King and Commons 1660-1832, by Betty Kemp

[p032] King and Commons 1660-1832, by Betty Kemp (Macmillan, 16s.) THIS book is an attempt to summarize and define the consti- tutional relationship between the King and the House of Commons in the period from the Restoration to the Great Reform Act. The author traces the subtle changes in this rela- tionship through these stages—a period of unease, ending with the years of the Revolution Settlement, during which the foundations of a stable relationship were laid; a period of balance and co-operation between the two powers, between 1716 and 1784; and a period of further change in which the balance was undermined and finally, in 1832, destroyed. The thesis of 29

[p033] LABOUR REVIEW the book is straightforward, well worked out and admirably clear. There is a particularly illuminating chapter on the de- velopment of the Cabinet and the emergence of the Prime Minister. Constitutional history is a highly academic field of study, and does not really begin to make sense unless the student refers continually to the political struggles of the time, the ideas, the issues, the social realities with which the King and Commons were concerned and of which they were a part. It is a defect of many works concerned with constitutional history that they virtually ignore the political basis of constitutional practice—and unfortunately this book is no exception. To ex- perts in the period this will appear, perhaps, a minor fault. since they can supply the background for themselves and make their own estimates of the validity of the author’s generaliza- tions. Readers less expert—history students or school-teachers —will find difficulty in the formal treatment of the theme, the abstract and turgid style and the omission of history itself. This is a pity, for the book is otherwise competent and scholarly. K. R. ANDREWS Class and Education