A PRIMER A NEW HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA By BARR FERREE Secretary of the Pennsylvania Society. A book of facts. The whole history of Pennsylvania admirably condensed and conveniently arranged. It contains more information than many larger books and is intended at once as a book of reference and a book that will tell the reader every essential fact in the history of Pennsylvania. Every reader will learn much that he cannot find as easily elsewhere."-The Athenaeum (London). -"The best and most concise story of the origin, progress and development of our Commonwealth that has so far been written. Its value as a book of reference can hardly be over-estimated."-New Era (Lancaster, Pa)." We can only wish that every State in the Union had its merits described with so much fullness and detail."-The Sun (New York).—" Remarkably valuable."-Public Ledger (Philadelphia.)" It would be difficult to find its equal for compactness, clarity, completeness of information and reliability as a ready reference work."-Post (Boston).“ Unusually comprehensive."-North American (Philadelphia)" Remarkably interesting and valuable contains a vast amount of information to be found in no other single volume.”—Transcript (Boston)." The essential facts of Pennsylvania affairs and history."-Pittsburg Gazette." Contains primary facts in a way that meets the approval of those who want to get at the meat of the subject."--Philadelphia Inquirer."A handy book of reference."--The Nation (New York)." It covers a a much broader field than many larger histories.”—WilkesBarre Record." Concise and authoritative and well adapted for practical general use."-Book News (Philadelphia).-Governor Pennypacker says:-"You have done good work: I congratulate you upon its success." 164 ILLUSTRATIONS PRICE, CLOTH, GILT TOPS, $3.00 LEONARD SCOTT PUBLICATION COMPANY :: THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. 407.-APRIL, 1906. Art. I.-THE OLD AND THE NEW WHIGS. 1. Further Memoirs of the Whig Party, 1807-1821. By Henry Richard Vassall, third Lord Holland. Edited by Lord Stavordale. London: Murray, 1905. 2. The Life of Earl Granville, 1815-1891. By Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice. Two vols. London: Longmans, 1905. 3. Letters to Ivy from the first Earl of Dudley. Edited by S. H. Romilly. London: Longmans, 1905. 4. Private Correspondence of Lord Grey with Lord Holland, 1806-1827. MS. in possession of his Excellency the present Governor-General of Canada. 5. The History of Twenty-five Years. By Sir Spencer Walpole, K.C.B. Vols I, II (1856-1870). London: Longmans, 1904. 6. A History of Modern England. By Herbert Paul. Vols I-IV. London: Macmillan, 1904-5. THE conduct of political affairs by human agents and means has never yet achieved complete success; nor have we any reason to suppose that the future will exhibit any greater perfection. Motives will be mixed, means will be various, and results will be disappointing, to the end of the chapter. The world will never be without examples of the 'little wisdom' with which it is governed. The claim, therefore, of any special set of men, inspired, or at least influenced, by a special body of opinion, to have contributed exclusively to the advancement of the liberty and the happiness of mankind, must always be liable to dispute. In the court of history the other side will demand to be heard. Such an exclusive claim has, however, been maintained Vol. 204.-No. 407. X for more than a century by men not wanting in genius, in skill, or in patriotism. Charles Fox embodied that claim in eloquent speeches and an aggressive public career. Macaulay set it forth in essays and a history from which two generations have drawn their inspiration. Lord Holland maintained it in Memoirs which have been accepted with something like reverence. The 'Lives' of many Liberal leaders, Melbourne, Mackintosh, Russell, and Gladstone, for example, have carried on the tradition. Quite recently the biography of Lord Granville has arrived to supplement and to revive the earlier beliefs; and several historians, whose works we have taken as a topic, have gathered up in one loud song of praise the voices of the Liberal school. The popularity and influence of such a literature, written at times with brilliancy and always with enthusiasm, is not difficult to understand. Nevertheless it exhibits as a whole, when critically examined, no little rashness of statement and looseness as to particulars; while its general conclusions regarding the supposed monopoly of the Liberal party as champions of political progress will not bear a moment's serious and impartial enquiry. The books which we have placed at the head of this article throw an interesting light on the devious track of political development during the greater part of the last century. They display the doubts, the hesitations, the timorous advances, the reckless leaps in the dark,' which have marked the path of Liberal politicians. They show some, at least, of the influences which have led to momentous change, and of the motives, sometimes no doubt generous and patriotic, but sometimes selfish or merely factious, that have forced Liberal statesmen to take steps which in their hearts they condemned. They prove, rather by their omissions than their statements, how much of the legislation that has been beneficial was not the work of the Liberal party at all. They enable us to trace the processes by which the Old Whigs-to apply Burke's phrase to other conditions-were metamorphosed into the New, and by which these again have gradually been merged into the Liberals, or rather Radicals, of the present day. They warn us, lastly, of the transitoriness of political power, the oscillations of the popular mind; they tell how parties rise and fall; and, even in the present |