Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/374

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364 Reviews of Books the Organic Articles, and the substitution of a new Concordat in 1817, practically though not by legislation. A careful review of the succeeding history in France shows the in- creasing friction between the two powers, the opposition of the Church becoming ever more dangerous to the state. The Church gained steadily a large part of the ground which it lost at the time of the Revolution. That it did not gain more is due to the growth of the modern spirit of democracy, the development of the common people forming the great middle class, free and sovereign. Grateful to the Revolution for what it had gained, the people suspected that party which so long checked the legitimate development of this great movement and retarded for nearly a century the definite establishment of the Republic. Since the establish- ment of the Re])ublic, it is true that the clergy under the direction of a shrewd and politic Pope have changed somewhat their attitude toward the established government. What the results will be it is too early to jjredict. Will they become reconciled once for all? Will they make mutual concession? Will one submit to the law of the other? Will they begin anew the strife? Will they enter into a complete separation ? We know not and no one else knows. • Chari.es L. Wells. Die Koloiiialpolitik Napoleons I. By Gustav Roloff. [Historische Bibliothek. Band X.] (Munich and Leipzig: R. Oldenbourg. 1899. Pp. xiv, 258.) In the course of those repeated and almost frantic efforts to destroy the Napoleon legend which have been continuous in France since 1870 much wholesome truth has been widely disseminated, but with it some pernicious error. The men of Lanfrey's school pose like their leader as dispassionate seekers after truth, as stern devotees of historical science. But their bitter partisanship is easily discoverable by any who care to follow them in the course of their researches. Among other calumnies which he and they have circulated is the statement that Napoleon neither under- stood nor was interested in colonial affairs. This is a most remarkable charge, for any investigator may disprove it by means of the officially selected and published correspondence of Napoleon, volumes which stand on the shelves of any good library. But those who go further will be even more amazed by such effrontery. The author of this meritorious volume has examined the archives of the Navy Department in France and gives in his pages abundant proof that Napoleon's care for the colonies of France was intelligent, painstaking and assiduous. For reasons unknown to him the archives of the Foreign Office were not put at his disposal. But others have been permitted freely to search them, and they too furnish abundant evidence to the same effect. This volume was needed. F^veryone knows that the French lost their colonies in the Napoleonic epoch : most suppose that the loss was due to the Emperor's neglect. Dr. Roloff proves how utterly false this supposi- tion is. He gives a succinct and readable narrative of the facts, he sup-