viii PREFACE.
has it here been treated,—in chapters, or rather
essays, devoted to each particular principle or group
of facts. But throughout these fragments a system
is distinctly discernible : accordingly the chapters
will be found also to follow a systematic plan.
It is my intention, at a future period, to lay
before my countrymen the continuation of this
History, embracing the laws of descent and pur-
chase, the law of contracts, the forms of judicial
process, the family relations, and the social con-
dition of the Saxons as to agriculture, commerce,
art, science and literature. I believe these things
to be worthy of investigation, from their bearing
upon the times in which we live, much more than
from any antiquarian value they may be supposed
to possess. We have a share in the past, and the
past yet works in us ; nor can a patriotic citizen
better serve his country than by devoting his ener-
gies and his time to record that which is great
and glorious in her history, for the admiration and
instruction of her neighbours.
J. M. K.
London, December 2nd, 1848.
PREFACE
TO THE NEW EDITION.
The original edition of this monumental work
having for a long time been out of print and of
enhanced value, a great demand has arisen for the
issue of a new edition ; and the welcome oppor-
tunity of amending a number of oversights and
typographical errors, and of verifying a large num-
ber of references, has not been neglected. The
book itself is of so standard a character, and was so
well digested in the first place, that no apology is
needed for its re-publication now—more than a
quarter of a century after its first appearance.
The principles laid down, the deductions gathered
from the array of recorded facts and examples, are
as true and incontrovertible to-day as they ever
were. The work, therefore, does not labour under
the disadvantage of becoming obsolete, inasmuch as
the researches which have since been made in this
branch of literary and historical enquiry have not
tended to weaken or destroy, but rather to support
and strengthen, the arguments applied by the author
to the gradual unfolding of his theories of the
growth and consolidation of the Anglosaxon Com-
monwealth, and the Koyal Authority in England.