PhilipJulius, Duke of Pomerania-Wolgast, born in the year 1584, was the only son of Ernst Ludwig, of Pomerania, and Sophia Hedwig, of Brunswick. For the purpose of finishing his education before taking up the government of his country, he was sent on a grand tour through the principal States of Europe, sixteen gentlemen and servants forming his suite.

In the old portion of the city of Rome, between the Capitoline and Quirinal Hills, and north-west of the old Forum, stands a column, some 117 feet high, surmounted by a statue of St. Peter, and adorned with a bas-relief, winding spirally round the shaft, from pedestal to summit. This column commemo-rates the events which led to the formation of the Roumanian people and language.

We live in an age when the theory of evolution is being applied to all the phenomena of the universe. It is natural, therefore, that we should attempt to explain the sequence of the various forms of government by this hypothesis. Political science, although it is a favourite study in America, is not much regarded in England. We are, perhaps, too much absorbed in political practice to believe in the reality of political theory. Still it is probable that, as democracy advances, and as the necessity of educating the masses of our population in politics becomes more imperative, political science will claim a larger share of attention. This science is divided into two branches, the one deductive and speculative, the other inductive and historical. The Elements of Politics, by Professor Sidgwick, is perhaps the first attempt to treat the first division thoroughly and systematically in the English language. The writer essays, with more or less success, to trace every ramification of the perfect modern state, as it ought to be, based upon the theory of the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The second department has not yet been worked out, but there is no reason why this should not be done. Anyone who attempted it would have to separate the facts of government from all other social phenomena, and to seek to arrange them in such an order, proceeding from the more simple to the more complex, that he could arrive at some conclusion, more or less valid, as to the manner in which the state had been evolved and differentiated amongst human beings. Attempts have been made to effect this in isolated parts of the whole field.

I need hardly explain to this Society what the Gascon Rolls are, nor why their publication is a matter of importance. A very few words on these two points must, however, accompany the remarks which I propose to make on the reasons why their publication has been so long delayed, and on the course of events which has at last issued in their being brought to light.

It is twenty months since the first rumours of the discovery of the now famous πολıτεĺα τν 'AΘηναĺΩν went round the learned world, and a year and a half has elapsed since the book itself appeared to vex the souls of those engaged in the teaching of ancient history, and to force them to recast paragraph after paragraph of the books or lectures which had long served them well, but whose hypotheses were, alas ! more often upset than confirmed by the statements of the new authority.

In the course of extensive researches in which I have been engaged for some years on the subject of the history of the Rumbold family during the seventeenth century, and more especially at the period immediately preceding the Restoration, I came across a paper in the British Museum which has never, as far as I know, been made public, and is, perhaps, not unworthy to find a place among the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. The curious document in question is headed A Particular of the Services performed by me Henry Rumbold for His Majesty.

Professor Ashley on The Character of Villein tenure, and its Relation to InclosureInherent Improbabilities of Professor Ashley's Theory: (I) From the Yorkist Position; (2) From the Tudor Policy; (3) From Absence of EvidenceThe Acts of 1488 and 1515 for Restraint of InclosuresLimits of the Commission of 1517The Returns of the Record Office and of the Lansdowne MS.IllustrationsAreas embraced in ReturnsAbsence of Uniformity in Returns. Examples. Inclosures: (1) By Tenants; (2) By LandlordsCharacteristics of the Returns for the Different CountiesSympathetic Description of EvictionsBoldness and Impartiality of the CommissionersThe Commissioners call Attention to the Losses of Tenants by InclosureLegal Position of Persons concerned mentioned in Yorkshire, where Persons evicted clearly not CopyholdersIndications of Tenure in Herefordshire, Hants, and Norfolk. No Sign of Evictions of CopyholdersInclosures of Demesne Lands by Farming Tenants, with and without EvictionsInclosures by Lords with EvictionsInclosures by CopyholdersWhat Class of Tenants were evicted? The Evidence supplied by the Herefordshire ReturnsThe Persons so described Tenants at Will at Common LawThe Gloucestershire Cases of Evictions of CopyholdersThe Commissioners' View of the Duke of Buckingham's ProceedingsReport of the Surveyors of the Duke of Buckingham's Estates. His Expropriations of FreeholdersThe Duke of Buckingham's Arbitrary Conduct a Cause of his RuinCorroborative Evidence derived from the Statutes that the Persons evicted were not Copyholders.