Hill: A History of Diplomacy 617 writer. He obscures the point at issue often by an excessive multipli- cation of instances, reminding us of a catalogue rather than of a chapter. A few misprints mar the pages: " treizieme " for quatorzihne (p. lia) ; "ester" for rester (p. 162); " Nevel's Cross" for Neville's Cross (p. 167). D. S. M. A History of Diplomacy in the Iiitcruatioual Development of Eu- rope. By D.wiD Jayne Hill, LL.D. 'olume II. The Estab- lish>nent of Territorial Soz'ereignty. (New York and London: Longmans, Green, and Company. 1906. Pp. xxv, 663.) The period covered by Dr. Hill's new volume is that from the begin- nings of the Hundred Years' War to the Peace of Westphalia — 1313- 1648. It is a period far richer in diplomatic activity than the medieval centuries which were his earlier theme. " The field", to borrow from his preface his own excellent summary, "is occupied by'the conflicts of national states, first for coherence and then for expansion. After they become disengaged from the fetters of feudalism, instead of two great antagonists contending for world supremacy, we behold a group of powerful monarchies struggling with one another for primacy. It is in this contest that Italy, designated as their prey, becomes their political teacher. Germany, France, Spain, and finally England all enter the arena of contention more or less under the influence of the imperial idea. Germany desires to recover its ancient preponderance in Italy; France pivots its international activity upon adventures of expansion; Spain, having obtained possession of Naples, aims at controlling the whole peninsula; and England covets the crown of France. But the Papacy and Venice frustrate for a time all foreign schemes to obtain supremacy in Italy ; the system of Italian equilibrium becomes a model for Europe ; and, as in the earlier period Italy was rescued from subjection to imper- ial power by diplomatic combinations, so the national monarchies, after aiming at indefinite expansion and striving to outstrip one another by drawing into their service the forces of their allies, finally adjust them- selves to a system of balanced and co-ordinate power based upon the principle of territorial sovereignty." Through this labyrinth of changing aims and changing systems, of intrigue and double-dealing. Dr. Hill guides us with a sure eye and a firm hand. While he is alive to every advance in the methods of inter- national intercourse — the institution of permanent embassies, the official transmission of despatches, the diplomatic use of secret ciphers, the employment of the modern vernaculars — it is increasingly clear that what interests him most is not diplomacy but international development. To a much larger extent than earlier diplomatic historians — even than Flassan, who found it wise to add to the title of his " Hist aire dc la Diplomatie Francaise " the explanatory alternative, " ou de la Politique dc la France " — he has included in his narrative the general history of his period. But, if this somewhat narrows his space for the details of
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