SHERRATT & HUGHES Publishers to the Victoria University of Manchester Manchester: 34 Cross Street London: 60, Chandos Street W.C. FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1902 IN COMMEMORATION OF THE JUBILEE OF THE OWENS COLLEGE, MANCHESTER EDITED BY T. F. TOUT, M.A. PROFESSOR OF MEDIEVAL AND MODERN HISTORY AND JAMES TAIT, M.A. PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL HISTORY RAR UNIVERSITY MANCHESTER AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1907 PREFACE TO THE REISSUE. THIS Volume of Historical Essays by members of the Owens College was first published in 1902 by Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. on the occasion of the Jubilee of that institution. During the last five years events have marched apace, and the prospects dimly hoped for in the concluding paragraphs of the original preface have been largely realized. The Owens College has ceased to exist as a separate institution and has been incorporated in the Victoria University of Manchester, which now represents the Victoria University, founded in 1880, but freed from the restrictions involved in its original federal constitution. Among the new developments that followed this revolution has been the institution of the series of Publications of the University of Manchester, and it has been thought desirable to incorporate the present volume in this series. This has been made possible by the kindness of Messrs. Longmans, the original publishers, and t result is the book now offered to the public. It is not a edition" in the stricter sense, as the sheets are reissued without alteration of any kind, and even the descriptions of the contributors have not been brought up-to-date. An index has, however, been added in conformity with the suggestion of several of the reviewers, who were good enough to notice the book favourably. Moreover, the external form of the reissue has been made uniform with that of the other publications of the University, and it will henceforth be issued by the University Publishers, Messrs. Sherratt & Hughes. It is pleasant to be able to add that, through the liberality 161601 of the Council of the University considerable progress has been made towards the expansion of the Historical Department in the directions indicated in the closing words of the preface of 1902. The staff has been considerably increased. There are now two professorships of history instead of the one that existed in 1902; though there is still pressing need for a third professorship devoted particularly to the most modern period of history. By the appointment of Mr. A. G. Little, formerly Professor of History at Cardiff, as Lecturer on Palæography, the most urgent of the needs then felt for promoting the training of medieval historians has been met, and a course of lectures on mediæval palæography is now given in alternate years. This year there will also be a course of Welsh paleography, given by Dr. J. Gwenogvryn Evans, a distinguished former student of Owens College. There are now two regular assistants devoting their whole time to the work of the department, besides two special lecturers, one in ecclesiastical and one in Roman history. Oriental history is now undertaken by Professor Hogg. Economic history has also become a separate charge, and the new faculty of commerce has stimulated its study, just as the faculty of theology has promoted the cultivation of ecclesiastical history. The time will soon arrive when early ecclesiastical history will require a teacher whose main interests are centred in that work. By the co-operation of allied departments of the college other needs of historical students are more fully met. Reference to the special Prospectus of Advanced Studies in the University will show the extent to which we aspire to provide for such requirements. The institution of research degrees and the University Publications are direct incentives to higher historical study and the supply of graduate scholarships and fellowships has been of late years barely adequate to the requirements of those students who wish to devote themselves to original investigation. The University Publications only began in 1904: this reissue makes the sixth volume of the Historical |