THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION. BY E. S. CREASY, M.A., BARRISTER-AT-LAW; PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON; LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. FOURTH EDITION, REVISED, AND WITH ADDITIONS. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, PUBLISHER IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY. M.DCCC.LVIII. L DEDICATED TO HENRY PEARSON, ESQ., M.A., OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, BY HIS FRIEND, THE AUTHOR. 08 1868 PREFACE. IN 1848 I prepared and published a small pamphlet, called "The Text-Book of the Constitution," in which were arranged the texts of Magna Carta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights, with historical comments, and with remarks on the People's Charter and other political topics of that year. Independently of its politics, that pamphlet has been found useful as an historical compilation; but the extent to which its latter pages were occupied with political discussions, made me unwilling either to employ it myself or to see it employed by others in education. I do not wish to disavow any of the opinions which I expressed in it, but a teacher of History has no right to avail himself of the position in which he stands towards his pupils, for the purpose of training up broods of young Tories, Whigs, or Radicals, according to his own party predilections. I therefore intended to prepare an edition of that little treatise, which should deal only with the Past, and in which the spirit of party pamphlet should be entirely got rid of. But M313954 |