SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS The writer of this brief manual is convinced that no hard-and-fast rules can be laid down for the use of a textbook in history. He believes that every teacher will naturally pursue a system of his own, and that by so doing he will get better results than if he attempt to follow a rigid mechanical course which makes no allowance for individual judgment and gives no scope to originality of method. The author would simply suggest that where time is limited it might be well to omit the General Reference Summarìes (see, for instance, p. 43) and to read the text as a continuous narrative. Then the important points in each day's lesson might be talked over at the end of the recitation or on the following day. On the other hand, where time permits a thorough course of study, all of the topics may be taken up and carefully examined, and the General Reference Summaries may be consulted by way of review and for additional information. The pupil can also be referred to one or more books (see the Classified List of Books in the Appendix) on the subjects under consideration. Instead of the teacher's asking a prescribed set of routine questions, the pupil may be encouraged to ask his own. Thus in undertaking the examination of a given topic - say, the Battle of Hastings (§§ 69-75), the issue of the Great Charter (§§ 195–202), or "The Industrial Revolution" and Watt's invention of an improved Steam Engine (§ 563) — there are five inquiries which naturally arise and which practically cover the whole ground. These are 1. When did the event occur? 2. Where did it occur? 3. How did it occur? 4. What caused it? 5. What came of it? It will be seen that these five questions call attention first to the chronology of the event, secondly to its geography, thirdly to the narrative describing it, fourthly to its relations to preceding events, and fifthly to its relations to subsequent events. The pupil will find that while in some instances he can readily obtain answers for all of these inquiries, for example, in the case of the Great SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS xvii Charter, in other instances he will have to content himself with the answer to only a part of the questions, perhaps, in fact, to only a single one; nevertheless the search will always prove instructive and stimulating. Such a method of study, or one akin to it, will teach the pupil to think and to examine for himself. It will lead him to see the inevitable limitations and the apparent contradictions of history. It will make him realize, as perhaps nothing else can, that the testimony of different writers must be taken like that of witnesses in a court of justice. He will see that while authorities seldom entirely agree respecting details, they will generally agree in regard to the main features of important events. Last of all, and best as well as last, these five questions will be found to open up new and broader fields of inquiry, and they may perhaps encourage the pupil to continue his work on some subject in which he becomes interested, beyond the limits of the textbook and the classroom. Pursued in this way, the study of history will cease to be a dry delving for dead facts in the dust of a dead past. It will rouse thought, it will quicken the pulse of intellectual life, and it will end by making the pupil feel the full force of the great truth: that the present is an outgrowth of the past, and that it is only when we know what men have done, that we can hope to understand what they are now doing. D. H. M. (The most important constitutional dates are marked by an asterisk) 55 B.C. Cæsar lands in Britain (§ 18) 449 A.D. Coming of the Saxons ($36) 597. Coming of St. Augustine ($41) 878. Alfred's Treaty of Wedmore (§ 56) 1066. Battle of Hastings ($74) *1100. Henry I's Charter of Liberties (§ 135) *1164. Constitutions of Clarendon (§ 165) *1190. Rise of Free Towns (§ 183) 1204. John's Loss of Normandy (§ 191) *1215. John grants Magna Carta (§§ 198, 199) *1265. De Montfort's Parliament ($213) *1279. Statute of Mortmain (§ 226) 1282. Conquest of Wales (§ 218) 1587. Mary Queen of Scots executed (§ 397) 1607. Virginia permanently settled (§ 421) 1651. Navigation Act ($459) 1660. Restoration of Monarchy ($467) *1660. Abolition of Feudal Dues ($482) 1665. The Plague in London ($474) 1666. Great Fire of London ($474) 1670. Secret Treaty of Dover ($ 476) 1673. The Test Act (§ 477) 1678. The Disabling Act ($478) *1678. Rise of Political Parties (§ 479) *1679. Habeas Corpus Act ($482) 1684. Newton's Law of Gravitation (§ 481) 1685. Monmouth's Rebellion ($486) 1687. Declaration of Indulgence ($488) 1688. The Great Revolution ($491) *1689. The Bill of Rights ($497) *1689. Mutiny Act, Toleration Act (§ 496) *1695. Liberty of the Press (§§ 498, 556) 1720. The South Sea Bubble (§ 536) *1759. The English take Quebec (§ 545) 1784. Mail Coaches begin to run (§ 566) 1796. Vaccination introduced ($537) 1799. First Savings Bank ($621) *1800. Great Britain and Ireland united ($562) 1805. Battle of Trafalgar ($557) 1807. Steam Navigation begins ($565) 1829. Catholic Emancipation ($573) 1866. Permanent Atlantic Cable ($595) 1867. Second Suffrage Reform (§600) 1869. Partial Woman Suffrage ($ 599) 1869. Free Trade established ($594) 1869. Irish Church disestablished ($601) 1870. The Education Act (§ 602) *1870. Civil Service Reform (§ 609) 1870. Irish Land Act (§ 603) 1871-1906. Trades Unions Acts (§616) 1884. Third Suffrage Reform ($600) *1888,1894. Local Government Acts (§ 608) 1899. The Boer War (§ 623) *1906. Labor enters Parliament (§ 628) 1908. Old-Age Pensions ($628) 1910. Imperial Federation (§ 625) *1911. Parliament Act; Salary Act (§ 631) *1914. Irish Home Rule Bill (§ 633) THE LEADING FACTS OF ENGLISH HISTORY FIRST PERIOD1 "This fortress built by Nature for herself Against the envy of less happier lands; This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England." SHAKESPEARE, "Richard II" BRITAIN BEFORE WRITTEN HISTORY BEGAN 1. The Earliest Inhabitants of England. England was inhabited for many centuries before its written history began. The earliest races that possessed the country were stunted, brutal savages. They used pieces of rough flint for tools and weapons. From flint too they produced fire. They lived by hunting and fishing, and often had no homes but caves and rock shelters. Following the Cave-Men came a race that had learned how to grind and polish the stone of which they made their hatchets, knives, and spears. This race cleared and cultivated the soil to some extent, and kept cattle and other domestic animals. 2. The Britons. Finally, a large-limbed, fair-haired, fierce-eyed people invaded and conquered the island. They came from the 1 Reference BOOKS on this Period will be found in the CLASSIFIED LIST OF Books in the Appendix. The pronunciation of names will be found in the Index. The LEADING DATES stand unenclosed; all others are in parentheses. west of Europe. They made their axes, swords, and spears of bronze, a metal obtained by melting and mingling copper and tin. These implements were far superior to any made of stone. The new people were good farmers; they exported grain, cattle, and hides to Gaul (France), and mined and sold tin ore to merchants who came by sea from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. This strong and energetic race, known as Celts, eventually called themselves Britons. By the time they had adopted that name they had made a great step forward, for they had learned how to mine and manufacture iron, the most useful metal known to man ; from it they forged scythes, swords, and spears. Such were the people Cæsar met when he invaded Britain, fiftyfive years before the beginning of the Christian era. The great Roman general called the Britons "barbarians"; but they compelled him to respect them, for they were a race of hard fighters, who fearlessly faced even his veteran troops. 3. The Religion of the Britons; the Druids. The Britons held some dim faith in an overruling Power and in a life beyond the grave. They offered human sacrifices to that Power, and when they buried one of their warriors, they buried his spear with him so that he might fight as good a battle in the next world as he had fought in this one. Furthermore, the Britons had a class of priests called Druids, who seem to have worshiped the heavenly bodies. These priests also acted as prophets, judges, and teachers. Cæsar tells us that the Druids instructed the youth about the stars and their motions, about the magnitude of the earth, the nature of things, and "the might and power of the immortal gods." More than this, the Druids probably erected the massive stone columns of that strange structure, open to the sky, whose ruins may still be seen on the lonely expanse of Salisbury Plain. There, on one of the fallen blocks, Carlyle and Emerson sat, when they made their pilgrimage to Stonehenge 1 many years ago, and discussed the life after death, with other questions of Druid philosophy. 1 1 Stonehenge: This remarkable structure is believed to be the remains of a prehistoric monument to the dead, which was, perhaps, used also as a place of worship. It stands on Salisbury Plain about nine miles northeast of the city of Salisbury. (See |