Constitutional History of England by Henry Hallam - HTML preview

PLEASE NOTE: This is an HTML preview only and some elements such as links or page numbers may be incorrect.
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.

PREFACE

1

The origin and progress of the English Constitution, down to the

extinction of the house of Plantagenet, formed a considerable portion

of a work published by me some years since, on the history, and

especially the laws and institutions, of Europe during the period of the

middle ages. It had been my first intention to have prosecuted that

undertaking in a general continuation; and when experience taught

me to abandon a scheme projected early in life with very inadequate

views of its magnitude, I still determined to carry forward the

constitutional history of my own country, as both the most important

to ourselves, and, in many respects, the most congenial to my own

studies and habits of mind.

The title which I have adopted, appears to exclude all matter not

referable to the state of government, or what is loosely denominated

the constitution. I have, therefore, generally abstained from

mentioning, except cursorily, either military or political transactions,

which do not seem to bear on this primary subject. It must, however,

be evident, that the constitutional and general history of England, at

some periods, nearly coincide; and I presume that a few occasional

deviations of this nature will not be deemed unpardonable, especially

where they tend, at least indirectly, to illustrate the main topic of

enquiry. Nor will the reader, perhaps, be of opinion that I have

forgotten my theme in those parts of the following work which relate

to the establishment of the English church, and to the proceedings of

the state with respect to those who have dissented from it; facts

certainly belonging to the history of our constitution, in the large

sense of the word, and most important in their application to modern

times, for which all knowledge of the past is principally valuable. Still

less apology can be required for a slight verbal inconsistency with the

title of these volumes in the addition of two supplemental chapters on

Scotland and Ireland. This indeed I mention less to obviate a

criticism, which possibly might not be suggested, than to express my

regret that, on account of their brevity, if for no other reasons, they

are

2

both so disproportionate to the interest and importance of their

subjects.

During the years that, amidst avocations of different kinds, have been

occupied in the composition of this work, several others have been

given to the world, and have attracted considerable attention, relating

particularly to the periods of the Reformation and of the civil wars. It

seems necessary to mention that I have read none of these, till after I

had written such of the following pages as treat of the same subjects.

The three first chapters indeed were finished in 1820, before the

appearance of those publications which have led to so much

controversy, as to the ecclesiastical history of the sixteenth century;

and I was equally unacquainted with Mr. Brodie's History of the

British Empire from the Accession of Charles I. to the Restoration,

while engaged myself on that period. I have, however, on a revision

of the present work, availed myself of the valuable labours of recent

authors, especially Dr. Lingard and Mr. Brodie; and in several of my

notes I have sometimes supported myself by their authority,

sometimes taken the liberty to express my dissent; but I have seldom

thought it necessary to make more than a few verbal modifications in

my text.

It would, perhaps, not become me to offer any observations on these

contemporaries; but I cannot refrain from bearing testimony to the

work of a distinguished foreigner, M. Guizot, Histoire de la Revolution

d'Angleterre, depuis l'Avenement de Charles I. jusqu'à la Chute de

Jacques II. , the first volume of which was published in 1826. The

extensive knowledge of M. Guizot, and his remarkable impartiality,

have already been displayed in his collection of memoirs illustrating

that part of English history; and I am much disposed to believe that if

the rest of his present undertaking shall be completed in as

satisfactory a manner as the first volume, he will be entitled to the

preference above any one, perhaps, of our native writers, as a guide

through the great period of the seventeenth century.

In terminating the Constitutional History of England at the accession

of George III., I have been influenced by unwillingness to excite the

prejudices of modern politics, especially those connected with

personal character, which extend back through at least a large

portion of that reign. It is indeed vain to expect that any

comprehensive account of the two preceding centuries can be given

without risking the disapprobation of those parties, religious or

political, which originated during that period; but

3

as I shall hardly incur the imputation of being the blind zealot of any

of these, I have little to fear, in this respect, from the dispassionate

public, whose favour, both in this country and on the Continent, has

been bestowed on my former work, with a liberality less due to any

literary merit it may possess, than to a regard for truth, which will, I

trust, be found equally characteristic of the present.

June 1827.

ADVERTISEMENT
 
 TO THE
 
 THIRD EDITION

4

The present edition has been revised, and some use made of recent

publications. The note on the authenticity of the Icon Basilice, at the

end of the second volume of the two former editions, has been

withdrawn; not from the slightest doubt in the author's mind as to the

correctness of its argument; but because a discussion of a point of

literary criticism, as this ought to be considered, seemed rather out of

its place in the Constitutional History of England.

April 1832.

LIST OF AUTHORITIES

5

The following Editions have been used for the References in these

Volumes

Statutes at Large, by Ruffhead, except where the late edition of

Statutes of the Realm is expressly quoted.

State Trials, by Howell.

Rymer's Fœdera, London, 20 vols.

The paging of this edition is preserved in the margin of the

Hague edition in 10 vols.

Parliamentary History, new edition.

Burnet's History of the Reformation, 3 vols. folio, 1681.

Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, Annals of Reformation, and Lives

of Archbishops Cranmer, Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift, folio.

The paging of these editions is preserved in those lately

published in 8vo.

Hall's Chronicles of England.

Holingshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The edition in 4to published in 1808.

Somers Tracts, by Walter Scott, 13 vols. 4to.

Harleian Miscellany, 8 vols. 4to.

Neal's History of the Puritans, 2 vols. 4to.

Bacon's Works, by Mallet, 3 vols. folio, 1753.

Kennet's Complete History of England, 3 vols. folio, 1719.

Wood's History of University of Oxford, by Gutch, 4 vols. 4to.

Lingard's History of England, 10 vols. 8vo.

Butler's Memoirs of English Catholics, 4 vols. 1819.

Harris's Lives of James I., Charles I., Cromwell, and Charles II. , 5

vols. 1814.

Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, 8 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1826.

It is to be regretted that the editor has not preserved the

paging of the folio in his margin, which is of great

convenience in a book so frequently referred to; and still

more so, that he has not thought the true text worthy of

a better place than the bottom of the page, leaving to

the spurious readings the post of honour.

Clarendon's Life, folio.

Rushworth Abridged, 6 vols. 8vo. 1703.

This edition contains many additions from works published

since the folio edition in 1680.

Whitelock's Memorials, 1732.

Memoirs of Col. Hutchinson, 4to. 1806.

May's History of the Parliament, 4to. 1812.

Baxter's Life, folio.

Rapin's History of England, 3 vols. folio, 1732.

6

Burnet's History of his own Times, 2 vols. folio.

The paging of this edition is preserved in the margin of that

printed at Oxford, 1823, which is sometimes quoted,

and the text of which has always been followed.

Life of William Lord Russell, by Lord John Russell, 4to.

Temple's Works, 2 vols. folio, 1720.

Coxe's Life of Marlborough, 3 vols. 4to.

Coxe's Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole, 3 vols. 4to.

Robertson's History of Scotland, 2 vols. 8vo. 1794.

Laing's History of Scotland, 4 vols. 8vo.

Dalrymple's Annals of Scotland, 2 vols. 4to.

Leland's History of Ireland, 3 vols. 4to.

Spenser's Account of State of Ireland, in 8th volume of Todd's edition

of Spenser's works.

These are, I believe, almost all the works quoted in the following

volumes, concerning which any uncertainty could arise from

the mode of reference.

CONSTITUTIONAL

HISTORYOF

ENGLAND
 
 
 FROM HENRY VII. TO

GEORGE II.

7