This five-volume history of modern England was published between 1904 and 1906. Regarded as a masterwork, The New York Times said of the series, "[Paul's] work is brilliant, epigrammatic, interesting." This second volume picks up with the treaty of Paris in 1855. Paul then goes on to touch on Lord Palmerston and international relations—ending with a chapter on science literature and the church in the early 1860s.