the Netherlands in the reign of Philip the
Second,--the revolutionary age, and of course the most eventful period
of their history. The official despatches, written in French, are, it is
true, no longer to be found in Simancas, whence they were removed to
Brussels on the accession of Albert and Isabella to the sovereignty of
the Low Countries. But a large mass of correspondence which passed
between the court of Castile and the Netherlands, is still preserved in
the Spanish archives. As it is, for the most part, of a confidential
nature, containing strictures on men and things intended only for the
eyes of the parties to it, it is of infinite value to the historian. Not
only has it never before been published, but, with the exception of a
portion which passed under the review of the Italian Strada, it has
never been submitted to the inspection of the scholar. With the aid of
this rich collection, the historian is enabled to enter into many
details, hitherto unknown, of a personal nature, relating to the actors
in the great drama of the revolution, as well as to disclose some of the
secret springs of their policy.

M. Gachard has performed his editorial duties with conscientiousness and
ability. In a subsequent volume he proposes to give the entire text of
the more important letters; but in the two already published he has
confined himself to an analysis of their contents, more or less
extended, according to circumstances. He has added explanatory notes,
and prefixed to the whole a copious dissertation, presenting a view of
the politics of the Castilian court, and of the characters of the king
and the great officers of state. As the writer's information is derived
from sources the most authentic as well as the least accessible to
scholars, his preliminary essay deserves to be carefully studied by the
historian of the Netherlands.

M. Gachard has further claims to the gratitude of every lover of letters
by various contributions in other forms which he has made to the
illustration of the national history. Among these his "Correspondance de
Guillaume le Taciturne," of which three volumes in octavo have already
appeared, has been freely used by me. It consists of a collection of
William's correspondence, industriously gathered from various quarters.
The letters differ from one another as widely in value as might
naturally be expected in so large and miscellaneous a collection.

The other scholar by whose editorial labors I