Critical Miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 3‪)‬

Surely the preservation of parliamentary freedom was as important as the curtailment of British dominion, and only less important than the rise of the new American state. Even for a monograph, Mr. Seeley puts his theme in too exclusive a frame; and even from the point of his own profession that he seeks to discover 'the laws by which states rise, expand, and prosper or fall in this world', his survey is not sufficiently comprehensive, and his setting is too straitened.


Another criticism may be made upon the author's peculiar delimitation of his subject.