Historical and Political Essays

Historical and Political Essays,
by William

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William Edward Hartpole Lecky
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Title: Historical and Political Essays
Author: William Edward Hartpole Lecky

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HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ESSAYS
by
WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE LECKY

Longmans, Green, and Co. 39 Paternoster Row, London New York,
Bombay, and Calcutta 1908 All rights reserved

CONTENTS
PAGE THOUGHTS ON HISTORY 1
THE POLITICAL VALUE OF HISTORY 21
THE EMPIRE: ITS VALUE AND ITS GROWTH 43
IRELAND IN THE LIGHT OF HISTORY 68
FORMATIVE INFLUENCES 90
CARLYLE'S MESSAGE TO HIS AGE 104
ISRAEL AMONG THE NATIONS 116
MADAME DE STAËL 131
THE PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF SIR ROBERT PEEL 151

THE FIFTEENTH EARL OF DERBY 200
MR. HENRY REEVE 242
DEAN MILMAN 249
QUEEN VICTORIA AS A MORAL FORCE 275
OLD-AGE PENSIONS 298
INDEX 319

The Essays 'Thoughts on History,' 'Formative Influences,' 'Madame de
Staël,' 'Israel among the Nations,' 'Old-age Pensions,' appeared
originally in the American Review, the Forum--the first under the title
of 'The Art of Writing History'; 'Ireland in the Light of History,' in the
North American Review. Those on Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Henry Reeve,
and Dean Milman were written for the Edinburgh Review. The Essay
on 'Queen Victoria as a Moral Force' appeared first in the Pall Mall
Magazine; 'Carlyle's Message to His Age' in the Contemporary Review.
'The Political Value of History' was a presidential address delivered
before the Birmingham and Midland Institute; 'The Empire,' an
inaugural address delivered at the Imperial Institute; and the 'Memoir of
the Fifteenth Earl of Derby' was originally prefixed to the volumes of
his speeches and addresses.

HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL ESSAYS

THOUGHTS ON HISTORY
I do not propose in this paper to enter into any general inquiry about the
best method of writing history. Such inquiries appear to me to be of no
real value, for there are many different kinds of history which should be
written in many different ways. A diplomatic, a military, or a

parliamentary history, dealing with a short period or a particular
episode, must evidently be treated in a very different spirit from an
extended history where the object of the historian should be to describe
the various aspects of the national life, and to trace through long
periods of time the ultimate causes of national progress and decay. The
history of religion, of art, of literature, of social and industrial
development, of scientific progress, have all their different methods. A
writer who treats of some great revolution that has transformed human
affairs should deal largely in retrospect, for the most important part of
his task is to explain the long course of events that prepared and
produced the catastrophe; while a writer who treats of more normal
times will do well to plunge rapidly into his theme.
Historians, too, differ widely in their special talents, and these talents
are never altogether combined. The power of vividly realising and
portraying men, or societies or modes of thought that have long since
passed away; the power of arranging and combining great multitudes of
various facts; the power of judging with discrimination, accuracy, and
impartiality conflicting arguments or evidence; the power of tracing
through the long course of events the true chain of cause and effect,
selecting the facts that are most valuable and significant and explaining
the relation between general causes and particular effects, are all very
different and belong to different types of mind. It is idle to expect a
writer with the gifts of a Clarendon, a Kinglake, or a Froude to write
history in the spirit of a Hallam or a Grote. Writers who are eminently
distinguished for wide, patient, and accurate research have sometimes
little power either of describing or interpreting the facts which they
collect. All that can be said with any profit is that each writer will do
best if he follows the natural bent of his genius, and that he should
select those kinds or periods of history