The following are manuals that may be recommended as of comparative merit:  Macy, Our Government:  How it Grew, What it Does, and How it Does it; Cocker’s Civil Government; Thorpe’s Government of the People of the United States; Martin’s Civil Government, and Ford’s American Citizens’ Manual.

The most complete collection of bibliographical references to the Constitution of the United States is that prepared by W.E.  Foster, and published as Economic Tract No. xxix, by the “Society for Political Education,” New York.

Government.

Dr. J.C.  Bluntschli’s Lehre vom Modernen Stat, in three volumes, gives the finest treatment of the various forms and general principles of governments.  A portion of Dr. Bluntschli’s work has been translated into English and published under the title The Theory of the State.  There is also a French translation of this work.  Other authorities under this head are:  Bluntschli’s Staatswoerterbuch; Woolsey’s Political Science, or the State Theoretically and Practically Considered; and Montesquieu’s De l’Esprit des Lois.  Interesting from an historical point of view, are the theories contained in the works of political philosophers in the past.  See Plato’s Republic; Aristotle’s Politics, Cicero’s De Republica; Thomas Aquinas’ Of the Government of Principles; Dante’s De Monarchia; Machiavelli’s Prince; Jean Bodin’s Of the Commonwealth; Hobbes’ Leviathan; Filmer’s Patriarcha; Hooker’s Ecclesiastical Polity; Locke’s Civil Government; J.J.  Rousseau’s Social Contract; Bentham’s Fragment on Government; J.S.  Mills’ Representative Government.

Pollock’s History of the Science of Politics, published in the “Humboldt Library,” contains an admirable summary of the views of these political philosophers.

The works of several of these authors (Hobbes, Hooker, Locke, Filmer, Machiavelli) are contained in “Morley’s Universal Library,” published by Routledge at one shilling per volume.

For theories regarding the origin and development of government, see Maine’s Ancient Law, Early History of Institutions, and Early Law and Custom; Spencer’s Principles of Sociology, Vol.  I; Morgan’s Ancient Society; McLennan’s Studies in Ancient History, and The Patriarchal Theory; and Bagehot’s Physics and Politics, published in the Humbolt Library.  The contract theory of government is presented in various forms in the works of Hobbes, Hooker, Locke and Rousseau.

Functions of Government.