Page:American Historical Review vol. 6.djvu/134

 I 24 Reviews of Books tutional history ; but to spend almost the best part of the book, the first thirty pages, in wandering about for what only the antiquary would suffi- ciently value when found, might tempt one to cast aside a first-rate piece of work. Five pages should have been enough. Let us have done with criticism at once. How could the author de- vote these thirty pages to the Origin of the Palatinate, and, without a helpful syllable, dismiss a court of the Law Merchant, which he finds in Durham in full operation ? "A court of pie-powder was held in the fairs and markets belonging to the bishop ;" but that and other small courts ' ' present no peculiar features. ' ' The author is nodding ; one so learned in legal history must know that the smallest word unearthed about these courts of the merchants is worth tons of suggestions and guesses, or even of records, in regard to the origin of the Durham palatinate. Thence came (transplanted from the Continent) the body of that most potent in- fluence in English and American life, our /c.v mcrcatoria. 'ill not Dr. Lapsley tell us something about the pie-powder courts of Durham, as well as about the Council of the North ? For another thing, we cannot but wonder why the author should stop, as he does several times, to justify his method. An author is en- titled to his own method ; the only justification called for is its fruits. On that justification Dr. Lapsley might safely have rested, quite as safely as by challenging the reader to consider his method. Again, the author is apt to discredit his reader's intelligence ; as where, after giving (p. 234) two reasons for a certain thing, which tell their own story, he com- ments thus ; " The first is a matter of expediency, the second a matter of sentiment." We had noted other things for criticism, but we gladly brush them away, with all that we have said, as only the small dust in the balance. The merits of the work before us are conspicuous, its defects of the slightest in comparison. The idea of making the Durham palatinate a special study was a happy one ; but for some other workers we might call it an inspiration. It was worth doing, and has been well done. The scope of the work is comprehensive, and the plan is so well carried out that Lapsley's Durham Palatinate must long stand as the final work on the subject. What it contains may be briefly shown. After the first chapter, on origins, we have a careful study on The Bishop as Lord Palatine. Here the author treats of the Bishop's regality, under powers in imperio, in dominio, and in jui-isdictione ; a not very illuminating set of titles, though the author assures us that it "has in compensation the great advantage of clearness. " Under the first desig- nation the Bishop appears as king of Durham ; under the second, as feudal landlord ; under the third, in relation to the law. The second chapter treats of the less interesting subject of the Officers of the Palatinate ; under which we find Officers of State and Officers of the Household fully dealt with". A valuable chapter follows on The Assembly and the Bishop's Coun- cil, which all students of our own colonial history will read with pleasure