ABSTRACT
The massive series, English Historical Documents, edited by D.C. Douglas, has so far yielded five volumes covering the years 1485-1558 and 1660-1874.22 The series intends to present a representative selection from every sort of historical source, but this has proved overambitious for the modern period. Nevertheless, there are things of value in these gigantic volumes, and the extended commentaries, though variable in quality (those by Browning and Aspinall stand out), are always worth attention. On the other hand, a two-volume collection of legal and constitutional documents, chosen virtually exclusively from official sources, offers no guidance to the student since its editors were too modest to speak.23 More useful are four volumes of documents with commentary which, between them, provide the most up-to-date concise analysis of government and constitution between the restoration of strong kingship and the first Ulster crisis.24
