80 LITERATURE. [1899.
whole work,, thus completed, is one of the most notable contributions of our time to historical literature. In the large extent of ground covered* and the breadth of view which is displayed throughout, Dr. Hodgkin's work may almost be ranked in the same category as that of Gibbon ; and in trustworthiness and historical insight he may certainly claim to rank with Freeman. The history he has now finished has occupied him for nearly a quarter of a century, and he has done more than any one else has done, or is at present likely to do, to raise the obscurity which has enveloped the " dark ages." Of a different type is the political history of England which came across the Atlantic from the vigorous pen of Professor Goldwin Smith. Its title is The United Kingdom (Macmillan), and it traces the story from the period when England first became a kingdom to present times. It cannot claim the place assigned to the works of such writers as Bishop Stubbs or Dr. Gar- diner. Professor Goldwin Smith does not aim at a close and original investigation of facts. Nor does he satisfy the other requirement of the "scientific historian" by observing a strict impartiality. He has ardent sympathies and strong personal likes and dislikes, and he allows a strenuous rhetoric to heighten the lights and deepen the shadows. But such a history, viewing the development of the con- stitution in a spirit of freedom and breadth, has great value at the present moment, when an almost exaggerated importance is attached to the accumulation of documents, and to the minute study of particular periods. Professor Goldwin Smith regards the story as a whole, and shows a masterly grasp of the bearings of each epoch. If his pro- nouncements are overconfident, he is always eloquent and impressive and these qualities, together with the largeness of view which prevents him from being confused by the mass of conflicting evidence, give a very high value to "The United Kingdom."
Early in the year appeared Sir George Otto Trevelyan's TOie American Revolution, Part X. 1766-1776 (Longmans). The genesis of this work was somewhat curious. Sir George Trevelyan had already published an instalment of his life of Charles James Fox, and had shown in it, as in his life of Macaulay, the possession of some of the best qualities of the biographer. In pursuing his theme he found that "the story of Fox between 1774 and 1782 is inextricably interwoven with the story of the American Revolution. That immense event filled his mind and consumed his activities ; while every circumstance about him worth relating may find a place in the course of a narrative which bears on it." The present volume is therefore, in reality, a continuation of the life of Fox. But it was generally felt that the change of method was hardly justified by its success, and that Sir George Trevelyan's brilliant literary gifts were utilised with much better effect in biography than in history— a field where political prepossessions are more likely to interfere with the trustworthiness of the narrative. As a Whig historian, dwelling on the too familiar theme of the mistakes made by George III. and his ministers, Sir George Trevelyan does not do much to illuminate the point of view of the two parties in the conflict, or observe quite the impartiality required from a sound historian. So far as the volume is biographical, however, the author shows to the
