scussions in B. VI. of his _Logic_, especially cc. 6 to 11. Mill
ascribes to Comte the first clear statement of the method; and it is
highly scientific, and important in generalising the connections of
historical events. But perhaps the expression, 'Historical Method,' is
more frequently applied to the Comparative Method, as used in
investigating the history of institutions or the true sense of legends.

(1) Suppose we are trying to explain the institution of capital
punishment as it now exists in England. (1) We must try to trace the
history of it back to the earliest times; for _social custom and
tradition is one line of causation_. At present the punishment of death
is legally incident only to murder and high treason. But early in the
last century malefactors were hung for forgery, sheep-stealing, arson
and a long list of other offences down to pocket-picking: earlier still
the list included witchcraft and heresy. At present hanging is the only
mode of putting a malefactor to death; but formerly the ways of putting
to death included also burning, boiling, pressing, beheading, and mixed
modes. Before the Restoration, however, the offences punishable with
death were far fewer than they afterwards became; and until the twelfth
century, the penalty of death might be avoided by paying compensation,
the wer-geld.

(2) Every change in the history of an institution must be explained by
pointing to _the special causes_ in operation during the time when the
change was in progress. Thus the restriction of the death penalty, in
the nineteenth century, to so few offences was due partly to the growth
of humane feelings, partly to the belief that the infliction, or threat,
of the extreme penalty had failed to enforce the law and had demoralised
the administration of Justice. The continual extension of the death
penalty throughout the eighteenth century may be attributed to a belief
that it was the most effectual means of deterring evil-doers when the
means of detecting and apprehending criminals were feeble and
ill-organised. The various old brutal ways of execution were adopted
sometimes to strike terror, sometimes for vengeance, sometimes from
horror of the crime, or even from 'conscientious scruples';--which last
were the excuse for preferring the burning of heretics to any sort of
bloodshed.

(3) The causes of any change in the history of an institution in any
country may not be directly discoverable: they must then be invest