The Development of Parliament during the Nineteenth Century


G. Lowes Dickinson, The Development of Parliament during the Nineteenth Century, London, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895, viiip. + 183p.

Numérisation et relecture des OCR réalisées par la Bibliothèque Cujas

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PARLIAMENT

[p.v]

PREFACE

The object of the following pages is twofold. First, to recount, as briefly and clearly as may be, the process of the 'democratisation' of Parliament; secondly, to put what appears to me to be one of the most important questions to which that process has given rise — the question of the competence of a democratic House of Commons to direct to a satisfactory issue the socialistic tendencies of the future.

It would have been easy for me to expand my materials into a larger book, to insert in the text much that I have relegated to notes, and to add much which I have omitted altogether. But I have preferred to aim, above all things, at clearness and brevity, in the hope that what I have written may be read, if not by the general public, at any rate by some who are not professional [p.vi] students, and have not the time to spare for the perusal of bulky and prolix works. At the same time, I have endeavoured to make my statements as accurate as possible, and to give my authorities fully and correctly. That I have avoided errors altogether I cannot venture to anticipate; I can only hope that they may be few, and apologise for them beforehand.

King's College, Cambridge.