BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS

General Editors: S. E. Winbolt, M.A., and Kenneth Bell, M.A.

A CONSTITUTION IN
MAKING
(1660-1714)

COMPILED BY
G. B. PERRETT, M.A. Lond.
EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

LONDON
G. BELL AND SONS, LTD.
1912

INTRODUCTION

Thisseries of English History Source Books is intendedfor use with any ordinary textbook of English History.Experience has conclusively shown that such apparatus isa valuable—nay, an indispensable—adjunct to the historylesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way oflively illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing,before the textbook is read, at the beginningof the lesson. The kind of problems and exercises that maybe based on the documents are legion, and are admirablyillustrated in a History of England for Schools, Part I., byKeatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have nowish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shallexercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupilswith materials hitherto not readily accessible for schoolpurposes. The very moderate price of the books in thisseries should bring them within the reach of every secondaryschool. Source books enable the pupil to take a more activepart than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus,the raw material: its use we leave to teacher andtaught.

Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by allgrades of historical students between the standards of fourth-formboys in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities.What differentiates students at one extreme fromthose at the other is not so much the kind of subject-matterdealt with, as the amount they can read into or extractfrom it.

{vi}In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying tosatisfy the natural demand for certain "stock" documentsof vital importance, we hope to introduce much fresh andnovel matter. It is our intention that the majority of theextracts should be lively in style—that is, personal, or descriptive,or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan—and shouldnot so much profess to give the truth as supply data for inference.We aim at the greatest possible variety, and layunder contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems,diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics, London,municipal, and social life generally, and local history,are represented in these pages.

The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, eachbeing numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given.The text is modernised, where necessary, to the extent ofleaving no difficulties in reading.

We shall be most grateful to teachers and students whomay send us suggestions for improvement.

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