LIBERTY DOCUMENTS.
Liberty Documents. Selected and Prepared by Mabel Hill. (Longmans and Co. 7s. 6d.)—This book directing students to the evolution of constitutional government from the time of Henry I. to the present day is one of the best products of that enthusiasm for learning, especially of the kind which Bagehot termed "factish," that is at present pervading the United States. It gives the text, with contemporary exposition and critical com- mentary, of each of the "liberty documents" that have played such an important part in the constitutional history of both branches of the Anglo.Saxon race. These include the Charter of Henry I. (1101), Magna Charts (1215), Petition of Rights (1628), Habeas Corpus Act (1679), Bill of Rights (1689), Virginia Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence (1776), Washington's Farewell Address (1796), Emancipation of the Slaves (1862-63), and less
• epoch-making," though scarcely less important, British Parlia- mentary Bills and American Resolutions of Senate. The contem- porary exposition is obtained from the utterances of those British and American public men who could say of the documents with truth," Magnae partes fuimus." The critical comment is derived from the writings of historians and publicists, such as Macaulay, . Bryce, and Bagehot here, and Bancroft, Story, and Woolsey on the other side of the Atlantic. In addition to text, exposi-
tion, and comment, we have a copious general index and equally valuable appendices, including the " essentials " both of British and of American history. The volume is, in fact, a manual of Anglo. Saxon constitutional history from the time of Henry I. to the "Second Term" of President McKinley, and none the less such a manual because it allows that history to speak for itself. Besides, as Professor Hart of Harvard points out in an excellent and concise introduction, "the book brings into clear and sharp relief the great truth that English and American constitutional history has run practically one course." It is difficult to see how Miss Mabel Hill, who has prepared this book in the course of her labours as a secondary-school teacher, could have done her work better. Her volume comes quite within the understanding of intelligent boys and girls. Yet it ought to be on the shelf of every politician and publicist.
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