Excerpt from The Constitutional History of England: From 1760 to 1860 Mr. Hallam's constitutionalq History closes, as is well known, with the death of George II. The Reformation, the great Rebellion, and the Revolution, all of which are embraced in the period of which it treats, are events Of such surpassing importance, and such all-pervading and lasting influence, that no subsequent transactions can ever attract entirely equal atten tion. Yet the century which has elapsed since the accession of George III. Has also witnessed occurrences not only full of ex citing interest at the moment, but calculated to affect the poli cy of the kingdom and the condition of the people, for all fut ure time, in a degree only second to the Revolution itself. In deed, the change in some leading features and principles of the constitution wrought by the Reform Bill of 1832, exceeds any that were enacted by the Bill of Rights or the Act of Settle ment. The only absolutely new principle introduced in 1688 was that establishment of Protestant ascendency which was contained in the clause which disabled any Roman Catholic from wearing the crown. In other respects, those great stat utes were not so much the introduction of new principles, as a recognition of privileges of the people which had been long established, but which, in too many instances, had been disre garded and violated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.