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562 Revieivs of Books Like all Mr. Perkins's other works on France this is a reader's book ; it lures one on from paragraph to paragraph and chapter to chapter. The student who is interested in the administrative side of the period may quarrel with the arrangement of matter which hides away important administrative changes among other things of less moment. For exam- ple, the e.xplanation of the larger use of intendants during Richelieu's administration is crowded in between remarks on public education and upon the rise of the press. There is room for a difference of opinion upon the relative importance of such matters, but there is hardly any phenomenon of French political life of greater moment than the rigorous subordination of local authorities to the central government, and so the causes of this system are particularly interesting. Occasionally it seems that Mr. Perkins must be studying the seventeenth century from the standpoint of later times, rather than from that of the historic develop- ment of the French administrative and economic system. He refers to the exemption of the land of the nobility from the faille as if this were surprising, but not two centuries had elapsed since the king had taken from the nobility their ancient right to the faille. It was too early for the nobility to be asked to become themselves faillahle. In giving Riche- lieu credit for his successful attempts to build an effective navy Mr. Per- kins somewhat exaggerates the power of the fleet which was constructed. He says, " Probably it could have met on equal terms the navy of any other European nation." But this was the period of the greatest effec- tiveness of the Dutch fleet, which, according to Captain Mahan, remained until 1674 equal to the French and English fleets combined. These are minor matters which in no way affect the interest or the value of the book as a biography of Richelieu. Henry E. Bourne. Oliver Cromwell. By John Morley, M.P. (New York : Century Company. 1900. Pp. xiv, 486.) Oliver Cronnvell. By Theodore Roosevelt. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1900. Pp. x, 260.) Mr. Morley's book is the result of very careful study ranging over the whole field of Cromwellian literature. He shows not only that thor- ough acquaintance with the writings of Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Firth which is indispensable to everyone who now approaches the subject, but he has tested their conclusions by an examination of so much of the source material as has been printed and is easily accessible. His labors have been so indefatigable that where he differs in opinion from these two "giants of research" we may assume that the difference is inten- tional and in no case due to mere carelessness. Such thoroughness is a remarkable achievement for so busy a man as Mr. Morley, but it has an inevitable limitation. It is manifestly impossible for even a Morley to examine all the sources for the period without giving up his life to the task, or even to examine all the sources bearing upon merely the more im-