Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/142

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IU REVIEWS OF BOOKS January of the Mayflower and so forth, and of the obstacles set to the departure of Robinson himself by the puritan capitalists who financed the ex- pedition. They did not wish separatism to be established on a shore where Englishmen must inevitably soon make homes, for it was already fre- quented by our fishing vessels. How resolute the first settlers were to maintain their exclusiveness appeared when emigrants landed who wished to use the Prayer Book. They were shipped back by the first returning vessel. Yet the colonists from Leyden were soon to form a part of the established church of Massachusetts, and it is «niite in accordance with the normal development of thought that the church they founded at Plymouth and that which may best claim a connexion with them in England, a congregation at Gainsborough, are both Unitarian to-day. Though Robinson failed to reach America, dying at Leyden in 1625, some of his family, whose history is carefully traced, joined the colony, and he has descendants in New England. The story is an austere one, and is austerely told with occasional touches of censoriousness. But the life is that of a good and resolute man, and worthy of the labour that has been spent upon it. E. W. Watson. Dupleix et VInde Frangaise, 1722-41. Par Alfred Martineau. (Paris : Champion, 1920.) M. Alfred Martineau, at one time governor of the French establish- ments in India, has planned an exhaustive study of the life and work of Dupleix from primary sources, hitherto, for the most part, unpublished. The documents laid under contribution consist of the correspondence of Dupleix himself preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Biblio- theque de P Arsenal, the correspondence of the council of Pondicherry with the subordinate council of Chandernagore, and various other less important papers in the records of the French settlements in India. This first instalment — a volume of 534 pages, to be followed by two more — is concerned with the first nineteen years of the Indian career of Dupleix, that is to say, with the day of comparatively small things, and with the setting of the stage on which the drama of Anglo-French conflict in the East was to work itself out. Clear and well-digested summaries are given of the constitution and organization of the French Company, its factories, methods of trading, statistics of its commerce, whether it be the export trade to Europe, the trade ' of India in India ', or the private ventures of its servants, and, for the years 1731 to 1741, a detailed account is pre- sented of the shipments both to European and eastern ports. Down to 1741 the ambitions of Dupleix were centred in proving himself an efficient and zealous servant of the Company, and securing for himself a fortune that he might be enabled to retire in affluence or at least in comfort to his native country. He had not, until some years after the terminal date of this volume, any prevision of the great destiny, chequered with triumph and disaster, which the future held in store for him. These earlier, afford some curious contrasts with later, years. M. Martineau shows that the man who was afterwards regarded as our bitter and irreconcilable foe lived on the most friendly terms with his