After the manner of German scholarship thoro research prepared the way for Ruville’s life of the “Great commoner.” “On two points he has, we think, added something valuable to our knowledge of Pitt. He brings out strongly the share which Pitt was forced to take in the personal intrigues which seemed so large an element in contemporary politics, the influence of his connections, of the Grenvilles especially, on his career, and the extent to which for many years he depended on the support of the Prince of Wales and the Leicester house party. And. secondly, Dr. von Ruville succeeds in making Lord Bute’s share in English politics clearer than it has been made before.” (Nation.)
“One does miss, perhaps, now and then, a style and manner rising to a great occasion, as in the account of Chatham’s last speech in the lords—where, by the way, he did not die, as pictorial tradition represents. The fact of translation, though this one is excellently well done, may account for this, though, to be sure, impressive writing is not the mark of modern histories.” G. S. S.
| + − | Acad. 73: 85. N. 2, ’07. 1070w. |
“The perusal of his conscientious pages leaves behind it a sense of disappointment. Dr. von Ruville is, in the first place, destitute of eloquence. Secondly, he takes but little account of human nature.”
| + − | Ath. 1907, 2: 511. O. 26. 890w. |
“Will always be of value to the historical student, at any rate as a mine of information. Throughout it he shows extraordinary wrong-headed judgment not in the presentation of facts, but in the deductions which he draws from them.”
| + − | Lond. Times. 6: 329. N. 1, ’07. 1230w. |
“It is only when we come to look for breadth of view or width of treatment, for perception, proportion, sympathy, illumination, in fact for those larger qualities which make history and biography alive, that we are driven reluctantly to the conclusion that the book is unhappily depressing and depreciatory.”
| + − | Nation. 85: 517. D. 5, ’07. 1770w. |