cal tracts of Johns Hopkins University, edited by Prof. Herbert B. Adams, is inclined to trace in minute detail in American societies the usages of the old world, a course for which it has been sharply censured, sometimes by scholars of reputation. Under these circumstances, if a time were ever likely to arrive when doubtful questions will be any less in doubt, it would be prudent to defer the execution of such a task as the present one until that time. What probability is there, however, that the mighty march of Anglo-Saxondom will in these ages, ever press less confusingly upon the contemporaneous chronicler; or that as regards the past, the discord of authorities will ever be harmonized? The task is worth executing; the time as propitious as any that is likely to arise. The present writer, fortifying his judgment as he could, has written his book, following the lead of the scholars most accepted. The numerous footnotes will show, he trusts, that he has not been negligent in his reading. However open to question his conclusions may sometimes appear, they are not, at any rate, hap-hazard, but referable to respectable sources. The writer desires to express his obligation to a number of helpers. He is indebted to Mr. Goldwin Smith and to Mr. James Bryce for letters expressing sympathy with the main idea he has had at heart, to illustrate, namely, the substantial identity of the great English-speaking nations, in stock, and in the spirit of their social and political institutions, as well as in tongue; and the expediency that these nations should, in John Bright's phrase, become one people. The writer has received such a letter also from the venerable Sir George Grey of Auckland,at different times formerly, governor-general of New Zealand, of an Australian province, and of South Africa, and in those high positions so honorably identified with the rise of an English-speaking world in the South Pacific. Dr. W. G. Hammond, Dean of the St. Louis Law School, Hon. Mellen Chamberlain, late librarian of the Boston Public Library, and Prof. W. W. Folwell of the University of Minnesota, have given the writer the benefit of their criticisms upon several of his chapters, and helped him to important books which he could not otherwise have obtained. To Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., owners of the copyright of the "Life of Samuel Adams" and "Life of Young Sir Henry Vane," the writer is under obligation, for permission to quote from earlier work of his own bearing upon the present subject. Finally, it must be mentioned that this History of AngloSaxon Freedom has been written at the instance of Mrs. Mary Hemenway, of Boston, and is to be regarded as an outgrowth of the work undertaken by her to promote good citizenship and love of freedom, known as the Old South work. ST. LOUIS, September 21st, 1890. JAMES K. HOSMER. The polity of the United States to some extent a revival of something most ancient. - The plains at the mouths of the Elbe and Weser. - Social and legal aspects of the civiliza- tion of the Anglo-Saxons. — Divisions of rank. — Political forms. Comparison of the Anglo-Saxon polity with that of other primitive Aryan peoples; with that of modern America. -Freeman and J. R. Green on the retention of Inquiry into the value cf Anglo-Saxon freedom. - Views of John Stuart Mill and J. Toulmin Smith. - Saxon conquest of Britain. - Transferrence of the continental civilization to the new home. - Appearance of kingship. - How the King was appointed. — Origin of the thegns. Conver- sion of the Saxons to Christianity. The Heptarchy.— The supremacy of Wessex. Moots of tun, hundred, and shire. The witenagemote. - Conservative spirit of Al- Appearance to-day of the field of Senlac. - Importance of the battle. — The beach at Hastings. — Landing of the Nor- - Difficult situation of Harold. - Battle Ab- bey. The "Roman de Rou." — The two armies opposed. MAGNA CHARTA AND THE RISE OF PARLIAMENT. Submergence of popular government under feudalism. - Limitation of feudalism in Eng- Work of Henry II in depressing the great vassals. - The work of Langton. The origin of Parliament. Value of the representative system. Conditions of its Condition of freedom in Europe in the thirteenth century.— Constitution of the early Parliaments. - Importance of the knights-of-the-shire. The yeomen. - Unfortunate state of the boroughs. The Chapter House at Westmin- ster. - Division of Parliament into two Houses. - Growth of the power of Parliament. Its imperfect character as a representative body. Rise of the farmers and the free laborers. — The Statute of Laborers. — Peasant rebellion. - John Ball in Kent. - Bearing of Richard II.—Wat Tyler THE TIMES OF THE LANCASTRIANS. Deposition of Richard II. - Power of Parliament under - liament. - Misfortunes to representation in the shires and the boroughs.-Jack Cade's rebellion. - Justice of his Great increase of the power of the Crown.- Effect of the Reformation in producing this. — Position and character of Henry VIII. - Good points of his reign. — Catholic reaction under Mary. - Wyatt's rebellion. — Parliament grows more spirited under Elizabeth. - Sir Thomas Smith's description. -Tact of the Queen - Acts of Suprem- acy and Uniformity. - Star Chamber and High Commis- sion Courts. - Absolutism restrained under the Tudors.— Its triumph everywhere upon the continent. Growth of the doctrine of the jus divinum. - Cowell's "Interpreter." Subserviency of Convocation and the University of Oxford. Claims of James I.-Opposition of Parlia- ment. Accession of Charles I.-The Petition of Right. - Charters of the East India and Virginia Companies. - Settle- - |