rative. Four of the five chapters of the first volume are entitled
"The Material Condition of England in 1815," "Society in England,"
"Opinion in 1815," "The Last of the Ebb Tide," and they are masterly in
their description and relation. During the Napoleonic wars business was
good. The development of English manufactures, due largely to the
introduction of steam as a motive power, was marked. "Twenty years of
war," he wrote, "had concentrated the trade of the world in the British
Empire." Wheat was dear; in consequence the country gentlemen received
high rents. The clergy, being largely dependent on tithes,--the tenth of
the produce,--found their incomes increased as the price of corn
advanced. But the laboring classes, both those engaged in manufactures
and agriculture, did not share in the general prosperity. Either their
wages did not rise at all or did not advance commensurately with the
increase of the cost of living and the decline in the value of the
currency. Walpole's detailed and thorough treatment of this subject is
historic work of high value.

In the third volume I was much impressed with his account of the Reform
Act of 1832. We all have read that wonderful story over and over again,
but I doubt whether its salient points have been better combined and
presented than in Walpole's chapter. I had not remembered the reason of
the selection of Lord John Russell to present the bill in the House of
Commons when he was only Paymaster of the Forces, without a seat in the
Cabinet. It will, of course, be recalled that Lord Grey, the Prime
Minister, was in the House of Lords, and, not so readily I think, that
Althorp was Chancellor of the Exchequer and the leader of the House of
Commons. On Althorp, under ordinary circumstances, it would have been
incumbent to take charge of this highly important measure, which had
been agreed upon by the Cabinet after counsel with the King. Russell was
the youngest son of the Duke of Bedford; and the Duke was one of the
large territorial magnates and a proprietor of rotten boroughs. "A bill
recommended by his son's authority," wrote Walpole, "was likely to
reassure timid or wavering politicians." "Russell," Walpole continued,
"told his tale in the plainest language. But the tale which he had to
tell required no extraordinary language to adorn it. The Radicals had
not dared to expect, the Tories, in their wildest fears, had not
apprehended, so complete a measure. Enthusiasm was visibl