Historical Essays and Studies

by John Acton

HISTORICAL

ESSAYS & STUDIES

BY

JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG-ACTON

First Baron ACTON

D.C.L., LL.D. , ETC. ETC.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

EDITED BY

JOHN NEVILLE FIGGIS, M.A.

SOMETIME LECTURER IN ST. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

AND

REGINALD VERE LAURENCE, M.A.

FELLOW AND LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1907

PREFATORY NOTE

With the exception of the hitherto imprinted paper entitled "The Causes of the Franco-Prussian War," this volume consists of articles reprinted from the following periodicals : The Quarterly Review, The English Historical Review, The Nineteenth Century, The Rambler, The Home and Foreign Review, The North British Review, The Bridgnorth Journal. The Editors have to thank Mr. John Murray, Messrs. Longmans, Kegan Paul, Williams and Norgate, and the proprietors of The Bridgnorth Journal for their kind permission to republish these articles.

Acton and Simpson collaborated in writing the two articles on Buckle's History of Civilisation (which it was impracticable to separate) ; the former of them is very largely Simpson's work.

J. N. F.

R. V. L.

August 24, 1907.

CONTENTS

		page
I.	Wolsey and the Divorce of Henry VIII.	1
II.	The Borgias and their Latest Historian	65
III.	Secret History of Charles II.	85
IV.	The Civil War in America	123
V.	The Rise and Fall of the Mexican Empire	143
VI.	Cavour	174
VII.	The Causes of the Franco-Prussian War	204
VIII.	The War of 1870	226
IX.	George Eliot's Life	273
X.	Mr. Buckle's Thesis and Method	305
XI.	Mr. Buckle's Philosophy of History	324
XII.	German Schools of History	344
XIII.	Talleyrand's Memoirs	393
XIV.	The Life of Lord Houghton	414
XV.	A History of the Papacy during the Period of the Reformation	426
XVI.	A Short History of Napoleon the First—The First Napoleon: A Sketch, Political and Military	442
XVII.	Mabillon et la Société de L'Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés à la Fin du XVII Siècle	459
XVIII.	A History of England, 1837-1880	472
XIX.	A History of the French Revolution	491
XX.	Wilhelm von Giesebrecht	496
Appendix—Letter to Bishop Creighton		503
Index	509