“THE AMERICAN COMMONWEALTH,” published by James Bryce in 1888, was accepted at once as the most important study of American institutions made since the publication of De Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America.” His “Holy Roman Empire,” published in 1864, passed through seven editions in ten years, but it was not until the appearance of “The American Commonwealth” that his genius was fully recognized. It shows that he has been a deep student of the whole movement of the civilization which resulted in the surprising social, industrial, and political changes of his generation. His essays, as yet uncollected, show the same intellectual traits which account for the success of “The American Commonwealth.” He is tolerant enough to understand all sides of every question with which he deals, but is fundamentally conservative in his intellectual habits and is often much less radical in dealing with the principles of social organization than were Chatham, Burke, and the great Whigs of the eighteenth century.

  He was born at Belfast, Ireland, May 10th, 1838, and educated at Glasgow, Cambridge, and Heidelberg. From 1870 to 1893, he was regius professor of civil law at Oxford. In Parliament, where since 1880 he has served with distinction, he has been since the death of Gladstone one of the chief supports of the Liberal party. He served under Gladstone as under-secretary for foreign affairs, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and president of the board of trade.