In the course of a survey of manuscripts, undertaken for the forthcoming edition of Saint Bernard's works, the writer had the good fortune to find in Paris a series of unedited letters dealing with the problem of the disputed election of York. A rapid examination showed that whilst they threw no additional light on the main point at issue in this controversy, namely, on the truth of the accusations laid by his opponents against William of York, they certainly illuminated other aspects of the question, which hitherto had not been quite clear. They showed, for instance, the cause of the failure of the first legation to Rome in the early part of 1142, who were the main supporters at the Roman Curia of the opposing party, the dangers run by the Cistercians and Augustinians in presenting their case, and several other details of a like nature. Above all, the letters strongly confirmed all the conclusions reached by Professor Knowles in his article describing all the stages of this rather involved affair. Apart, therefore, from the inherent interest which a series of letters of this kind undoubtedly possesses, the decision to print them here seems, in view of the confirmation they provide, to need no further justification.

It is generally recognized that Edward I deserves a high place in the history of medieval England, and it is plain why this should be so. Few medieval kings achieved such undisputed mastery of their dominions as he contrived to do. His statutes set a deep and lasting mark on English law, and he had much to do with the beginnings of Parliament. He conquered Wales, and, as his tomb proclaims, he was the hammer of the Scots. These things have led a great company of scholars, whose number includes men so differently placed in time and circumstance as Polydore Virgil and Sir Maurice Powicke, Fuller and Stubbs, Brady and Hallam, Hume and Tout, to see in Edward an historical figure of outstanding importance. On this, at any rate, they are all agreed. They are, however, far from unanimous in the reasons they find for their judgement, and in the significance they attach to the things he did.

‘The Black in the West Indies will.… receive his Emancipation at the expense of his Brethren in Africa.’ So the Lieutenant-Governor of the Gambia had forecast before the 1833 Act, and he was right, although for the wrong reasons. Emancipation cramped the sugar production of the British Caribbean, but it did not affect the sweet tooth of the sugar consumer, and as West Indian output fell, sugar production in Cuba and (less noticeably) in Brazil rose sharply. Outproduced, undersold and overcultivated, the West Indian plantations began to lag as competitors, a result inevitable in the long run, but accelerated by the freeing of the slaves.

On the morrow of the Congress of Paris, the coalition of Powers which had imposed its terms on a defeated Russia was weakened by serious dissensions. Throughout the negotiations leading to the conclusion of peace, France had shown herself sympathetic to the Russian point of view, and her attitude had produced great irritation in England. Soon a dispute arising from the execution of the treaty of peace was to create further misunderstanding between the two allied countries and to reveal openly to the world the extent of their disagreement. Allied discord, however, was Russia's opportunity, and Gorchakov before long was to make a determined attempt to separate France from England and thus destroy at a blow the coalition which had defeated Russia. In the face of Gorchakov's diplomatic offensive, Napoleon would now have to show how serious had been his ‘flirtation’ with Russia and how great was the value which he still attached to his alliance with England.

In the year 1906, Abbot (later Cardinal) Gasquet published Lord Acton and his Circle, which contained 178 letters of Lord Acton, all of them except fifteen being addressed to Mr Richard Simpson. The bulk of the manuscripts passed into the archives of Downside Abbey, possibly in 1914, when Gasquet left England on becoming a Cardinal; though the fifteen letters addressed to Mr T. F. Wetherell are not there, and it has not been possible to discover whether the originals of these are still in existence. At the request of an American scholar the original holograph letters at Downside were recently re-examined for the first time, for the purpose of discovering whether any material concerning Lord Acton had been left unpublished. The inquiry revealed the fact that the volume was in many respects unsatisfactory as a work of scholarship.