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THE

ENGLISH CONSTITUTION:

A

POPULAR COMMENTARY

ON

The Constitutional Law of England.

BY

GEORGE BOWYER, M.A.

BARRISTER AT LAW.

LONDON:

JAMES BURNS, 17 PORTMAN STREET:

SOLD ALSO BY

MESSRS. RICHARDS, 194 FLEET STREET.

MDCCCXLI.

1

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PREFACE.

I AVAIL myself of the usual privilege of writers, to explain the views with which this work has been commenced and completed.

The great changes which have taken place since Blackstone wrote render it necessary that the works of that illustrious commentator should be read with the notes and additions of later editors. That necessity is sufficiently shewn by the favourable manner in which the recent editions of the Commentaries have been received. But Blackstone does not, in any form, altogether answer the purpose for which this Commentary is intended. The principal object of that writer was to give students a knowledge of the entire civil and criminal jurisprudence of the country; the constitutional law forms a secondary or introductory part of his work. Thus the portion of his book exclusively devoted to constitutional law is necessarily incomplete in itself, because many things are either entirely omitted, or scattered over other parts of the Commentaries, according to the nature of his plan. For instance, the practical results of the responsibility of ministers to parliament are imperfectly sketched out; and the law respecting the courts of justice, though an important part of our constitution, is necessarily reserved for the third and fourth books.

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