Mr. Edward Arnold's Spring Announcements 3 



A CENTURY OF EMPIRE, 1801-1900. 



Volume II., from 1833 to 1867. 

 By the Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart., P.C, 



Author of 'The Life of Wellington,' etc. 



With Portraits in Photogravure. Demy 8w., cloth. 14s. net. 



The second of Sir Herbert Maxwell's three volumes covers the 

 central period of the nineteenth century, and extends from the 

 passing of the first to the passing of the second Reform Bill, the 

 latter date being, of course, chosen not as marking the close of an 

 epoch, but simply in order to divide the century as nearly as 

 possible into equal third parts. The outstanding feature of English 

 politics during the first portion of this period is the disappearance 

 of the old-time Tories and the creation of the modern Conservative 

 Party by Sir Robert Peel. Of the questions which agitated the 

 country in and out of Parliament, two are of special interest at the 

 present hour — namely, the reform of the administration of the Poor 

 Law in 1834, and the controversy between Protection and Free 

 Trade. With the close of the latter by the Repeal of the Corn 

 Laws and the disappearance of Peel from the scene, a new era 

 opens. The strife of parties continues under new leaders, some 

 of whom have only recently passed away ; but it is concerned with 

 less momentous issues, and the interest shifts largely to external 

 matters, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny, the war in the 

 United States, and the beginnings of great changes in the political 

 system of Europe, where the events of 1848 ushered in a new 

 epoch, which witnessed the struggle for liberty in Italy, and the 

 sudden rise of Prussia. 



It has been said with reference to Sir Herbert Maxwell's first 

 volume, that he is a politician, therefore a party man, therefore 

 disqualified from writing history. The criticism was anticipated 

 by the author, who has given what is surely the sufficient and 

 only possible answer to it — namely, that hitherto the writing of the 

 history of the period has been monopolized by party men — of the 

 other side. 



