OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES BY EDWARD A. FREEMAN, M.A., HON. D.C.L., AND LL.D. LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE GREEK ORDER OF THE REDEEMER 'Concedis justas leges et consuetudines esse tenendas, et promittis eas 'Rex habet superiorem, Deum. Item Legem, per quam factus est Rex. 'Igitur communitas regni consulatur, Et quid universitas sentiat sciatur' POLITICAL POEM, XIII. Cent. London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, Limited, LONDON AND BUNGAY. First Edition 1372; Second Edition 1873; Third Edition 1876; Reprinted 1884, 1887, 1890, 1894. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE book has been carefully revised for this Third Edition, and several new illustrations and references have been added. Since the Second Edition appeared, the great Constitutional History of Professor Stubbs has formed an epoch in the treatment of the subject. I am glad to find. that its appearance has not obliged me to alter very much. I might have brought in endless references to such an unrivalled store-house of knowledge; but I thought it better to leave my own book essentially as it stood, and to change, alter, or refer only in a few specially important cases. My book will be doing its proper duty if it leads readers to the writings of a scholar of whom we may truly say that "Non viget quidquid simile aut secundum." SOMERLEAZE, WELLS, April 3rd, 1876. |