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EDMUND PLUNKETT BURKE, ESQ.

OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

Second Edition, Revised.

PRINTED FOR T. STEVENSON, CAMBRIDGE;

LONGMAN, REES, & CO., SAUNDERS & BENNING, AND J. BIGG & SON, LONDON;

J. PARKER, OXFORD; BELL & BRADFUTE, EDINBURGH;

AND W. COLLINS, GLASGOW.

1842.

TILDEN LIBRARE

1895

PREFACE.

THE object of the following essay is to offer a view of the principal revolutions which have taken place in the constitution and in the jurisprudence of the most celebrated people with whose history we are acquainted. The subject is in every point of view highly interesting. Indeed it may fairly be asserted that none of the numerous branches of study, which must be cultivated to obtain a knowledge of antiquity, is fraught with so much zeal and practical interest as that of laws and governments. It is not disputed that the manners and habits, the manufactures, the commerce of a great nation offer abundant materials for the gratification of a very natural curiosity; but still they are, in most instances, an object of curiosity only. If the importance of every study were to be

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