MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON . BOMBAY . CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK . BOSTON . CHICAGO ATLANTA . SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO DELIVERED AT CAMBRIDGE, JUNE 11, 1895 BY LORD ACTON LL.D., D.C.L. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON 1911 Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S. E., AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK First Edition, October, 1895. Second Edition, January, 1896. Repr

[1] No political conclusions of any value for practice can be arrived at by direct experience. All true political science is, in one sense of the phrase, a priori , being deduced from the tendencies of things, tendencies known either through our general experience of human nature, or as the result of an analysis of the course of history, considered as a progressive evolution.— Mill , Inaugural Address , 51. [2] Contemporary history is, in Dr. Arnold's opinion, more important than either ancient