xvi 



In the ' Merchant and Friar,' Roger Bacon is employed as the 

 expounder of mediaeval philosophy. Intimate acquaintance with the 

 curious arts of the middle ages, astrology and alchemy, with physical 

 science, both ancient and modern, the archaeological incidents dis- 

 closed hy study of the city archives, a sensibility to the beauties of 

 architecture and nature, supplied the author with ample means 

 towards a just comparison of the arts and customs of the past and 

 present. The illustration of important constitutional principles, as 

 shown, for instance, in the development of trial by jury and of the 

 parliamentary representation of the English counties, even more than 

 a picture of mediaeval society and manners, was his object in this 

 story. Especially did he wish to impress upon his readers that 

 essential truth, that our " constitution is based, not upon liberty, but 

 upon law," that Parliament is not only an assembly of the political 

 estates of the realm, but a judicial tribunal, that High Court to which 

 even the poorest in the middle ages could apply for justice. In 

 spite of the "wit and wisdom" contained in the 'Merchant and 

 Friar,' the animated pictures of past times and varied display of 

 knowledge, the outpourings of one who loved study for its own sake, 

 it is but an unknown book. 



Further investigation of Anglo-Norman history, and that passion 

 for his subject which springs from long-continued research, led Pal- 

 grave to abandon his intention of continuing, in one volume, the 

 'Commonwealth 5 to the accession of the Stuarts, and he devoted 

 himself to investigate the times that lay nearest to the Conquest. 

 This was, however, to him no brief undertaking. To the right un- 

 derstanding of the process by which our constitution arose after the 

 Conquest, he felt it necessary to treat fully of the Norman dynasty 

 from its first establishment, and to exhibit the parallel between 

 France under the Capetians, and the German empire after the ex- 

 tinction of the Carlovingian dynasty. But he was not enabled to 

 complete this great project before declining powers impeded his 

 progress. 



Palgrave sought throughout his writings to enforce certain leading 

 historical principles. Independent study convinced him, at the 

 commencement of his career, " that the states composing Western 

 Christendom were to be considered as carrying on the succession of 

 the imperial authority of Home," a doctrine upon which, as he be- 



