Abstract

The Weak Side of the Historical Method
April 12, 1877 issue

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The ingenuity with which writers such as William Blackstone invented plausible reasons in favor of every detail of the curious anomaly called the English constitution amuse but do not impress a generation who have learnt that the presumptions on which the legal apologist based his pleas are groundless. If the historical study of opinions has tended to deaden the zeal for truth, the historical investigation of customs and institutions has had a strictly analogous effect in deadening the fervor both of speculative and of practical reformers.

See Also:

CONSTITUTIONS; CUSTOMARY law; BLACKSTONE, William, Sir, 1723-1780; HISTORY; PUBLIC administration; ADMINISTRATIVE law
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