~ vii ~
do hope that outside the narrow circle of professional scholars, it may interest others here and there, who have the curiosity to know something about the history of an institution which governs their lives and the lives of most of the civilized nations. To such I have tried to make myself intelligible. All Greek and nearly all Latin have been banished from the body of the text and I have explained many points which to a good Classical scholar need no explanation. At the same time I hope that the latter will find that he is furnished with the references which will enable him to test the accuracy of what is stated as fact and the validity of the inferences drawn from the facts. That these inferences should meet with general agreement is more than I expect, indeed more than I wish. I would rather repeat in another form what I said in my earlier note mentioned above that I hope the book may stimulate a further enquiry into a subject which has to my mind been somewhat strangely neglected in this country.
F. H. C.
Cambridge
June 1926
