The Growth of the English Constitution from the Earliest Times

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THE GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES
BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A., Hon. D.C.L., LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.
‘Concedis justas leges et consuetudines esse tenendas, et promittis eas per te esse protegendas et ad honorem Dei roborandas, quas vulgus elegerit secundum vires tuas?’—Ancient Coronation Oath. ‘Rex habet superiorem, Deum. Item Legem, per quam factus est Rex. Item curiam suam.’—Bracton.
‘Igitur communitas regni consulatur,
Et quid universitas sentiat sciatur.’
Political Poem, XIII. Cent.
LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL.

The proverb “ qui s’excuse s’accuse ” is so regularly turned against any author who gives any account of the origin of his work that it may be well to prevent its quotation by quoting it oneself. I have to ask that these three Chapters and their accompanying Notes may not be judged by the standard of a book. If I were to write a book on the English Constitution, it would be different in form and, in many points, different in style. What the reader has here is a somewhat extended form of two Lectures given at Leeds and Bradford last January. I had thought that they might be worth printing in the shape of two magazine- papers; others thought that they might do good in their present shape. I therefore expanded the latter part of the second Lecture, which had to be cut very short in delivery, so as to make a third Chapter, and I added such notes and references as seemed to be needed.
I say all this, in order that what I have now written may be judged by the standard of lectures, not by the standard of a book. In a popular lecture it is impossible to deal with everything with which it is desirable to deal; it is impossible to go to the bottom of those things which one picks out to deal with. It is enough—because it is all that can be done—if the choice of subjects is fairly well made, and if the treatment of those that are chosen, though necessarily inadequate, is accurate as far as it goes. Many things must be left out altogether; many things must be treated very imperfectly; the attention of the hearers must be caught by putting some things in a more highly wrought shape than one would choose at another time. The object is gained, if the lecturer awakens in his hearers a real interest in the subject on which he speaks, and if he sends them to the proper sources of more minute knowledge. If I can in this way send every one who wishes to understand the early institutions of his country to the great work of Professor Stubbs—none the less great because it lies in an amazingly small compass—my own work will be effectually done. In Mr. Stubbs’ “Documents Illustrative of English History,” the ordinary student will find all that he can want to learn; while he who means to write a book, or to carry out his studies in a more minute way, will find the best of guidance towards so doing. The great documents of early English history, hitherto scattered far and wide, are now for the first time brought together, and their bearing is expounded in a continuous narrative worthy of the unerring learning and critical power of the first of living scholars.