Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/905

Bcrard : La France et Giiillaume II 895 other is Baron Joniini's Etude Diplomatique sur la Guerre de la Criince (two volumes, St. Petersburg, 1878), which as Friedjung himself tells us was prepared under Gortschakoff's direction in order to make out a case against Austria. The dispatches from the Austrian ministers abroad seem to be got mainly from the memoirs, etc., of these individuals ; it will be remembered however that in almost every case these diplomats were partizans then and later, and that they published their diplomatic remains with controversial intent. One would be almost justified in dismissing a study set before us in this manner with the remark that it is impossible to judge of its value. But after reading the book this seems too cavalier a proceeding with what is evidently not only a serious study but a remarkably effective one. It is a very clear and judicious analysis of the curious conditions of the conduct of Austrian foreign relations in the years 1853-1856; a most tangled web is handled with great skill and precision. On the whole the previously prevailing conclusions are not disturbed, though there is much additional light as to detail and some shifting of emphasis. That the Austrian administration was in incapable hands, that Austrian counsels w^ere divided, that the Austrian policy was selfish and timid in the extreme, that nearly all the other powers were in turn alienated and that Austria emerged isolated in Europe ; all this we knew before. But we are here given a careful analysis of the contending elements, and explanations of the Austrian point of view and of the unlucky turns through which the Austrian aims and methods were doomed constantly to make the worst possible impression. It is purely a diplomatic study, concerned wholly with those who conducted foreign relations for the moment ; no information will be found on any other sides of the Austrian conditions. Necessarily it is to a considerable degree a study not only of the Austrian but of the European diplomacy of the Crimean War. While the book cannot be conclusive or even of great authority, it is of much interest and suggestiveness ; the treatment is objective and the tone judicial, and in all probability the analysis of the situation and the representation of the course of events are entirely trustworthy. If this special study marks Herr Friedjung's transition from popular to scien- tific work, historical science may well welcome the accession ; with how- ever the warning that the passage does not appear to be yet fully accom- plished. 'icT0R Coffin. La France ct GuiUauinc II. Par Victor Ber.rd. (Paris: Armand Colin. 1907. Pp. ix, 315.) M. Victor Berard has brought together under the title La France ct Guillaumc LI. a series of papers on Franco-German relations, which have already appeared in the Revue de Paris. It does not pretend tO' be a systematic treatise on diplomacy nor an impartial examination' of the policy and measures of the German Emperor. It is on the