Sir Francis Palgrave was in the early part of his life an active contributor to the _Edinburgh_ and _Quarterly Reviews_, and a diligent editor of state documents. His _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_ (1832) threw much light on the early history of England. Palgrave was in his day one of the most earnest students of mediæval history. [Sidenote: Philip Henry, Earl Stanhope (1805-1875).] Philip Henry, Earl Stanhope, wrote the _History of the War of the Succession in Spain_, the _History of the Reign of Queen Anne_, and the _History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles_. He took great pains with his work, but he does not reach distinction either of thought or style. [Sidenote: Sir William Stirling-Maxwell (1818-1878).] Sir William Stirling-Maxwell is less widely known than he deserves to be, but this is partly due to the expensiveness of his works. He wrote _Annals of the Artists of Spain_, _The Cloister Life of Charles V._, _Velasquez and his Work_, and a posthumous book, _Don John of Austria_. All his work is distinguished for learning and good taste. [Sidenote: Agnes Strickland (1806-1874)] Agnes Strickland was a popular writer whose work is readable rather than profound or original. Her principal books are the _Lives of the Queens of England_, followed up by _Lives of the Queens of Scotland_. [Sidenote: Patrick Fraser Tytler (1791-1849).] Patrick Fraser Tytler, another historian of Scotland, came of a family distinguished both in literature and in law. His _History of Scotland_ has been superseded in general favour by Burton's, which has the advantage of embodying more recent research. Tytler however was the abler man of the two, and he had a higher literary gift than Burton. Except where the narrative has to be re-written in the light of later discoveries, his judgment is always worth weighing. CHAPTER VII. THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY. The early part of the nineteenth century was not very prolific in the department of speculative thought, but signs of movement may be detected in the third decade. Each of the English universities became the centre of a very active intellectual society. The Cambridge men showed a bent towards general literature and philosophy, or to theology of a type cognate to philosophy. In the works of Whately Oxford gave signs of a philosophical revival; but she devoted herself mainly to theology, and the practical isolation of Whately, a hard and arid though a vigorous man, calls the more attention to her speculative poverty. The celebrated 'Oxford movement,' whose roots are in the twenties, though its visible growth dates only from the thirties, is of incomparably greater importance than this feeble revival. [Sidenote: John Keble (1792-1866).]