of swelling the size of this volume. The tenets there brought forward are essential for the fixing of the cornerstone of my position respecting the English Constitution. I maintain that the principles of our Constitution have been in existence ever since we, this English nation, have been in existence. This is to be proved not merely by quoting the Great Charter, but by making good the assertion that the epoch when the Great Charter was granted is the epoch when our nationality commenced. For this purpose it is absolutely necessary to analyze our nation, to trace the separate current of each of its primary sources, and to watch the processes of their intermingling. Perhaps I may venture to hope that one effect of studying our history in this manner, may be to give it an additional interest, from its evident connection with our classical studies. The main stream of our nation is Germanic: and he, who devotes himself to the histories of Greece and Rome, will find Greek history blending in Roman, and Roman blending in Germanic. The institutions of our Germanic ancestors commanded the anxious interest of the masterminds of ancient Rome. Those same institutions are the first subjects to which the inquirer into our laws and our political organization must bend his thoughts. They have, indeed, been greatly modified by the other elements with which they have been mingled here, but they have exercised more influence than any others. The Germania of Tacitus is equally a hand-book for the student of modern and for the student of ancient history. It thus demonstrates the unity of all history.

I hope that my work, in its present form, may be useful to young readers, in aiding to educate them for the future discharge of political duties; but I have earnestly sought to keep these pages free from party politics. I

know from my experience as a lecturer for thirteen years, how difficult it is to discuss English history without the line of instruction being affected by the instructor's own political bias. But I hope that the same experience has enabled me to surmount that difficulty. I have throughout this work kept its main object steadily in view, and have rigidly rejected every topic and every sentence that seemed calculated to serve other purposes. I advocate here neither Conservatism nor Liberalism, in the sense in which those slogans of modern party-warfare are commonly understood; but I strive to point out those great principles of the Constitution, which both Conservatives and Liberals ought to know, and must acknowledge, however they may differ as to the relative importance which they would fain see each principle acquire.

CHAPTER II.

Our Constitution coeval with our Nationality.—Thirteenth century the Date when each commences.—The Four Elements of our Nation. The Saxon, i. e. the Germanic, the chief Element.Parts of the Continent whence our Germanic Ancestors came.— Their Institutions, Political, Social, and Domestic.-Date of the Saxon Immigrations into this Island.-What Population did they find here ?—The British Element of our Nation, Romanized Celtic. -Primary Character and Institutions of the British Celts.Effect of Roman Conquests.-How far did the Saxons exterminate or blend with the Britons ?-Evidence of Language.

IT has been stated in the last chapter that Magna Carta is coeval with the commencement of our nationality; in other words, that we have had our present Constitution, as represented in Magna Carta, throughout the whole time of our true natural history, except some brief periods of revolutionary interruption. The proof of this depends on the date at which we fix the commencement of the history of the English nation, as a complete nation. This date is the 13th century.*

The accuracy as well as the importance of this date

* I am glad to be able to cite the high authority of Mr. Macaulay in support of the position that the history of the English nation commences in the 13th century. Mr. Ma

caulay, in the 17th page of the first volume of his History, after speaking of the Great

Charter as the first pledge of the reconciliation of the Norman and Saxon races, says—

RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTION.

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will be more readily discerned, if we remember the difference that there is between the history of the English and the history of England ;-between the history of our nation, and the history of the island on which we now dwell.

Our English nation is the combined product of several populations. The Saxon element is the most important, and may be treated as the chief one; but, besides this, there is the British (that is to say the Romanized Celtic), there is the Danish, and there is the Norman element. Each of these four elements of our nation has largely modified the rest; and each has exercised an important influence in determining our national character and our

"Here commences the history of the English nation. The history of the preceding events is the history of wrongs inflicted and sustained by various tribes, which, indeed, dwelt on English ground, but which regarded each other with aversion, such as has scarcely ever existed between communities separated by natural barriers.” Two eloquent pages are devoted to the illustration of this fact. I may be permitted in justice to myself to remark, that I had frequently in my lectures maintained the position that the history of the English nation does not commence before the 13th century; and it will be found also in my "Text-book of the Contitution," which was published before the appearance of Mr.

Macaulay's History. See also, in connection with this subject, the first of Arnold's Lectures on Modern History. I do not agree with that great and good man in thinking that the Britons, who lived here before the coming over of the Saxons, are in no respect connected with us as our ancestors, and that, nationally speaking, the history of Cæsar's invasion has no more to do with us than the natural history of the animals which then inhabited our forests." But it was from his pages that I was first led to appreciate the paramount importance of the Germanic source of our nation, and also to realize the full meaning of the terms national" and "nationality."

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national institutions. It is not until we reach the period when these elements were thoroughly fused and blended together, that the history of the English can properly be said to begin. This period is the 13th century after the birth of our Saviour. It was then, and not until then, that our nationality was complete. By nationality is meant the joint result of unity as to race, language, and institutions. In the 13th century these unities were created. Let us prove this separately. First, with respect to race. Though the coming over of the Normans in the 11th century made up the last great element of our population, a long time passed away before it coalesced with the others. For at least a century and a half after the Conquest, there were two distinct peoples, the Anglo-Norman and the Anglo-Saxon, dwelling in this island. They were locally intermingled with each other, but they were not fellow-countrymen. They kept aloof from each other in social life, the one in haughty scorn, the other in sullen abhorrence. But when we study the period of the reigns of John, and his son and grandson, we find Saxon and Norman blended together under the common name, and with the common rights, of Englishmen. From that time forth, no part of the population of England looks on another part as foreigners; all feel that they are one people, and that they jointly compose one of the States of Christendom. Secondly, with respect to language. In the 13th century, our English language, such substantially as it still is, became the mother tongue of every Englishman, whether of Norman or of Saxon origin.* So, finally, with respect to our institutions; it

The earliest extant specimen of the English language,

as contra-distinguished from the Saxon and Semi-Saxon, is the