Welsh Journals

reform crisis, on the transition from cabinet to party government, and on the absorption of the agricultural interest by Peel's new Conservative party-a point which once made may seem obvious enough but one which has never been made as fruitfully as it is here. Inevitably there will be quibbles over details and personalities. Probably Gash underesti- mates the importance of Canning and Huskisson in the tradition of what he calls 'moral Conservatism' leading on to Peel and Gladstone. Of course the promotion to high office of 'new men' like Canning, Huskisson and Robinson in 1822-23 did not mark a sudden 'liberal' transformation of Liverpool's government. The elements of continuity are to be found, however, not in the so-called pioneer efforts of Vansittart and Wallace, but in the influence over policy which the 'new men' had wielded even before they acceded to high office; while the elements of 'liberalism' should be sought less in tariff reform (part of the Pittite administrative tradition) than in bullionism and the specific case of the corn laws. Gash's partiality for Peel here takes the form, in part, of persistent sniping at the nearest rival, Russell, an outstanding statesman who badly needs to be given his due by historians but who gets here only the disadvantage of every doubt. In general, however, one has to admire the soothing and persuasive way in which the author manages to ram his aristocratic message down the reader's throat. As always the style is lucid and eloquent, with epigrams (e. g. 'Peterloo was a blunder; it was hardly a massacre') whose deliciousness derives from the fact that they sound just as well and are equally plausible the other way round. The sub-title is Britain, 1815-1865, whereas the series is 'The New History of England'. Professor Gash explains that though he cannot hope to have done justice to Scotland and Wales, he has tried not to forget them. In fact Scotland is better served of the two, and receives some particularly acute passages of analysis and interpretation. BOYD HILTON Trinity College, Cambridge HALDANE: AN ARMY REFORMER. By Edward M. Spiers. Edinburgh, The University Press, 1980. Pp. 240, £ 10. THE ARMY AND SOCIETY, 1815-1914. By Edward M. Spiers. London, Longman, 1980. Pp. 318. Hard covers £ 9.95; paper-back £ 5.75. It is not often that a new author makes his first appearance with two books in two months and, even if this may reflect publishing schedules rather than frenetic writing, their arrival together enables one to congratu- late Dr. Spiers on his skill in rather different forms. The study of Haldane is a tautly-argued and scholarly piece of work, based on private papers. It is not another biography but is concerned with his controversial and celebrated achievements as an army reformer. Haldane was not averse to beginning the celebrations and the first chapter is a careful assessment of Haldane's own autobiographical writings and the peculiar circum- stances in which they were written. The Secretary of State, 'Schopenhauer in the Kailyard' in Campbell-Bannerman's words, frequently stressed that his philosophical training was of fundamental importance to him as a