Page:The Public Records and The Constitution.djvu/7



lecture was delivered a few years ago, and the plan was at the same time used to illustrate it, in the Hall of All Souls College. It was not published immediately afterwards because there was some probability that it would be delivered elsewhere from time to time. It has not been altered, except by the addition of a few notes, and the substitution of a few words necessary for the purpose of bringing it up to date. The plan has only been reduced in size by means of photography, so as to form part (perhaps the most important part) of the present publication. I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to the Controller of the University Press for the care and skill with which he has brought a diagram sixteen feet square to its present dimensions, and yet preserved its legibility.

The object of the plan and lecture has been to make the chief features of the constitution visible as a connected whole, and to mark their descent from the time of the Conquest. This could be attained only by the omission of some minor details which would obscure the main facts. It may, perhaps, be thought that some matters have been left out which ought, from their importance, to have been inserted. There is nothing, for instance, said in the lecture, or shown in the plan, with regard to the Cabinet, and as in one sense the Cabinet governs the country, it might be suggested that the principal factor of the whole subject has been forgotten. The lecture and the plan, however, are intended to show the development of the constitution as traceable in the public records, and to indicate the