68 The Seventeenth Century (1603 - 1714)

a simple biography;406 more to the point, Mclnnes has des-
cribed his importance at the start of Anne's reign as equal to
Marlborough's,407 and has, somewhat surprisingly, charged
him with possessing political ideas,403 while Holmes and Speck
have reviewed the occasion of his first fall.409 The only other
politician of the age to receive a useful biography is the high
anglican Nottingham.410

The administrative history of the age has produced little,
but what there is is vital. Baxter's study of the treasury omits
the politics.411 Finance is continued in Dickson's impressive
analysis of public credit in the age in which government
finally abandoned the fiscal methods of the past and (under the
pressure of war) developed those of a modern state.412 Carter
and Plumb have been able to add significantly to the early
history of the cabinet.413 Fraser accounts for the activities of
the secretaries of state in gathering and spreading informa-
tion.414 Havighurst does justice to the judges whom he convicts
of a narrow but uncorrupt conservatism.415 The important

*°* Elizabeth Hamilton, The Backstairs Dragon; a life of Robert Harley,
earl of Oxford. L: Hamilton: 1969. Pp. 308. Rev: Hist 55, i23f.

407 Angus Mclnnes, *The appointment of Harley in 1 704*, HJ 1 1
(1968), 255-7*-

408 Angus Mclnnes, *The political ideas of Robert Harley', Hist 50
(1965). 309-22.

401 Geoffrey S, Holmes and W> S. Speck, "The fall of Harley in 1708
reconsidered9, EHR 80 (1965), 673-98.

410 Henry Horwitz, Resolution Politicks: the career of Daniel Finch,
second earl of Nottingham, 1647 - 7750* CUP: 1968. Pp. xii, 306.
Rev: EHR 85, 173^; Hist 54, a8if.

411 Stephen B. Baxter, The Development of the Treaswy, 1660 - 1702*
C (Mass.): Harvard UP: 1957. Pp. ix, 301. Rev: EHR 73, 159^,

418 P. M. G. Dickson, The Financial Revolution in England: a study in
the development of public credit, 1699 — 1756* L: Macmillan: 1967.
Pp. xxx, 580. Rev: EHR 83, 617; HJ 11, 378^.; EcHR* 20, 396^,

41S Jennifer Carter, 'Cabinet records for the reign of William III',
EHR 78 (1963), 95-114. -John H. Plumb, "The organization of
the cabinet in the reigxi of Queen Anne', TRHS (1957), 137-57*

414 Peter Fraser, The Intelligence of the Secretaries of State and the Monopoly
of Licensed News, 1660- 1688. CUP: 1956. Pp, xii, 177, Rev: EHR

,

41* Alfred Havighurst, *Thc judiciary and politics in the reign of
Charles IF, LQR 66 (1950), 62-78, 229-52.