A. L. CROSS T PREFACE HIS volume concludes Part I of Book IV of this History. The sixth chapter, with which this volume opens, deals with the public law of the seventeenth century, and shows how, as the result of the constitutional conflicts of that century, our modern constitution and constitutional law have emerged. It is necessarily a long chapter, partly because the subject is intimately bound up with the general history of England, and partly because the events of that century have never before been treated from a purely legal point of view. The continuity of English history has given to seventeenth century constitutional history a very permanent influence upon the politics of later centuries, with the result that its history has too often been written from the point of view of those politics, and has reflected the political prepossessions of the writer. But, if we would understand the strength and weakness of the claims made by King and Parliament, we must approach the problem from that legal point of view which was adopted by both the contending parties in the seventeenth century. It is only in this way that we can do justice to these rival claimants to sovereignty. The seventh chapter carries on the history of the enacted law from the point at which it was left in the second chapter of this Book, and describes the modifications and additions made by the legislature between 1660 and 1700. The eighth chapter deals with the professional development of the law. It also is a long chapter. This is partly due to the fact that no history of this period in our legal history has ever been written before; and partly to the fact that in the legal world, as on other sides of our national life, modern conditions then decisively emerged. It is obviously necessary to spend some time in explaining why, under these conditions, our law and legal institutions assumed their familiar shape. Both in the fourth volume of this History, and still more in this volume, the number of pages allotted by my publishers has been exceeded. It is due to the liberality of the Directors of the Commonwealth Fund of the United States, on the recommendation of their Legal Research Committee, that I have been able to include in the fourth volume and in this volume the extra pages needed to obtain completeness of treatment. It is naturally a source of great satisfaction to me personally that the Directors of the Commonwealth Fund should have done. me the honour of recognising my work in this way; and I am sure that it will also be a source of great satisfaction to all English lawyers that America should have helped in the production of a history of what is perhaps the most valuable part of our common heritage-our common law and equity. Legal history has always been a branch of learning which has owed very much to American scholarship. By its students the names of such legal historians as Holmes and Wigmore and Pound, as Ames and Thayer, will always be honoured. I hope that readers of these volumes will agree that the action of the Directors of the Commonwealth Fund and its Legal Research Committee has increased the debt which we English lawyers already owe to the lawyers of the United States. I again have to thank Dr. Hazel, All Souls Reader in English Law in the University of Oxford, and Reader in Constitutional Law and Legal History in the Inns of Court, for the benefit of his criticism, and his help in correcting the proof sheets; and Mr. Costin, Fellow and Lecturer in History at St. John's College, Oxford, for making the list of statutes. ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD (VOL. I.) BOOK I.-THE JUDICIAL SYSTEM: Introduction. CHAP. I. Origins. (VOL. II.) BOOK II. (449-1066)-ANGLO-SAXON ANTIQUITIES: Introduction. Part I. Sources and General Development. Part II. The Rules of Law: § 1 The- Ranks of the People; §2 Criminal Law; § 3 The Law of Property; §4 Family Law; BOOK III. (1066-1485)—THE MEDIEVAL COMMON LAW: Introduction. Part I. Sources and General Development: CHAP. I. The Intellectual, Political, and Legal Ideas of the Middle Ages. CHAP. II. The Norman Conquest to Magna Carta. CHAP. III. The Reign of Henry III. CHAP. IV. The Reign of Edward I. CHAP. V. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. (VOL. III.) Part II. The Rules of Law: CHAP. I. The Land Law: § 1 The Real Actions; § 2 Free Tenure, Unfree Tenure, and Chattels Real; § 3 The Free Tenures and Their Incidents; § 4 The Power of Alienation; §5 Seisin: §6 Estates; § 7 Incorporeal Things; § 8 Inheritance; $9 Curtsey and Dower; § 10 Unfree Tenure; § 11 The Term of Years; § 12 The Modes and Forms of Conveyance; § 13 Special Customs. CHAP. II. Crime and Tort: § 1 Self-help; § 2 Treason; § 3 Benefit of Clergy, and Sanctuary and Abjuration; § 4 Principal and Accessory; § 5 Offences Against the Person; § 6 Possession and Ownership of Chattels; §7 Wrongs to Property; § 8 The Principles of Liability; § 9 Lines of Future Development. CHAP. III. Contract and Quasi-Contract. CHAP. IV. Status: § 1 The King; § 2 The Incorporate Person; § 3 The Villeins; § 4 The Infant; § 5 The Married Woman. CHAP. V. Succession to Chattels : § 1 The Last Will; § 2 Restrictions on Testation and Intestate Succession; § 3 The Representa- tion of the Deceased. CHAP. VI. Procedure and Pleading: § 1 The Criminal Law; (VOL. IV.) BOOK IV. (1485-1700)-THE COMMON LAW AND ITS RIVALS: Intro- duction. Part I. Sources and General Development: CHAP. I. The Sixteenth (VOL. VII.) Part II. The Rules of Law. CHAP. I. The Land Law: § 1 The Action |