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Edited by

OSCAR BROWNING, M.A.,

Crown 8vo.

HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS.

By PHILIP V. SMITH, M.A., Barrister-at-Law; Fellow o King's College, Cambridge. Second Edition.

HISTORY OF FRENCH LITERATURE.

3s. 6d.

Adapted from the French of M. Demogeo. By C. BRIDGE, 3s. 6d. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. From A.D. 395 to A.D. 800. With Maps and Plans.

By A. M. CURTEIS, M.A., Assistant-Master at Sherborne School, late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. 35. 6d. HISTORY OF MODERN ENGLISH LAW.

By Sir ROLAND KNYVET WILSON, Bart., M.A., Barristerat-Law; late Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. 3s. 6d. ENGLISH HISTORY IN THE XIVTH CENTURY.

By CHARLES H. PEARSON, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. [In the Press.

IN PREPARATION.

THE GREAT REBELLION.

By the EDITOR.

HISTORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

By the Rev. J. FRANCK BRIGHT, M.A., Fellow of University College, and Historical Lecturer in Balliol, New, and University Colleges, Oxford, late Master of the Modern School at Marlborough College.

THE AGE OF CHATHAM.

By Sir W. R. ANSON, Bart., M.A., Fellow of All Soul's College, Oxford.

THE AGE OF PITT.

By Sir W. R. ANSON, Bart., M.A., Fellow of All Soul's College, and Vinerian Reader of Law, Oxford.

THE REIGN OF LOUIS XI.

By F. WILLERT, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of Exeter College, Oxford.

THE SUPREMACY OF ATHENS.

By R. C. JEBB, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Public Orator of the University.

THE ROMAN REVOLUTION. From B.C. 133 to the Battle of Actium.

By H. F. PELHAM, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of Exeter College, Oxford.

HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

By Sir GEORGE YOUNG, Bart., late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge.

HISTORY OF ROMAN POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS.

By J. S. REID, M.A., Christ's College, Cambridge.

HISTORY

OF THE

ENGLISH INSTITUTIONS

BY

PHILIP VERNON SMITH, M.A.

BARRISTER-AT-LAW; FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

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PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THE various institutions of which the English Constitution, in its present complex form, is made up, are capable of being classified, and must, in order to be profitably studied, be classified under three or four leading divisions. From one point of view they are divisible into local and central; from another, into legislative, judicial, executive or administrative, and fiscal. Then, again, they may be classified as civil and ecclesiastical, or as social and political. And the leading divisions may be subdivided; as, for instance, the local into rural and municipal.

In the present volume the attention of the student will be directed to the origin of our local institutions on the one hand, and of our central government on the other, to the various phases of the development of both, and to the manner in which the latter gradually superseded and suppressed the former in their original shape, and then created a new local machinery to supply the want which their extinction had occasioned. He will also be called upon to observe the gradual limitation and separation into their

four great divisions of the at first undefined functions of government, which were originally exercised by the same individual or body of individuals, and still remain theoretically united in the person of the sovereign; but which, at least in our central system, it was found necessary, as the state of society became more complicated, to vest for all practical purposes in different hands. He will see how the judicial element, which was at first the most prominent, became in time subordinated to the legislature; how king, nobles, and commons, have from time to time exercised an exclusive, a preponderating, or a joint control over the latter, and over the executive or the administration of affairs; and how the fiscal department, which hardly existed in a primitive state of things, gradually rose to such importance, that it became the arena of some of the severest struggles for the personal rights and liberties of Englishmen and the due distribution of political power. The close connection which has always existed in this country between the Church and the State will render some notice of ecclesiastical affairs inevitable; but they will be treated of from a political point of view, and only so far as is necessary to illustrate the civil condition of the country.

For the purpose of a review of our institutions, such as that contemplated, it has been found convenient to divide its history into six great periods:

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