554 Reviews of Books apply to the period after Somerset's fall. Indeed Mr. Pollard's most fundamental criticism of other historians of the period is that they make a habit of treating the reign of Edward VI. as a single whole, and there- fore attribute to Somerset much that belonged to the administration of his successor and that was diametrically opposed to his policy and char- acter. As a matter of fact the last four years of the reign of Edward, as contrasted with the first three, were marked by a reaction from "the Protector's experiment in liberty and toleration" to the arbitrary and repressive measures and the reckless unprincipled policy of the Duke of Northumberland. It is to the Protector's attitude toward the social changes of the time that Mr. Pollard attributes his downfall. The members of the Council were typical " enclosers," and they moreover represented the feelings and interests of the majority in Parliament and of the landowning class in the country generally. Against the agrarian changes which were be- ing carried out in the interests of such men and to the destruction of the lower classes in the country, Somerset and a small party of reformers set themselves, and used all the influence of his position. But the powers against them were too strong, and the Protector was deposed. His exe- cution occurred as a necessary step in the rise to unopposed power of his successor. In a vigorous and eloquent closing chapter on the Protector's work and character he is credited with being " one of the few idealists who have attempted to govern England." "His means were inade- quate, his time was short, and the men with whom he worked had no eye for the loftiness of his aims, and no sympathy with the motives that im- pelled him. Yet his achievements were of no mean order. Immediate failure was but the pfelude to ultimate success." In the long run the main lines of his policy have been followed and its main objects attained. If the position which Somerset holds in history is not modified by Mr. Pollard's careful and spirited study, it will not be because a good plea has not been made for him. E. P. Chevney. The Siicccssofs of Drake. By Julian S. Corbett. (London and New York : Longmans, Green and Co. 1900. Pp. x, 464.) This attractive volume forms a sequel to the same author's Drake and the Tudor Navy and carries the history of the great naval war with the Spanish Empire down to the end of Elizabeth's reign. Like that on Drake the present work is based upon deep and wide study of the litera- ture and of original, in some important cases hitherto nearly or quite unknown, sources of the subject. Into this rich mass of materials the author has breathed the life of incisive independent thought and a crisp, lively, yet distinguished style. Mr. Corbett thinks the prevalent view of the period as crystallized by Seeley to be " curiously, even perversely inadequate." Seeley says that the war after the defeat of the Armada was " chiefly a series of plun- dering expeditions in which the Government scarcely aimed at a single
