Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/141

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1922 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 133 orthodoxy, and, however much one wearies of the pompous phrases of anti-clerical bigots, it would be unfair to omit the similar outbursts of ' les Marats a cocarde blanche ', as one of the more moderate emigres called the extreme royalists. Again, in discussing the religious policy of the directory, M. de la Gorce seems a little ready to ascribe too much to the anti-clerical views of the directors themselves, and to underrate the genuine fear of clerical royalism. It is not enough to point to the disreput- able Barras or the ridiculous Larevelliere-Lepeaux ; the fears of moderate men can be understood more clearly by reading the remark of Louis XVIII to his brother, ' Le clerge est une de nos meilleures armes ', and his proposal (31 October 1797) to divide his kingdom into a number of politico-religious missions. There are, however, passages where M. de la Gorce does not always make the best of his own case. Thus he mentions the speech of Chollet in the debate of 14 Frimaire, An VI, upon the taking of the oath of ' haine a la royaute '. He adds that the debate was reopened during Nivose, but he does not give details of the insulting way in which the assembly dismissed the reasonable interpretation of the minimizing party as priestly subtleties beneath its attention, nor does he say that Chollet himself wanted the term ' haine eternelle ', an oath impossible not merely for catholics but for any body of men unprepared to die for a particular form of constitution. A part of this volume has been given to an account of the attempts of the directors to set up rival religions to Roman Catholicism. The extracts from the ineffable circulars of Frangois de Neufchateau are amusing to read. One is reminded of the equally long-winded instructions of Julian the Apostate, and the comment of St. Gregory Nazianzen Vt^/cwv ^i/A^/tara '. The same ludicrous absence of a sense of reality showed itself in the attempts to rename streets, e. g. ' Rue Mucius Scsevola ', and to see that no fish-markets were held on fast-days, while the peasants were returning deputies with a mandate to sanction the use of church bells, and were post-dating or ante-dating the official celebrations in order to make them coincide with the old feast days. M. de la Gorce gives a number of brilliant character-sketches, and descriptions of dramatic events : he is at his best in dealing with the directors, and, perhaps, in showing the pathetic pride of the rebel envoys at La Jeunaie. He does less than justice to the Abbe Emery. He praises him, indeed, but does not bring out fully the great intellectual as well as moral qualities of one of the few men of the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods who combined idealism in thought with daring and common sense in action. E. L. WOODWARD. J. P. F. Ancillon und Kronprinz Friedrich Wilhelm IV von Preussen. Von PAUL HAAKE. (Historische Bibliothek, Bd. 42. Munich : Oldenbourg, 1920.) Der Preussische Verfassungskampf vor hundert Jahren. Von PAUL HAAKE. (Munich : Oldenbourg, 1921.) THESE two monographs are a real contribution to the better understanding of Prussian history in the nineteenth century. In the first the malign