Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/603

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1921 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 595 by a full use of the correspondence of the states-general and thoroughly annotated. Dr. Japikse's Introductions to the four volumes give not only full information about the way in which they have been constructed, but also a most useful summary of the constitutional development of the states- general. Although the salient points of this have long been known, the collection of the resolutions gives a more continuous view than was previously possible and makes more fully intelligible the development from the gathering of 1576, facing the emergency of a country where govern- ment had broken down, to the strongest governing college of the United Provinces as it stood after the murder of William the Silent. From the first meeting at Brussels there were many wanderings before the final settle- ment at The Hague. At first in continuous session and dealing with a great variety of business, later the assembly becomes intermittent and its sphere is restricted by the activity of other bodies, while later again its power and scope again extend, and in 1593 it finally settles down into a permanent session. The area which it represents and governs changes, of course, in the earlier years with the fluctuations of the struggle against Spain, a change which has its reflexion in the fact that until 1579 the- language of the resolutions is mainly French, in 1580 a good many appear in the Dutch language, and in 1582 it is resolved that Dutch alone shall be used. The correlation of all these changes of function, seat, composition, and procedure can be much better understood now that their sequence can be traced in detail. Not, of course, that there does not remain much to be done : the edition of the resolutions is a mine to be dug, and Dr. Japikse, in his Introductions, throws out some hints, which are already being profitably followed up, about lines of future investigation. 1 There is no department of Dutch history in these years in which it will not greatly facilitate research, and the only caution which must be uttered about its use is that the reader should not neglect the rather formidable lists of corrigenda. G. N. Clark. The Life, Correspondence, and Collections of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. By Mary F. S. Hervey. (Cambridge : University Press, 1921.) This handsome and well -illustrated volume embodies the results of nine years' patient research among original documents. The description of Thomas, earl of Arundel, as ' father of vertu in England ', which Miss Her- vey borrowed from Horace Waipole, indicates that which chiefly attracted her to her subject. Her own interest in the fine arts, especially in painting, was strong, and it was above all the career of the famous connoisseur and collector which she delighted to trace. It is indeed as a connoisseur and collector that Arundel chiefly claims recollection. Standing in the fore- most rank of the English nobility he took, no doubt, a considerable part in public affairs. He went on an embassy to the Emperor Ferdinand II to advocate the claims of the heir of the unfortunate Elector Palatine, and he commanded the royal army in the first Bishops' War. But his 1 See ante, xxxv. 308. Qq2