Produced by Lisa Reigel, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Notes: Words in italics in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. Words in bold are surrounded by =equal signs=. Variations in spelling and hyphenation remain as in the original. Ellipses match the original. A complete list of typographical corrections follows the text. THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND VOLUME I THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO THE GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND BY A. LAWRENCE LOWELL PROFESSOR OF THE SCIENCE OF GOVERNMENT IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY VOLUME I New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908 _All rights reserved_ COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY A. LAWRENCE LOWELL. Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 1908. Reprinted June, 1908. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE Measured by the standards of duration, absence of violent commotions, maintenance of law and order, general prosperity and contentment of the people, and by the extent of its influence on the institutions and political thought of other lands, the English government has been one of the most remarkable the world has ever known. An attempt, therefore, to study it at any salient epoch cannot be valueless; and the present is a salient epoch, for the nation has now enjoyed something very near to manhood suffrage in the boroughs for forty years, and throughout the country more than twenty years, a period long enough for democracy to produce its primary if not its ultimate effects. Moreover, England has one of the most interesting of popular governments, because it has had a free development, little hampered by rigid constitutional devices. It is an organism constantly adapting itself to its environment, and hence in full harmony with national conditions. An endeavour has been made in these volumes to portray the present form of that organism and the forces which maintain its equilibrium.