OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND, MORE ESPECIALLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE ENGLISH CONSTITUTION: DESIGNED TO COMMUNICATE IN AN ACCESSIBLE FORM A KNOWLEDGE OF THE MOST ESSENTIAL PORTIONS OF THE BEST WORKS ON THE AND TO FORM A TEXT-BOOK FOR THE USE OF COLLEGES AND THE HIGHER CLASSES IN SCHOOLS. BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS HAMILTON, OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. VOL. I. FROM THE INVASION OF THE ROMANS TO THE REIGN OF EDWARD III. WITH ILLUSTRATION S. London: JOHN WEALE, 59, HIGH HOLBORN. MDCCCLII. 226.c.157. PREFACE. MORE books, it is probable, have been written on History than on any other branch of human learning; nor is this to be wondered at, considering that it treats of subjects the most interesting. History is for nations what experience is to the individual,—it instructs us not only in the motives and actions of mankind, but what is of still greater importance, in the principles and laws which rule the destiny of man, and by a knowledge of which he is in a manner rendered responsible for his own happiness or misery. This latter province of History, although undoubtedly the most important, is too frequently overlooked by historians, more especially in rudimentary works, which are generally confined to a descriptive narrative of events. Such was, in fact, the character of written History before the works of DE LOLME, HALLAM, Guizot, BrouGHAM, MACAULAY, and others, whose names now grace the literature of Europe, added a new significance to the term, and raised History to the rank of a Science, by extending to it the same scrutinizing and rigorous analysis which had hitherto belonged exclusively to the pure Sciences. Fully to carry out this system of investigation in an elemen a |