cky has sometimes been
condemned by students who, revolting at the term "philosophy" in
connection with history, have failed to read his greatest work, the
"History of England in the Eighteenth Century." This is a decided
advance on the History of Morals, and shows honest investigation in
original material, much of it manuscript, and an excellent power of
generalization widely different from that which exhibits itself in a
paltry philosophy. These volumes are a real contribution to historical
knowledge. Parts of them which I like often to recur to are the account
of the ministry of Walpole, the treatment of "parliamentary corruption,"
of the condition of London, and of "national tastes and manners." His
Chapter IX, which relates the rise of Methodism, has a peculiarly
attractive swing and go, and his use of anecdote is effective.

Chapter XX, on the "Causes of the French Revolution," covering one
hundred and forty-one pages, is an ambitious effort, but it shows a
thorough digestion of his material, profound reflection, and a lively
presentation of his view. Mr. Morse Stephens believes that it is idle to
attempt to inquire into the causes of this political and social
overturn. If a historian tells the _how_, he asserts he should not be
asked to tell the _why_. This is an epigrammatic statement of a tenet of
the scientific historical school of Oxford, but men will always be
interested in inquiring why the French Revolution happened, and such
chapters as this of Lecky, a blending of speculation and narrative, will
hold their place. These volumes have much well and impartially written
Irish history, and being published between 1878 and 1890, at the time
when the Irish question in its various forms became acute, they
attracted considerable attention from the political world. Gladstone was
an admirer of Lecky, and said in a chat with John Morley: "Lecky has
real insight into the motives of statesmen. Now Carlyle, so mighty as he
is in flash and penetration, has no eye for motives. Macaulay, too, is
so caught by a picture, by color, by surface, that he is seldom to be
counted on for just account of motive." The Irish chapters furnished
arguments for the Liberals, but did not convert Lecky himself to the
policy of home rule. When Gladstone and his party adopted it, he became
a Liberal Unionist, and as such was elected in 1895 a member of the
House of Commons by Dublin University. In view of the many comments that
he was not suc