An Historical and Political Discourse of the Laws and Government of England,

the rights of Englishmen

A handsome copy of this early constitutional history of England, one of the first to assert the ancient liberties and rights of Englishmen as derived from Anglo-Saxon laws and customs.

The work, avowedly Parliamentarian in tone, was initially published in 1647, with its continuation appearing four years later, after the execution of Charles I. Bacon drew upon sources compiled by the jurist John Selden to argue that England's government had always been a form of contractual monarchy, in which the King's power was kept in check by a parliament that oversaw its proper functioning.

'For proof of this theorizing, radical ancient constitutionalists such as Bacon turned to the Modus tenendi parliamentum, the Mirror of Justices, and the so-called laws of St Edward the Confessor. These three treatises, which claimed to date from the Saxon period but were in fact written in the early twelfth and early fourteenth centuries, described how institutions, especially the common law and a parliament that included the House of Commons, existed in Saxon England and had survived the Norman conquest intact. The continuity of Saxon institutions across the great divide of 1066 was assured when William I and all of his successors down to the Stuart period confirmed St Edward's laws in coronation charters, coronation oaths, and in documents such as Magna Carta' (ODNB).

Stated fifth edition; 4to (29.5 x 24 cm); woodcut headpieces, offsetting to title and prelim margins, occasional faint spotting; contemporary sprinkled calf, gilt spine in 6 compartments, contrasting red morocco lettering-piece, joints and spine caps skilfully restored, front hinge reinforced, a little rubbed, very good; [4], xix, [1], 203, [1]; xii, 178, [8]pp.

ESTC T108171.