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The History of Parliament is a project to write a complete history of the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of England. The history will principally consist of a prosopography, in which the history of an institution is told through the individual biographies of its members. After various amateur efforts the project was formally launched in 1940 and since 1951 has been funded by the Treasury. As of 2010 the volumes covering the House of Commons in 1386-1421, 1509-1629, and 1660-1832 have been completed and published (in 41 separate volumes containing over 20 million words); research work on the remaining periods and on the House of Lords is ongoing. In 2011 the completed sections were republished on the internet. ==History== The publication in 1878-9 of the 'Official Return of Members of Parliament', an incomplete list of the name of every Member elected to serve in lower Houses of Parliaments in the United Kingdom and predecessor states,〔"Members of Parliament. Return to two orders of the Honourable The House of Commons dated 4 May 1876 and 9 March 1877." Two parts, each plus associated index.〕 gave a useful source on which Victorian historians could build, and there were several publications which identified and gave some biographical and genealogical details of the Members of Parliament for certain constituencies.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The History of Parliament )〕 Among those writing histories was Josiah Wedgwood, who was himself Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme from 1906. In 1918-22 Wedgwood published the "Staffordshire Parliamentary History". In 1928, Wedgwood decided to take the subject further. Together with other MPs who were interested in the subject, he wrote a memorial to the Prime Minister urging him to appoint a Committee to prepare a complete record of the personnel of every Parliament since 1264. The memorial noted that the Official Return was incomplete and inaccurate, and contained no information beyond a list of names; it attempted to head off Treasury objections to the cost, by pointing to the fact that pledges of voluntary assistance had been obtained. Wedgwood quickly obtained the signatures of more than 200 MPs.〔"Political Notes", ''The Times'', 19 May 1928, p. 14.〕 On 17 July 414 had signed, together with a number of members of the House of Lords, and a delegation saw Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin who was again wary of the cost; the delegation insisted that the question of publication need not be considered until the availability of material was assessed. Baldwin agreed to take the matter under consideration.〔"A Record Of Parliament", ''The Times'', 18 July 1928, p. 8.〕 The result of the pressure was that Baldwin announced in December (by which time 512 MPs were on board) that the Government agreed to appoint a Select Committee to report on materials available to write such a history.〔"Parliament", ''The Times'', 19 December 1928, p. 6.〕 The committee so formed in March 1929 included academics as well as politicians, and it soon became riven by ferocious differences about the nature of the project with Wedgwood's romanticism alienating most of the historians.〔〔See D.W. Hayton, (Colonel Wedgwood and the historians ), ''Historical Research'' Vol 84 Issue 224, pp 328–355, May 2011.〕 The interim report of the Committee, covering 1264 to 1832, was published in September 1932 in the run-up to the centenary of the Reform Act and gave a guide to the information available.〔"Interim Report of the Committee on House of Commons Personnel and Politics, 1264-1832", Cmd. 4130.〕 The project then ran into funding difficulties given the economic situation in the 1930s, and no future reports were issued by the Committee. Wedgwood then undertook fundraising and worked with a small group of assistants, completing in 1936 and 1938 two volumes entitled 'The History of Parliament 1439-1509'. He took advantage of the one remaining offer of Government help and the books were published by His Majesty's Stationery Office.〔 In 1940, the History of Parliament Trust was established to foster future volumes and arrange for their publication. However, the war and Wedgwood's death in 1943 meant that the project went into abeyance. At the end of the war, strenuous lobbying by L.B. Namier who had been a member of the 1930s committee succeeded in getting agreement by the Treasury to provide funding for the History of Parliament Trust.〔 Namier was Professor of History at the University of Manchester. The initial grant was for not more than £17,000 a year, and for 20 years, during which it was hoped that the whole period could be completed. Sir Frank Stenton became the first chairman of the editorial board.〔"History Of Parliament Editorial Board", ''The Times'', 14 July 1951, p. 4.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The History of Parliament」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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