assembly. In local government the likeness was in some respects even
closer; and Professor Cheyney's account of the English county court,
and especially of the township or parish, will solve many difficulties
in the later colonial history. In some ways Professor Cheyney's
conclusions make more striking and original the development of the
astonishing New England town-meetings. As the volume begins with the
rise of the exploring spirit, it is fitting that Prince Henry the
Navigator should furnish the frontispiece. The bibliography deals more
than those of later volumes with a literature which has been a tangled
thicket, and will shorten the road for many teachers and students of
these subjects. The significance of Professor Cheyney's volume is that,
without describing America or narrating American events, it furnishes
the necessary point of departure for a knowledge of American history.
The first question to be asked by the reader is, why did people look
westward? And the answer is, because of their desire to reach the
Orient. The second question is, what was the impulse to new habits of
life and what the desire for settlements in distant lands? The answer
is, the effect of the Reformation in arousing men's minds and in
bringing about wars which led to emigration. The third question is,
what manner of people were they who furnished the explorers and the
colonists? The answer is found in these pages, which describe the
Spaniard, the French, the Dutch, and especially the English, and show
us the national and local institutions which were ready to be
transplanted, and which readily took root across the sea.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE The history of America is a branch of that of Europe.
The discovery, exploration, and settlement of the New World were
results of European movements, and sprang from economic and political
needs, development of enterprise, and increase of knowledge, in the Old
World. The fifteenth century was a period of extension of geographical