Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/642

 632 Reviews of Books it for eight years. One is deeply impressed by the bewildering variety and mass of the original materials which have been exploited. The^ foot-notes alone are a perfect mine of information, supplementing the narrative in many ways. The manuscript sources employed comprise the original minutes of the parish vestries and the primitive records of many other governing bodies. Among the printed materials drawn upon are the contemporary local newspapers, " which give flesh and blood to the skeleton provided by the official minutes " ; contemporary pamphlets, especially those which are controversial in character ; the correspondence and decisions of the various branches of the national government, such as the privy council, the treasury, and the secretary of state's office ; the journals of the Lords and the Commons; and the thousands of private statutes usually neglected by investigators. All this wealth of materials has been used with masterly thorough- ness and skill. The volume is divided into two books : the first, in seven chapters and an " Introduction " dealing with the " Parish " ; and the second, in six chapters with a similar " Introduction " devoted to the " County ". During the period under consideration the parish, meas- ured by the extent and variety of its functions, was by far the most important local institution. Throughout England and Wales it was "ubiquitous"; while the county justices, "who elsewhere exercised so dominating an influence, were jealously excluded from towns which had secured the privilege of government by their own corporate magistracy ". Exclusive of the parishes and the manors, all the other local governing authorities did not amount to two thousand. On the other hand, in 1835 there existed "no fewer than 15,634 parishes or places separately relieving their own paupers ". The first chapter is devoted to an enlightening discussion of the many hard questions connected with " The Legal Framework of the Parish " ; for everywhere the investigator is confronted with uncertainty and com- plexity. In 1689 the parishes of England presented every conceivable variety in size, shape, and population. Until after the age of Elizabeth the constable was treated by Parliament as the first officer in the parish. Yet the authors have shown that the notion, derived from writers like Selden, that the constable was the constitutive officer of the parish is not sustained by the evidence. Originally an officer of the manorial court leet, he was never formally transferred to the parish ; and when in the seventeenth century in many districts the courts leet fell into decay, the appointment of the constable passed to the county justices. " Whether in the north or in the south, chosen at the court leet or appointed by the quarter or petty sessions, the constable was in all historic times pre- eminently the justices' man". At any rate, after 1689, and probably before, the churchwardens were the real heads of the parish. Perhaps no chapter in the book is more instructive than the second, dealing with " Unorganized Parish Government ". In the rural par- ishes, an oligarchy held full sway; and the multifarious duties of the