Excerpt from Why the History of English Law Is Not Written: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered in the Arts School at Cambridge on 13th October, 1888

I have said that our neighbours are less fortu nate than we are; but perhaps that is not so, for hoarded wealth yields no interest. Of what has been done for the history of Roman law it is needless to speak; every Shred of evidence seems to have been crushed and thrashed and forced to give up its mean ing and perhaps somewhat more than its meaning. But look at the history of French law or of German law; it has been written many times on many dif ferent scales from that of the popular handbook to that of the erudite treatise, while the modern litera ture of monographs on themes of legal history isenormous, a literature the like of which is almost unknown in England. For our backwardness it is some excuse, though hardly a sufficient excuse, that we are overburdened by our materials, are becoming always better aware at once of their great value and of their unmanageable bulk. A Romanist may be able to say about some historical problem - I know all the first-hand evidence that there is, nay, I know it by heart; the truthful English historian will have to confess that he has but flitted over the surface. On the other hand, if we compare the task of writing English legal history with that which French and German historians have before them, there is a fact which goes far to outbalance any disadvantage oc casioned by the heavy weight of our materials. The early centralization of justice gives. To our history a wonderful unity; we have not to compare the cus toms of divers provinces, or the jurisprudences of rival schools; our system is a single system and re volves round \vestminster Hall.

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