The opening of Preface
No Commentary upon Magna Carta has hitherto been written from the standpoint of modern research. No serious attempt has yet been made to supersede, or even adequately to supplement, the works of Coke and Richard Thomson, published respectively in 1642 and 1829, and now hopelessly out of date. This lack of enterprise may be due in part to a natural reluctance to undertake so laborious a task, but seems also to suggest tacit acquiescence in the opinion of Bishop Stubbs that no separate commentary is required, since “the whole of the constitutional history of England is little more than a commentary on Magna Carta.” Yet, for that very reason the Great Charter is surely worthy to be made the subject of special and detailed study, since few documents can compete with it in the variety and interest of its contents, in the vividness of its historical setting, or in the influence it has exercised on the struggle for constitutional liberty. That this conspicuous gap in our historical and legal literature should have remained so long unfilled is the more remarkable in view of the great advance, amounting almost to a revolution, which has been effected since Coke and Thomson wrote.