastic narrative is devoted to a representation of his subject, according to which a statesman of moderate ability, sound sense, and high character, but wanting in 1 The Life and Correspondence of the Right Hon. Henry Addington, first Viscount Sidmouth. By the Hon. George Pellew, D.D., Dean of Norwich. 3 vols. 1847. 2 The Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, with Selections from his Correspondence. By Horace Twiss. 3rd edit. 3 vols.. 1846. 3 The Life and Administration of Robert Banks, second Earl of Liverpool, K.G. By Charles Duke Yonge. 3 vols. 1868. [In contrast to the theory of his biographer, Mr. Knight's view (Hist. of the Peace, bk. i.) represents the more general opinion: The conduct of the war was not his, -he suffered others to starve the war. The peace was not his,-he gave to others the uncontrolled power of prescribing the laws of victory.'] |