3-'

The Seventeenth Century '1603 - 1714}

from the reader.303 Gough pursues the seventeenth-century
commonplace concerning fundamental la\vs and shows that it
became most commonplace when it had ceased to play its part
as umpire between prerogative and parliament.304 A discussion
of ministerial responsibility, useful in itself, carries a strangely
oldfashioned air of formal constitutional history treated in its
own right and without a proper sense of what goes on in
politics.303 Mathew's description of social circumstances is
civilized.306 Bohatec left behind him a strange aberration -
reflections on some mid-century writers as representatives of
humane thinking; this intellectually very undistinguished book
reflects rather the author's unhappy personal experiences and
his touching anglornania.307 Wormuth, too briefly, documents
the continued existence of the Interregnum's experiments
under the guise of a primitive 'gothic' dream.303 And Ogg
completed his general history of the later Stuarts in a massive
volume full of excellence. 30* Plumb outlines a programme of
research on a new and vital topic: voters and the franchise.310
303 Maurice Ashley, England in the Seventeenth Century. Harmonds-
worth: Penguin Books: 1952. Pp. 1256. -Gerald E. Aylmer, The
Struggle for the Constitution 1603-1689. L: Blandford: xg63. Pp.
viii, 247. - Christopher Hill, The Century of Revolution. Edinburgh:
Nelson: 1961. Pp. xii, 340. Rev: HJ 5, 8off.
10 * J. W. Gough, Fundamental Law in English Constitutional History. O:
Clarendon: 1955. Pp. x, 229. Rev: EHR 71, 9off.; AHR 61, iO9f.
305 Clayton Roberts, The Growth of Responsible Government in Stuart
England. CUP: 1966. Pp. xii, 467. Rev: EHR 83, 795!!.; Hist 52,
201 f.
*°* David Mathew, The Social Structure of Caroline England. O: Claren-
don: 1948. Pp. 140. - Idem, The Age of 'Charles I. L: Eyre&Spottis-
woode: 1951. Pp. xvii, 340. Rev. EHR 67, 4O9fF.
397 Joseph Bohatec,  England und die Geschichte der Menschen- und
Bwrgerrechte. Graz/Koln: Bofalau: 1956. Pp. 136. Rev: EHR 72,
75°-
308 Francis D. Wormuth,  The Origins of Modern Constitutionalism.
New York: Harper; 1949. Pp. x, 243,
38f David Ogg, England in tke Reigns of James II and William III. O:
Clarendon: 1955, Pp. xiii, 567. Rev: EHR 71, 297!^; CHJ 12,
810 John H. Plumb, "The Growth of the Electorate in England from
1600 to 1715', PP 45 (1969), 90-116.