A PRIMER 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NGLISH CONSTITUTION 
 
 AND 
 
 f^ GOVERNMENT 
 
 OR THE USE OF COLLEGES, SCHOOLS, AND PRIVATE STUDENTS 
 
 BY 
 
 SHELDON AMOS, M.A. 
 
 Late Professor of Jurisprudence, University College, London, and to the Intts 
 
 of Court / late Examiner in the Constitutional History of England in 
 
 the University of London ; Author of l A Systematic View of 
 
 the Science of Jurisprudence' ''Fifty Years of the 
 
 English Constitution ' &>c. 
 
 SIXTH EDITION 
 
 LONDON 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST i6 th STREET 
 1890 
 
 A II rights reserved. 
 
CO 
 
 TO 
 
 HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY 
 THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 FOR THE ASSISTANCE OF WHOSE COMMISSIONERS 
 
 THE DRAFT OF THE FIRST EDITION OP 
 
 THIS WORK WAS PREPARED 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THERE are certain inherent difficulties in the composition of 
 a work of the character of the present one, which I think it 
 better to allude to at the outset, so that if it turns out that I 
 have failed to overcome them, I may at least not seem so 
 far disrespectful to my subject and to my readers as to have 
 failed to look them fully in the face. 
 
 In the first place, the Constitution and Government of 
 England have in a peculiar degree sprung from a long line 
 of historical antecedents, antecedents, too, which are not so 
 much startling and isolated events as vast groups of circum- 
 stances slowly and silently manifesting themselves in orderly 
 and unceasing progression. Not to deal in any manner 
 with these historical antecedents must leave certain parts 
 of the subject wholly unintelligible. To dwell much 
 on the historical aspects of any portion of the subject 
 would in the present case distract the attention from the 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 main purpose in view, and, in fact, deluge the mind with 
 what would here be irrelevant matter. Thus I have had to 
 exercise, at every point, an arbitrary discretion as to when 
 to admit, and when to exclude, references to historical ante- 
 cedents. 
 
 In the second place, in a time of active legislative 
 change like the present, a writer on such subjects as those 
 here treated is constantly being called upon to make a 
 decision as to whether a given institution or principle of 
 Government is or is not too evanescent to deserve or to 
 need description. An institution on the verge of becoming 
 obsolete, equally with one wholly new and scarcely tried, 
 can hardly be presented as characteristically English at the 
 present day. I have endeavoured to meet this class of 
 difficulties by occasionally, in reference to any much criti- 
 cised institution, describing the more important sorts of 
 projected changes, and even by briefly estimating their com- 
 parative expediency. 
 
 In the third place, I have had, in every line, to contend 
 with a difficulty which must beset any one who affects to 
 explain legal principles to unprofessional persons. It is 
 scarcely possible to be plain and brief without becoming 
 proportionately, in a certain sense, inaccurate. No legal 
 proposition, in England at any rate, can be precisely stated 
 without reference to the leading judicial opinions, out of 
 the concert and conflict of which it has either emerged into 
 existence, or (if based upon a Statute) acquired its actual 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 shape. To state it apart from all the circumstances, his- 
 torical and judicial, to which alone it owes its existence and 
 limiting character, and to announce it as a settled and in- 
 controvertible rule, is to propound a disputable theory 
 rather than to communicate a fact. Nevertheless, it is only 
 under the conditions of taking as certain and exact what is 
 in itself doubtful and not susceptible of being reduced into 
 compendious language, that the unprofessional student can 
 ever gain a tolerable knowledge of the laws and constitution 
 of his or her country. I believe that even under these con- 
 ditions, a really valuable, not to say indispensable, amount 
 of knowledge on these topics can be conveyed, and I have 
 endeavoured to convey it. 
 
 SHELDON AMOS. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION AND 
 GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND I 
 
 THE SOVEREIGN 6 
 
 IN RESPECT OF LEGISLATION 9 
 
 IN RESPECT OF ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS . . . 14 
 
 IN RESPECT OF JUDICIAL MATTERS 14 
 
 IN RESPECT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS 16 
 
 IN RESPECT OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS . . . .17 
 
 THE HOUSE OF LORDS 19 
 
 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 23 
 
 ITS CONSTITUTION 23 
 
 1 . A s to Places Represented 24 
 
 2. As to Qualifications of Electors . . . . .26 
 
 3. As to Mode of Election . . . . . . 30 
 
 (i.) As to the value of each vote . . . .30 
 (2.) As to how the votes are taken . . 33 
 
 4. As to Qualifications of Members 37 
 
 ITS INTERNAL REGULATIONS 38 
 
 1. Privileges of Members 38 
 
 2. Powers of the House over its own Members and other 
 
 Persons 38 
 
 Officers of the House 39 
 
 3. General Business of the Hotise . . .40 
 
 Notice of Motion how made 42 
 
 Passing of a Bill 43 
 
 PROCESS IN AX IMPEACHMENT . . , 49 
 
xi'i Contents. 
 
 PARE 
 
 FORM AND STRUCTURE OF AN ACT OF PARLIA- 
 MENT 50 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE FORMATION OF 
 THE GOVERNMENT 54 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE CABINET AND OTHER CHIEF 
 OFFICERS OF THE EXECUTIVE 'GOVERNMENT . 60 
 
 CERTAIN SPECIAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES . ..71 
 
 JUDICIAL ORGANISATION 77 
 
 SUPERIOR COURTS 77 
 
 INFERIOR COURTS 85 
 
 1. County Courts 85 
 
 2, 3. Courts of Quaiter Sessions . . . . 85 
 4, 5. Courts of Petty Sessions and Police Courts . . 87 
 
 CORONER'S COURT 89 
 
 GENERAL COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS IN A CRIMINAL TRIAL 89 
 
 TRIAL BY JURY 92 
 
 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT 95 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT AND REFORMATION OF CRIMINALS . 97 
 GENERAL COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS IN A CIVIL TRIAL 
 AND OF MIXED CIVIL AND CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS . 99 
 
 Pleading IOO 
 
 Hearing of Evidence and Decision of Disputed Matters of 
 Fact, and Consideration and Decision of disputed Points 
 
 of Law 101 
 
 Extraordinary Judicial Remedies 1 06 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE INSTITUTIONS AND PRIN- 
 CIPLES OF ENGLISH LAW 108 
 
 SOURCES OF ENGLISH LAW 108 
 
 LAW OF PROPERTY in 
 
 LAW OF CONTRACT '. . 115 
 
 LAW REGULATING CERTAIN SPECIAL RELATIONS . .119 
 
 Husband and Wife 119 
 
 Guardian and Ward 125 
 
 Trustees . . . 126 
 
 LAW OF TORTS OR CIVIL INJURIES 127 
 
 CRIMINAL LAW " . . 128 
 
Contents. xiii 
 
 PAGB 
 
 SECURITIES FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT . . .131 
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT . 137 
 
 RELIEF OF THE POOR 138 
 
 PUBLIC HEALTH AND EDUCATION 141 
 
 LOCAL TAXATION 142 
 
 ORGANISATION OF THE POLICE . . . . , 144 
 
 TAXATION AND THE REVENUE 149 
 
 GOVERNMENT STATISTICS 152 
 
 THE ARMY AND NAVY 165 
 
 MERCHANT SHIPPING . . ... . . . 168 
 
 THE BANK OF ENGLAND 169 
 
 THE RAILWAY SYSTEM 171 
 
 THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH 173 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL COURT 175 
 
 CITIZENSHIP I7 6 
 
 THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF THE BRITISH 
 EMPIRE 177 
 
 THE BRITISH ISLANDS 177 
 
 THE BRITISH COLONIES .179 
 
 THE BRITISH DOMINIONS IN INDIA 181 
 
 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS . 182 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 TRANSLATED TEXT OF MAGNA CHARTA . . . 189 
 TRANSLATED TEXT OF CONFIRMATIO CART ARUM zuz 
 TEXT OF THE ' PETITION OF RIGHT ' . . . . 204 
 TEXT OF THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT . . . .207 
 
 TEXT OF THE 'BILL OF RIGHTS' 209 
 
 TEXT OF THE 'ACT OF SETTLEMENT' . . .216 
 
 THE AUDIT DEPARTMENT AND THE PROCESS OF 
 MAKING PAYMENTS BY THE TREASURY. . . 217 
 
 THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND THE UNDERSECRE- 
 TARIES OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS . . 219 
 
 THE NATIONAL DEBT . . . . . . 222 
 
 THE LEGAL PROFESSION 225 
 
 THE BANK OF ENGLAND 227 
 
 THE JURISDICTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 
 IN CASES OF DISPUTED ELECTIONS . . .230 
 
 INDEX 233 
 
The following works (among others] have been used in the pre- 
 paration of the present treatise, and are recommended to 
 students for perusal or reference : 
 
 H ALLAH'S Works. 
 
 BLACKSTONE'S Commentaries (Recent Edition). 
 
 HADLEY and BROOM'S Commentaries. 
 
 MAY'S Constitutional History. 
 
 MAY'S Parliamentary Practice. 
 
 STUBBS'S Constitutional History of England. 
 
 FREEMAN'S Growth of the English Constitution. 
 
 PALSRAVE'S Lectures on the House of Commons. 
 
 HOMERSHAM Cox's Institutions of the English Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 CREASY'S Rise and Progress of the English Constitution. 
 
 LIBBER'S Civil Liberty and Self-Government. 
 
 GNEIST'S Self -Government in England. 
 
 FiSCHEL'S English Constitution. 
 
 FORSYTH's Cases and Opinions on Constitutional Laiu. 
 History of Trial by Jury. 
 
 BROOM'S Constitutional Law. 
 
 THILLIMORE'S Ecclesiastical Law. 
 
 TOULMIN SMITH'S " The Parish." 
 
 BURN'S Justice of the Peace. 
 
 ARCHBOLD'S Quarter Sessions. 
 
 Civil Service Estimates for tJie Year. 
 
 Parliamentary Report of Judicial Statistics. 
 
 Report of Select Committee of House of Commons on Loc 
 Taxation. 
 
 Statistical Society's Journal. 
 
 Statesman^ Year-Book. 
 
 GLEN'S Public Health Acts. 
 
 RAWLINSON'S Mimicipal Corporation Act. 
 
 The Extradition Acts, 1870 (33 and 34 Viet, c. 52), an 
 1873 (36 and 37 Viet., c. 60). 
 
 The Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Viet, c. 90). 
 The Naturalization Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Viet., c. 14). 
 
 An Act to Consolidate and Amend the Acts relating to 
 the Property of Married Women (45 and 46 Viet., c. 75). 
 
 Clerical Disabilities Act, 1870 (33 and 34 Viet., c. 91), 
 
XVI 
 
 Parliamentary Elections Act [Election Judges] (31 and 32 
 
 Viet., c. 125). 
 
 Reform Act 0/1867 (30 and 31 Viet, c. 102;. 
 Ballot Act 0/1872 (35 and 36 Viet., c. 33). 
 Siipreme Court of Jiidicature Acts, 1873, l ^76, l %77-> 
 
 1881. 
 
 Appellate Jurisdiction Act 0/1876. 
 Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874. 
 
FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS, THE FOLLOW- 
 ING EXPLANATIONS ARE GIVEN OF COMMON 
 POLITICAL TERMS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 SUPREME POLITICAL AUTHORITY. The person or persons in 
 a political community, who, at a given time, are habit- 
 ually obeyed by the bulk of the persons in the community. 
 
 STATE. (i) A portion of the human race, looked upon as oc- 
 cupying a definite territory, as having a continuous history, 
 and as organised for purposes of Government. The word 
 is also sometimes (2) used to express the Supreme Political 
 Authority of a nation at a given time. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. The word sometimes (i) is used to express the 
 mere fact of some person or persons in a nation being 
 generally obeyed by all the rest. Sometimes (2) the word 
 signifies the Supreme Political Authority at the time, 
 as in the phrase " Form of Government." Sometimes (3) 
 the word signifies the persons entrusted with the active 
 duties of carrying laws into effect and regulating certain 
 departments of the State, as in the phrases " The Queen's 
 Government" " A Liberal or a Conservative Government* 
 
 LAW. (i) A Law is a general command of the Supreme 
 Political Authority, purporting to direct or control the acts 
 of persons in the community. The word Law is also (2) 
 used to denote either a body of Laws (in the first sense), 
 or (abstractly) the mere fact of such Laws existing, as in 
 the phrase " the reign of Law." The word u Law " is also 
 used in a variety of other senses for non-political purposes. 
 
 LEGISLATIVE. The Legislative Authority of a State is the 
 Supreme Political Authority looked upon as engaged in 
 making Laws. 
 
 EXECUTIVE, ADMINISTRATIVE. These terms are sometimes 
 
 used convertibly with each other, to express the person or 
 
 persons to whom the Supreme Political Authority deputes 
 
 the functions (i) of carrying Laws into effect, and (2) of 
 
 a 
 
XVI 11 
 
 actively regulating certain departments of the State, in 
 other words, the terms signify the Government in the third 
 of the meanings above given. Sometimes the term Ad- 
 ministrative is opposed to Executive, and is limited to 
 express the person or persons charged with making official 
 appointments and regulating certain departments of the 
 State. 
 
 JUDICIAL. The Judicial Authority is that part of the Execu- 
 tive Authority which is concerned with formally and pub- 
 licly investigating whether Laws have been disobeyed, and 
 who are the persons who have disobeyed them. 
 
 MONARCHY. A form of Government in which the Supreme 
 Political Authority is restricted in numbers to one person 
 only is sometimes called an "Absolute" Monarchy 01 
 " Despotism." Where it is, in form, restricted to one per- 
 son, though the power is shared to a greater or less extent 
 by a larger or smaller number of other persons, chosen in 
 some one out of many possible ways, it is called a 
 " Limited " or a " Constitutional " Monarchy. 
 
 ARISTOCRACY, OLIGARCHY. Where the Supreme Political 
 Authority consists of a number of persons, though not a 
 very large number, chosen either with reference to birth, or 
 to special personal merit, or to some standard other than 
 that supplied by popular election irresponsibly exercised, 
 the form of Government is said by its friends and enemies 
 to be an Aristocracy, that is, " Government by the best," 
 and sometimes, by its enemies, to be an Oligarchy, that is, 
 " Government by a few." 
 
 DEMOCRACY. Where the Supreme Political Authority either 
 consists of a very large number of persons, making a con- 
 siderable fraction of all the persons in the community, or 
 where the persons constituting that Authority are directly 
 elected by, arid subjected to no other conditions than those 
 implied in the unrestricted choice of, nearly all the persons 
 in the community, the form of Government is said to be a 
 Democracy. 
 
 REPUBLIC. This is a term often equally used by the friends 
 both of an Aristocracy and a Democracy to describe those 
 two forms of Government, and thus a Republic may be 
 either Aristocratic or Democratic. Where the Supreme 
 Political Authority ostensibly consists of a number of persons 
 neither very great nor very small ; where no hereditary 
 
XIX 
 
 pretensions prevail in the choice of them ; but it is believed 
 that the/ are chosen on wide and popular principles likely 
 to conduce in the highest degree to the general and equally 
 distributed well-being of the whole community, and to the 
 suppression of personal self-seeking, the form of Govern- 
 ment is sometimes said by those who share this belief to be 
 a Republic. 
 
 CONSTITUTION, CONSTITUTIONAL. All the Laws and all the 
 customary practices which, taken together, determine the 
 person or persons who shall constitute the Supreme Poli- 
 tical Authority of a State, and which ascertain the modes 
 of Legis^tion, and the method of appointing and restricting 
 the Executive Authority, are compendiously styled the 
 Constitution of that State. According as a newly-suggested 
 measure is or is not believed to conform to the spirit of 
 those laws and practices, it is said to be Constitutional 01 
 Unconstitutional. 
 
 RIGHT. (i) A Right is a measure of power delegated by the 
 State to persons said to be thereby invested with the right t 
 over the acts of other persons said to be thereby made 
 liable to the performance of a duty. This is the strict legal 
 sense of the term, though the term has important moral 
 and popular uses from which the above use has to be care- 
 fully distinguished. For instance, the term right is often 
 used in political discussions to signify a moral claim 
 which it is iniquitous, or, at the least, highly inexpedient, 
 not to recognise ; as in the phrases, " a slave has a right 
 to his freedom," and " every one has a right, by himself or by 
 his representatives, to assent to or dissent from, the imposi- 
 tion of taxes, which he is called upon to pay." In the strict 
 use, every right pre-supposes a duty, though every legal duty 
 does not pre-suppose a legal right. The State, which is the 
 source of all legal rights and duties, cannot be strictly said 
 to have legal rights itself, though it may confer on all the 
 official persons \vho are engaged in its administration such 
 rights as are needed for the purposes of their work. 
 
THE 
 
 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT 
 OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE Constitution of England is the resulting product of all 
 the institutions, the customary practices, and the laws which 
 together determine what persons take part in the govern- 
 ment of the country ; ho\v these persons are related to one 
 another ; how laws are made, and how and by whom they 
 are executed ; and what securities the people of the country 
 have against misgovernment. Thus it is a characteristic of 
 the English Constitution that the " Supreme Political Autho- 
 rity " consists of a King or Queen and two Houses of Par- 
 liament ; that the King or Queen is a particular member of 
 a particular family ; and that the two Houses or Assemblies 
 are composed in certain definite ways, as by hereditary 
 succession in special families, or by popular election ; that 
 no law can be enacted without the joint consent of the King 
 or Queen and the two Houses of Parliament; that the 
 King or Queen appoints, through the agency of Ministers 
 directly responsible to the two Houses of Parliament, 
 officials engaged in securing obedience to the laws, in 
 collecting the taxes, in preserving the public peace, and in 
 administering the Army and Navy ; and lastly, that by Jury 
 Trial, by the Habeas Corpus Acts, and by special provisions 
 
: 2 ', Tile Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 ; for ; Ute- independence tf Judges, the people of England are 
 'prelected against abuses on the part of the Executive. 
 
 There are parts of the Constitution which seem to be far 
 lucre solid and indestructible than other parts ; so much so, 
 that they could not be suddenly removed or even changed 
 without the permanence of the State itself seeming to be 
 endangered. Such parts are, the institution of Monarchy in 
 its limited or constitutional form ; the distribution of the 
 Legislature into three branches ; the Representative system 
 of Government with its attendant control of Taxation ; the 
 independence of Judges, and the securities afforded against 
 unfair trials and tyrannical imprisonment ; and the subjec- 
 tion of all State officials to the Common Law of the Land. 
 
 Some of these more impoitant elements of the Consti- 
 tution are very ancient ; others are the offspring of modern 
 Acts of Parliament, passed, as it were, in a day. Others, 
 again, have slowly and gradually emerged into being after 
 the struggle of centuries. 
 
 There are, again, parts of the Constitution which are 
 made up of enduring and of fragile elements conjointly. 
 The former either undergo no change, or change so in- 
 sensibly that the effects can only be observed at long 
 intervals of time ; the latter are readily and constantly 
 modified as occasion dictates. The changeable and the 
 unchangeable elements are, however, so closely blended 
 together that they cannot easily be severed, and much of the 
 difficulty that attends proposed changes is due to this fact. 
 Examples of such composite parts are the rules which deter- 
 mine the qualifications of members of the two Houses, and 
 of electors of members of the House of Commons ; which fix 
 the exact line of succession to the Crown ; and which deter- 
 mine the judicial or other special privileges of the two 
 Houses and of the members of each House. 
 
 It is notorious that certain alterations are made from 
 time to time in all these matters with very general acquies- 
 cence, or, at least, without anything of the nature of a shock 
 
The Constitution and Government of England. 3 
 
 to a genuine national sentiment. Other alterations in the 
 same matters are sometimes contemplated or attempted 
 which are instantly and generally resented as " uncon >titu- 
 tional." This means that they threaten changes in those 
 parts of the Constitution which by common, though tacit, 
 consent it is understood should be treated as immoveable, 
 except under circumstances of a very peculiar and pressing 
 kind. If the desire to make the alteration is still persisted 
 in, it is usually argued on behalf of it that either such pecu- 
 liar and pressing circumstances do actually exist, or else 
 that the proposed alteration does not touch the confessedly 
 permanent parts of the Constitution. In other words, it is 
 said either that the time has come to modify some of the 
 essential characteristics of the Constitution, or that the 
 proposed change is not concerned with any one of these 
 characteristics. 
 
 It is difficult and generally impossible to draw a clear 
 line between what are held at any particular time to be the 
 unchangeable elements of the Constitution and what are 
 not held to be such. The making of a practical distinction 
 must depend for its success upon the cultivated instinct of 
 statesmen, and upon the way in which the popular mind is 
 balanced between a lazy disposition to adhere to antiquated 
 and obsolete practices, and a restless inclination to be capti- 
 vated by novelties without consideration of the risk of ex- 
 changing a certain measure of known and attainable good for 
 evils which only experience can bring to light. 
 
 Besides a careful study of existing and immemorial 
 institutions, the Constitution of England can be known only 
 by reference to the following classes of authorities. 
 
 I. Written documents of the nature of solemn engage- 
 ments made at great national crises between persons repre- 
 senting opposed political forces. Such are the Great Charter 
 and its several Confirmations and Amended Editions, the 
 Petition of Pight, and the Declaration of Rights. 
 
 II. Statutes, such as the Habeas Corpus Act and its 
 
 H 2 
 
4 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Amendments, the Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, Mr. 
 Fox's Libel Act, the Prisoners' Counsel Act, the Reform 
 Acts, the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, the Naturalization 
 Act, the Municipal Corporation Act, and the Local Govern- 
 ment Acts. 
 
 III. Authoritative Judicial Decisions, as those on the 
 Rights of Jurymen, on the Prerogative of the Crown, on 
 the Privileges of the Houses of Parliament and of their 
 Members, and on the rights and duties of the Police. 
 
 IV. Parliamentary Precedents as recorded in Reports of 
 Committees of both Houses, in the writings of authoritative 
 Commentators on Parliamentary usage, and in the reported 
 Debates and Proceedings of both Houses. 
 
 The free life and energy of the English Constitution are 
 preserved by a constant maintenance of a mutual dependence 
 between Central and Local Power. 
 
 The functions of both these classes of Authorities are 
 (i) Legislative, that is, expressing and publishing directly 
 or indirectly the commands of the Supreme Political 
 Authority, in other words, making Laws; (2) Executive, 
 that is, securing that Laws are obeyed, and punishing the 
 transgressors of them ; and (3) Administrative, that is, 
 appointing public officials, controlling in detail the different 
 parts of the public service, and making from time to time 
 such regulations as are required for this purpose. These 
 last two functions, that is, the Executive and Administrative, 
 can hardly be distinguished one from another, and are, 
 indeed, frequently called by the common name Executive. 
 These Executive s&& Administrative departments of Govern- 
 ment are, of course, wholly subordinate to the Legislative 
 department, and are created in fact (though not always in 
 name) by this latter department. Nevertheless, a formal 
 distinction between the so-called " Legislative Authority " 
 and the " Executive Authority " is often regarded as of great 
 constitutional importance. 
 
The Constitution and Government of England. 5 
 
 The CENTRAL Power is compounded of two distinct 
 elements, one (i) Legislative^ and the other (2) Executive 
 and Administrative. Many of the same persons form part 
 of both elements. 
 
 (1) The Legislative Authority consists of 
 
 The Sovereign, 
 The House of Lords, 
 The House of Commons. 
 
 (2) The Executive and Administrative Authority is 
 
 The First Lord of the Treasury, the prin- 
 cipal Secretaries of State, and other 
 The Sovereign members of the Cabinet; Judicial officers 
 as represented I o f all sorts ; and the Heads of the Army 
 and advised an d Navy, of the Police, and of various 
 special departments, as those of Education, 
 Trade. Public Health, and Local Govern- 
 : ment generally. 
 
 The LOCAL Powers are veiy various and numerous. 
 They are either special officers or Boards (that is, small 
 assemblies of persons), and are fixed (i) in the Parish or 
 District (which is either a collection of Parishes, or a portion 
 of a large Parish) ; (2) in the County ; and (3) in the 
 Borough or Town. 
 
 These officers or Boards are generally elected by persons 
 living and paying taxes on the spot, though in many cases 
 the Central Executive Authority controls the elections by 
 refusing to sanction the election of certain persons or by 
 appointing additional officers of its own. 
 
 The principal purposes for which Local Authorities 
 exist are : 
 
 1. The Relief of the Poor. 
 
 2. The Education of the Poor. 
 
 3. The building and managing of Gaols and Lunatic 
 Asylums. 
 
6 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 4. The making and repairing of Sewers and the doing all 
 other necessary matters connected with the Public Health. 
 
 5. The Lighting, Paving, and Improvement of a Town 
 or Village. 
 
 6. The Administration of the Laws in the case of all 
 minor offices. 
 
 The popular nature and working of the Central Govern- 
 ment is secured in the following ways : - 
 
 1. By the mode of electing Members of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 2. By the right and practice of Petitioning both Houses 
 of Parliament, and of approaching the Queen's Ministers by 
 Deputation. 
 
 3. By the system of Trial by Jury, through which in all 
 the most important criminal prosecutions the final decision 
 is given not by an Executive official, but by a body of twelve 
 men, duly qualified, and impartially chosen out of the body 
 of the people. 
 
 THE SOVEREIGN. 
 
 The succession to the Crown is regulated by an Act of 
 Parliament passed in 1700, in the twelfth year of the reign of 
 William III., and usually called the " Act of Settlement"* 
 This Act limited the right of succession to the Princess 
 Sophia, Electress and Duchess Dowager of. Hanover, and 
 grand-daughter of James I., and to her heirs being Protestants. 
 It was also enacted by the same Statute that " whosoever 
 shall hereafter come to the possession of this Crown shall 
 join in Communion with the Church of England as by Law 
 established." 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
TJic Sovereign. 7 
 
 The Monarch may be either a King or a Queen. The 
 present Queen began to reign in 1837. Her elde.st son is 
 called " Prince of Wales," and, if alive, will succeed to the 
 throne at his mother's death. Jf he be not then alive, his 
 eldest son or grandson will succeed ; and if the son be not 
 living, nor leave children, the Prince of Wales's second son 
 will succeed, and so on. If none of the Prince of Wales's 
 children or their children are living, then the Prince ot 
 Wales's next brother, the Duk% of Edinburgh, and his 
 children succes ively would come to the throne. 
 
 In the case of a minor (that is, for this purpose, one 
 under eighteen years of age) being heir to the throne, a 
 Regent is usually nominated in anticipation by Act ot 
 Parliament ; and a Regent is similarly nominated in the 
 case of the Sovereign becoming invalided, that is to say, 
 permanently incapable of discharging his proper functions. 
 In this last case some difficulty is experienced if the cause 
 be sudden and unforeseen illness, as Parliament cannot act 
 without the co-operation of the Sovereign. Hitherto this diffi- 
 culty has been surmounted by such devices as acting without 
 the Sovereign, but otherwise keeping as closely as possible to 
 the principles and forms of the Constitution. A Regency- 
 Act describes the limits of the Regent's capacity, and 
 provides, as far as is practicable, against the possibility of 
 the Sovereign who is invalided or a minor being prejudiced, 
 or the Constitution endangered, by the Regent's acts. In 
 the case of an invalid Sovereign it is customary, but not 
 necessary, to select as Regent the heir to the throne. In 
 the case of a minor, it is usual to select a parent or other 
 near relation ; and provision is also sometimes made 
 against possible abuses by nominating a Council of advisers 
 to share the Regent's responsibility in respect of all public 
 acts. 
 
 Though the Sovereign is capable of owning land and deal- 
 ing with it in exactly the same way as an ordinary citizen, 
 yet he is not dependent upon any such casual sources of 
 
8 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 income for his support. All the property which once 
 formed the main revenue of the Crown is now treated as 
 furnishing part of the general State revenues, and the manage- 
 ment of it is directly controlled by Parliament. In the 
 stead of this precarious, indefinite, and generally insufficient 
 provision for the Sovereign's personal expenses, and the ex- 
 penses of the Royal Household, Parliament fixes, at the 
 commencement of every reign, the yearly sum which shall 
 be payable to the Crown for all the expenses not directly of 
 a public kind. The yearly sum paid to the Sovereign for 
 personal expenses is 6o,ooo/., which, added to that paid for 
 the expenses of the Court, pensions, and salaries to ser- 
 vants, amounts to 385,0007. This is apart from special 
 provision made on their marriage, by Act passed at the 
 time, for the support of Members of the Royal Family. 
 This sum, in addition to that paid for the Queen's personal 
 expenses, is sometimes called the {i Civil List," from the list 
 of civil servants whose salaries were at one time payable out 
 of the sum so set apart. 
 
 The functions of the Sovereign may be distinguished into 
 those which are (i) in relation to Parliament, and those 
 which are (2) Executive or Administrative. 
 
 In both respects the Sovereign is always held to act upon 
 the advice of his Ministers, who are responsible to Parlia- 
 ment and the country. These Ministers, who form a com- 
 pact body called the Cabinet, have entirely superseded in 
 importance, though they have not even nominally displaced, 
 the " Privy Council," of which they and all past Ministers 
 with a number of other illustrious persons are members. 
 The Cabinet is a sort of select and confidential Committee 
 of advisers, presided over by the Prime Minister, who is now 
 invariably the First Lord of the Treasury. The Cabinet is 
 not known to the Law in any corporate capacity, nor is it 
 recognised in any Act of Parliament or in any formal Par- 
 liamentary Proceedings. Each member of the Cabinet is 
 responsible for any advice he gives personally to the Crown 
 
The Sovereign. 9 
 
 or fails to give in a case in which his advice might be ex- 
 pected; and each member is responsible for the advice 
 given by all or any one of the others unless he can prove his 
 ignorance of it or his repudiation of it. 
 
 I. THE SOVEREIGN IN HIS RELATION TO 
 PARLIAMENT. 
 
 The Sovereign's functions in relation to Parliament may 
 be described -both negatively and positively, that is, by what 
 he cannot do, and by what he can do. 
 
 1. Negatively. The Sovereign cannot by a mere exercise 
 'of his will, and without the assent of the two Houses of 
 Parliament, make, alter, or suspend a law or impose any 
 sort of tax. It is true that sometimes Parliament empowers 
 the Sovereign in his Executive capacity to determine, " with 
 the advice of his Privy Council/' the time and place at 
 which, and the extent to which, the provisions of a Law 
 shall come into force. So, too, though the Sovereign cannot 
 suspend the operation of a Law, yet, by his " prerogative of 
 pardon," he can relieve particular offenders from the penalty 
 attaching to their offence : but his advisers are held respon- 
 sible for an abuse of this privilege. So, again, in the case 
 of England becoming engaged in war, or taking pp a posi- 
 tion of "neutrality," the Sovereign issues a Proclamation 
 notifying the fact and reminding the people of their legal 
 duties and of the penalties attending the breach of them as 
 provided by Acts of Parliament. 
 
 2. Positively. The Queen (acting by the advice of her 
 Ministers) can prorogue Parliament whenever she pleases, 
 and (except in one case) no Parliament can be assembled, 
 prorogued, or dissolved except by her express command. 
 If the Sovereign die while Parliament is sitting, or during 
 prorogation, it continues to exercise, or resumes, its functions 
 until prorogued or dissolved by his successor. If the 
 
1O The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Sovereign die after the dissolution of one Parliament and 
 before the day appointed for the assembling of a new one, 
 the last preceding Parliament meets and continues for a 
 period of six months, unless sooner prorogued or dissolved. 
 Except by such an accidental extension of six months in the 
 last-mentioned case, no Parliament can last longer than 
 seven years. The Sovereign can dissolve Parliament when- 
 ever he pleases. He occasionally dissolves Parliament on 
 the advice of his Ministers when it appears that they no 
 longer possess the confidence of the House of Commons, 
 and it seems probable that by "appealing to the people " a 
 new House may be returned more favourable to them, or, 
 at the least, that they may be secure in the belief that the 
 judgment inside the House is fully supported by that 
 outside it. 
 
 When a Parliament either comes to a natural end or is 
 dissolved, all the members of the House of Commons and 
 the Representative Peers of Scotland in the House of Lords 
 are elected afresh. When Parliament is prorogued, the 
 members of the two Houses % are merely to be summoned 
 afresh to meet again. A prorogation puts an end to all 
 business then in progress in either House, except certain 
 proceedings of a judicial nature, such as an Impeachment. 
 
 The annual meeting of Parliament is secured by the 
 necessity of obtaining a grant from Parliament of the yearly 
 supplies and of passing the annual Mutiny Act [now 
 merged in the Army Discipline and Regulation Act], which 
 alone authorises the maintenance of a standing army. Par- 
 liament usually meets in February, and sits, with short 
 vacations at Easter and Whitsuntide, till the early part of 
 August. This is called a Session. 
 
 At the commencement of a new Parliament the cause of 
 the summons must be declared to both Houses assembled 
 together, either by the Sovereign in person or by Commis- 
 sioners authorised by him for that purpose. On the first day 
 of its meeting, the Commons are summoned to the House 
 
The Sovereign. II 
 
 of Lords, and are there informed by the Lord Chancelloi 
 that the cause of summons will be declared by the Crown as 
 soon as the members of both Houses are sworn, and a Speaker 
 of the House of Commons chosen. 
 
 Every other session than the first is opened at once by 
 the Sovereign's Speech. 
 
 This Speech is prepared by the Sovereign's Ministers, and 
 gives a general, though not very definite, sketch of the sort 
 of measures which the Ministers, or the so-called " Govern- 
 ment," will introduce into Parliament in the course of the 
 Session. It also notices briefly any important facts in 
 current Foreign politics or in the domestic annals of the 
 Royal family, especially when either of these classes of facts 
 are likely to give rise to an application to Parliament for a 
 grant of money. 
 
 The Speech is delivered either by the Sovereign in 
 person or by one of a small body of Commissioners, among 
 whom the Lord Chancellor is generally included. The 
 terms of the Speech usually form the first subject of earnest 
 discussion between the rival political parties in the House, 
 a complimentary Address to the Queen being first moved in 
 each House. Each House usually proceeds, for form's 
 sake, with some other business, such as having a Bill read, 
 before taking into consideration the Sovereign's Speech, in 
 order to insist on their privilege of discussing other matters 
 than those included in the cause of summons. 
 
 The Houses of Parliament are very jealous of any 
 attempted interference with or restriction of their freedom 
 of Debate on the part of the Crown. It is one of the clauses 
 of the Bill of Rights* that " the freedom of speech and 
 debates or proceedings in Parliament ought not to be 
 impeached or questioned in any court or place out of 
 Parliament." 
 
 The assent of the Sovereign is indispensable for any Bill 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
12 The Constitution and Government of England* 
 
 (01 proposed Law) to become actual Law. The Royal assent 
 can be given either in person or by Commission in the 
 Lords' House, to which the House of Commons is on such 
 occasions summoned. 
 
 The Sovereign's power of refusing assent to a Bill was 
 last exercised in 1707, when Queen Anne refused her assent 
 to a Bill for settling the militia in Scotland. 
 
 When no date for the commencement of an Act is pro- 
 vided in the body of the Act itself, the day at which it 
 receives the Royal assent is the date of that commence- 
 ment. The " Clerk assistant " is required to endorse, in 
 English, on every Act of Parliament, immediately after the 
 title, the day, month, and year when the same shall have 
 received the Royal assent. 
 
 In some cases a Bill cannot be introduced or read a first 
 time without a previous announcement of the Sovereign's 
 consent. Bills for the restitution of honours, or the granting 
 of precedency, must be introduced into the Lords' House by 
 the Sovereign's command, and cannot be read a first time 
 in the House of Commons till the Sovereign's "consent" is 
 signified. 
 
 In the case of Bills presented to the Commons involving 
 any public expenditure not included in the annual estimates, 
 or having the effect of releasing or compounding any sum of 
 money owing to the Crown, a recommendation from the 
 Crown must be signified by a Minister before the Bill can be 
 introduced. 
 
 In the case of Bills concerning the Royal Prerogative 
 or the hereditary revenues of the Crown, the Royal consent 
 must be signified before the Bill pass either House, but this 
 consent can be signified at any and even at the final stage. 
 A Bill for a general pardon is first signed by the Queen, 
 and is read only once in each House ; after which it receives 
 the Royal assent in the ordinary form. The Bill cannot be 
 amended in either House, but must be accepted or rejected 
 as a whole. 
 
The Sovereign. 13 
 
 The members of the House of Commons, as a body, 
 accompanied by their Speaker, have at all times the right of 
 access to the Sovereign in order to present Addresses, or to 
 deliver answers to questions propounded to them. The 
 members of the House of Lords have individually the right 
 of audience by the Sovereign. 
 
 Though the Sovereign is, by a fiction, always supposed 
 to be present in Parliament and is entitled to be personally 
 present in the House of Lords without taking part in its 
 proceedings, yet according to modern practice he is not so 
 except on its opening and prorogation, and occasionally for 
 the purpose of giving the Royal assent to Bills during a 
 Session. 
 
 The Sovereign communicates with the two Houses of 
 Parliament in many ways, such as by a Speech in opening or 
 ] roroguing Parliament ; by a message under his sign-manual, 
 delivered in the House of Lords by a Peer, and in the 
 House of Commons by a member of the House who is also 
 a Minister of the Crown ; by a verbal message delivered by 
 a Minister of the%Crown to the House of which he is a 
 member ; by the signification in reference to proposed legis- 
 lation of the Royal "pleasure," "recommendation," or 
 " consent ; " and, lastly, by a signification conveyed through 
 a Minister that the Crown " places its interests at the dis- 
 posal of Parliament." 
 
 These communications are never made except on such 
 subjects as require the attention of Parliament ; the pre- 
 rogatives or property of the Crown ; provision for the 
 Royal family ; the arrest of a member of either House for 
 a crime \ the introduction of a Bill in which the interests 
 of the Crown are, or are supposed to be, personally affected. 
 
 The Houses of Parliament communicate with the 
 Sovereign by Addresses conveying resolutions of either 
 House. The Addresses are sometimes joint from both 
 Houses, but more often separately confined to each House. 
 The members of the two Houses, or of either House con- 
 
14 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 cerned, attend personally to present the Address, which 
 when joint is read by the Lord Chancellor, and when 
 separate either by the Lord Chancellor or by the Speaker 
 of the House of Commons, according as the Address is pre- 
 sented by one House or by the other. 
 
 The subjects of Addresses are such as the expression of 
 congratulation or condolence; the administration of justice ; 
 the action of the Crown in reference to foreign policy ; the 
 appointment of Royal Commissions ; and the thankful 
 acknowledgment of the communications from the Crown. 
 
 II. THE SOVEREIGN'S EXECUTIVE AND ADMINI- 
 STRATIVE FUNCTIONS. 
 
 (i) /// respect of the Execution of the Laws. 
 
 The Sovereign is said to be the " Fountain of Justice." 
 This means that, with the advice of his responsible 
 Ministers * 
 
 1. The Sovereign appoints, either directly or by delega- 
 tion, all Judges of all sorts and degrees, who are held to b^ 
 his deputies. In the case of the Judges of the superior 
 courts, excepting the Lord Chancellor, the appointment can 
 only be made for life, and a Judge can be removed only in 
 the case of misbehaviour, on an address to the Crown by 
 both Houses of Parliament. 
 
 2. All prosecutions for crimes are conducted in the 
 name of the Sovereign and it is his officers who carry on the 
 proceedings to tneir close, with or without the help of the 
 person directly injured by the crime. 
 
 3. The Sovereign can, with a few exceptions, pardon all 
 offenders against the Criminal Law either before or after 
 conviction, but this prerogative is, in practice, seldom 
 exercised. The following are the exceptions : namely, 
 
 First, that no "pardon under the Great Seal of England 
 
The Sovereign. 15 
 
 is pleadable to an Impeachment by the Commons in Parlia- 
 ment." The proceeding called " Impeachment " will be 
 described presently. Except in cases of felony, when a 
 vvarrant under the Sovereign's sign-manual countersigned by 
 a principal Secretary of State suffices, a Royal Pardon can be 
 certified only by the Great Seal affixed by the Lord 
 Chancellor. 
 
 Secondly, that the committing of any person to prison 
 out of the realm, is by the Habeas Corpus Act "un- 
 pardonable even by the King." 
 
 A third exception is when the pardon would inflict an 
 injury on an innocent person, as in the case of a nuisance 
 yet unredressed, or of a breach of certain statutes after an 
 informer has become entitled to a reward payable out of 
 the penalty. 
 
 Any abuse of the prerogative of pardon by the Sove- 
 reign's responsible advisers is visited with severe public 
 censure. The following are the only cases in which the 
 prerogative is, in practice, exercised at the present day, that 
 is to say : 
 
 i. Offences, as to which fresh evidence tending to excuse 
 the prisoner, presents itself after the trial. 
 
 ii. Offences, as to which it appears that untrustworthy 
 evidence was relied on at the trial and led to conviction, or 
 in which some grave miscarriage of justice, not otherwise, 
 remediable, has occurred. 
 
 iii. Offences as to which the evidence is of that dubious 
 or complicated nature that the Jury accompany their verdict 
 by some such qualifying language as a " recommendation to 
 mercy " on some ground or other, or in which the Judge 
 specially report ; to the Home Secretary that he himself is 
 dissatisfied with the verdict. 
 
 iv. Political offences, where the object of the offender was 
 not to inflict injury on any particular person or persons, 
 and no other offences were superadded. Such offences 
 are those sorts of Treason in which the acts are directed 
 
1 6 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 against the Constitution or order of the State, and not 
 against the person of the Sovereign or other public officials ; 
 riots, " unlawful assemblies," " tumultuous petitioning," and 
 seditious libel, where the object, direct or indirect, is to 
 bring pressure to bear on the Houses of Parliament or on 
 the Sovereign's advisers. 
 
 In the case of these latter offences the exercise of the 
 prerogative of pardon is usually delayed until the general 
 feeling which led to them has subsided and there is no 
 danger of its recurrence. 
 
 A pardon may be either free or conditional. In the 
 latter case a lesser is sometimes substituted for a greater 
 punishment. A promise of the Sovereign's pardon is fre- 
 quently used as an inducement to participators in a crime 
 to deliver up to justice the principal criminal or criminals. 
 
 The investigation of the grounds for exercising the pre- 
 rogative of pardon is conducted by the Sovereign's principal 
 Secretary for Home Affairs, usually styled the Home 
 Secretary. 
 
 (3) In respect of Internal Affairs. 
 
 1. All degrees of nobility are, or have been, derived 
 from grant of the Crown. 
 
 2. All " Corporations," that is, bodies of persons united 
 together so as to be treated, for some legal purposes, 
 as though they were only one person, are created either 
 directly by grant of the Crown, or, indirectly so, by com- 
 pliance with the terms of certain Acts of Parliament. 
 
 In making a grant, as in doing all other public acts, it 
 is an important constitutional principle that the " King can 
 do no wrong," that is, he cannot inflict an injury on a 
 subject, nor is he personally amenable to the procedure of 
 any Court of Law. Thus, if a grant violates any rule of 
 law, or impairs the vested rights of any one, it is held void 
 in a Court of Justice, as having been obtained by deceit 
 
The Sovereign. 17 
 
 and fraud. Thus, too, the Sovereign cannot, except under the 
 Patent Laws, grant the exclusive privilege of selling any 
 product or manufacture that is, a monopoly. The only 
 remedy against the Sovereign personally is by Petition of 
 Right, which is available only in cases in which the Sove- 
 reign's title to lands or goods is disputed. It is held to be 
 of the Sovereign's mere grace and freewill that the pro- 
 ceedings are allowed. The petition is granted in the form 
 " Let Right be done," and then the investigation follows the 
 course of an ordinary civil trial before the Superior Courts 
 of Law. 
 
 3. The Sovereign alone can coin money, and impress 
 what stamp he chooses upon it, and impart to it its legally 
 current value. The establishment where the coin is made is 
 called the Mint. 
 
 4. The Sovereign as " Supreme governor, as well in all 
 spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal," 
 appoints all archbishops and bishops of the Established 
 Church, though the form of an election by a body of clergy 
 called the " Chapter," attached to the Cathedral Church, is 
 always gone through. 
 
 (3) In respect of external affairs. 
 
 r. The Sovereign appoints all Ambassadors and 
 diplomatic agents to Foreign Governments, and conducts all 
 negotiations with those States. 
 
 2. The Sovereign concludes Treaties, and makes War or 
 Peace with Foreign States. 
 
 As these matters usually involve expenditure of some 
 sort, and otherwise demand the co-operation of Parliament, 
 the Sovereign's Ministers take an early opportunity of 
 explaining the situation of affairs to Parliament, and of invit- 
 ing a debate on the subject in one or both of the Houses. 
 If the Ministers neglect to do this, or defer to do it for an 
 unreasonable time, questions are asked of them in_the Houses, 
 
 ' 
 
 nxn V 
 
1 8 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 or a motion is made for the production of papers or de- 
 spatches, or a resolution of want of confidence is moved on 
 the ground of alleged misconduct or misadventure in con- 
 ducting a negotiation. 
 
 3. A proposition has been made in Parliament that every 
 treaty shall be approved by the two Houses of Parliament 
 before being ratified. The objections to this course are 
 (i) that no treaty could be concluded when Parliament is 
 not sitting ; (2) that all the circumstances which accompany 
 the making a treaty would have to be made public before 
 it is concluded, which must, in many cases, prevent a 
 treaty, however beneficial, being made at all ; (3) that the 
 delay and the protracted discussion incident to Parliamen- 
 tary proceedings, and the physical distance which frequently 
 separates the contracting parties, render such a precaution 
 peculia r ly unsuitable 
 
 4. The Sovereign has the supreme command of the Army 
 and Navy, under Parliamentary restrictions to be described 
 later on, and appoints all the officers of the Army and 
 Navy.* 
 
 5. The Sovereign appoints the Viceroys of Ireland and 
 of India and all Colonial Governors. In the case of certain 
 of the Colonies he prescribes the form of government, and in 
 the case of all of them his assent is essential to the validity 
 of all Acts of Colonial Legislatures. 
 
 * On the occasion of abolishing Purchase In the Army in 1871, it 
 was warmly debated whether the Royal Warrant issued for that pur- 
 pose, and revoking previous warrants, was only in pursuance of a tem- 
 porary power given by the 49 Geo. III. c. 126, s. 7, or in the exercise 
 of an inherent and undisputed prerogative. See "Annual Register" 
 (.New Series) for 1871. 
 
The House of Lords. 19 
 
 THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 
 
 The House of Lords is at present composed of 502 
 members, though the exact number is constantly changing. 
 The following is an enumeration of the members accord- 
 ing to their several titles, and in the order of their pre- 
 cedence : 
 
 6 Princes of the Blood Royal. 
 
 2 Archbishops 
 
 21 Dukes. 
 
 19 Marquises. 
 
 117 Earls. 
 
 26 Viscounts. 
 
 24 Bishops. 
 
 257 Barons. 
 
 1 6 representative Peers for Scotland, chosen for each 
 Parliament. 
 
 28 representative Peers for Ireland, elected for life. 
 
 The Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Viscounts, and Barons 
 differ from one another only in respect of their order of prece- 
 dence. They have no other necessary points of difference. 
 These titles are very old, and in early times probably all 
 represented important offices in the Government of the 
 country ; but this is no longer so. The titles are now all 
 honorary, except so far as they imply that the holder has a 
 seat in the House of Lords, and they give a bare claim to 
 precedence. The Sovereign can make as many new Peers, 
 and can give them such of the above titles as he chooses. 
 His ministers usually recommend (especially at the time of 
 their giving up office) the grant of peerages to some of their 
 most active and distinguished supporters. When once a 
 person has been summoned to Parliament to sit in the 
 House of Lords, or has actually taken his seat, or when a 
 
2O The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 person has been created a Peer by the Queen's " letters 
 patent," his descendants inherit the right to sit, the eldest 
 son succeeding first on his father's death, and the eldest 
 son of that eldest son again succeeding, to the exclusion of 
 his uncles. The order of succession is exactly the same 
 as that to the Crown, except that women may succeed to 
 the Crown in default of men of equal nearness to the last 
 Sovereign. Women cannot sit in the House of Lords, 
 though women may be Peeresses by Royal grant, or even 
 in some Peerages by descent. 
 
 No Peers can be created/<?r life only, except the "Lords 
 of Appeal in Ordinary." 1 The Lord Chancellor, who is 
 always an eminent lawyer, and made a Peer, generally 
 presides over the debates in the House of Lords. 
 
 At one time, that is, about 800 years ago, the House of 
 Lords was the only Legislative and Executive body in the 
 country. It was composed of persons holding estates of 
 land from the King and owing him military services in return, 
 or having distinct offices in the government of the country. 
 There was then only one Chamber, or House of Assembly, 
 and the King presided, as at a Great Council. Two changes 
 subsequently took place, one the separation of some of 
 the chief officers of state from the Great Council, so as to 
 form a smaller council, or " King's Council," the other the 
 separation of the lesser Peers, that is the poorer and less 
 important ones, from the richer and more eminent ones. 
 By this separation a Second Chamber, or new House of 
 Assembly, was created, which was the beginning of the 
 present House of Commons. Later on, only a few of the 
 smaller " Barons " or " Knights," that is, the smaller tenants 
 of land from trie crown, were chosen to represent the rest ; 
 and later on, that is, in the year 1265, Boroughs or Towns 
 were permitted to be represented by Members in the House 
 of Commons, as well as the Counties or County Divisions. 
 
 At present comparatively little business is done in the 
 
 1 See p. 82. 
 
The House of Lords. 21 
 
 House of Lor Is, though the consent of that House is needed 
 for any Bill to become law. When much interest attaches 
 to a Bill there is often a considerable attendance and a 
 warm debate, but the House very seldom throws out or 
 much alters a Bill which has been deliberately passed by a 
 large majority of votes in the House of Commons. Some- 
 times Bills are proposed in the House of Lords, but never 
 Bills affecting taxation. Such Bills, on coming up from 
 the Commons, are never altered in the Lords' House, 
 though they are occasionally thrown out. Some members 
 of the Cabinet besides the Lord Chancellor always sit in 
 the Lords' House, that is, some Peers are always made 
 members of the Cabinet. 
 
 The House of Lords possesses important judicial func- 
 tions as the Highest Court of Appeal. It has a distinct 
 constitution for this purpose. (See p. 81.) 
 
 Among the most notable judicial functions reserved to 
 the House of Lords are those in cases of Impeachment (see 
 p. 50), and of the trial of a Peer for treason or felony under 
 the presidency of a High Steward appointed for the occasion. 
 When these trials take place during the sitting of Parlia- 
 ment, they are said to be before the " Court of our Lady 
 the Queen in Parliament." At other times they are "before 
 the Court of the Lord High Steward." This Court consists 
 of all Lords of Parliament excepting the Bishops. The pro- 
 ceedings commence in the ordinary Criminal Court, and 
 are removed, by writ, into the Parliamentary Court. In 
 all Judicial proceedings the Peers give their votes " on their 
 honour." Bishops and Archbishops take no part in the pro- 
 ceedings of the Court of the Lord High Steward, nor can 
 they themselves be tried by this Court. In case of a trial 
 before the High Court of Parliament, and of an Impeachment, 
 they retire (though under protest) before sentence of death 
 is pronounced. 
 
 Other matters concerning the proceedings in the House 
 of Lords will be most conveniently considered after the 
 
22 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 constitution of the House of Commons has been investi- 
 gated. 
 
 In order to explain the present state of the House 
 of Lords, it is necessary to say something of the current 
 objections that are made to its constitution, and of the 
 remedies that are suggested. 
 
 It is alleged in some quarters that as the large bulk of 
 the members of the House of Lords become such onlv 
 through birth, no security is afforded for the wisdom, 
 patriotism, activity, or general fitness of the members. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the House of Lords takes only an 
 intermittent part in public business, and sits but a short 
 time each day. There is, furthermore, a very strong " sta- 
 tionary" element in it, that is, there are a large number of 
 members who are indisposed to make any change whatever 
 in existing institutions. In consequence of this, a Bill has 
 often to be passed over and over again in the House of 
 Commons in successive sessions before it is finally adopted 
 by the House of Lords. 
 
 On the other hand there are good reasons for holding 
 that it is better to have two Chambers or Assemblies than 
 only one. It is better to have a matter considered twice 
 over by bodies of persons selected on different principles 
 rather than to run the risk of a great change in the Law 
 being inconsiderately made by one body of persons alone, 
 acting (it may be) under some special and temporary in- 
 fluences. It is also alleged that there ought to be some 
 Assembly distinctly representing the continuity of the 
 traditional or historical associations of the country, and alsc 
 what is called the " Landed Interest," that is, the interests 
 of the persons who own most of the national soil or land. 
 
 The following remedies have been suggested, and some 
 of them are now occupying a good deal of attention : 
 
 (i.) The appointment of a certain number of "Life 
 Peers," that is, persons chosen to sit in the House of Lords 
 for their own lives without handing down their right to their 
 
The Hotise of Commons. 23 
 
 children and descendants, and chosen for their conspicuous 
 and tried ability in the Public Service or in Literature or 
 Art. The " Lords of Appeal in Ordinary " are Peers of this 
 sort. (Seep. 82.) 
 
 (2.) The exclusion from the House of Lords of all the 
 Bishops and Archbishops, because they concern themselves 
 little or unwisely with questions of secular politics ; and are 
 withdrawn from their diocesan work to the public loss and 
 inconvenience. This might be accompanied by (i). 
 
 (3.) The permission to the House of Commons to nomi- 
 nate some of their own members as members of the House 
 of Lords. This might be accompanied by (i) and (2). 
 
 (4.) The Election of members of the House of Lords 
 or of some of them by the population of the country on the 
 same principle as that on which the members of the House 
 of Commons are elected, though on a different basis, 
 as, for instance, that only persons having so much money or 
 land could be elected or vote at elections. This method 
 is adopted in some British Colonies. It might be com- 
 pounded with (i), (2), and (3). The members so elected 
 might sit for a longer or a shorter number of years than do 
 the members of the House of Commons. These changes 
 would probably be regarded as far more " unconstitutional " 
 than those mentioned in the former paragraphs. 
 
 THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 I. CONSTITUTION OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 
 The House of Commons has now been for a long 
 time the most important branch of the Legislature. It 
 consists of Members elected by different classes of- the 
 people, the whoie number of Members being now 652, 
 comprising those elected by English, Welsh, Scotch, and 
 Iriah " Constituencies " (that is, bodies of persons entitled 
 
24 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 to elect each one, two, or three Members). The important 
 points to be attended to are : 
 
 1. The Places Represented. 
 
 2. The Qualifications of Electe r s. 
 
 3. The Mode of Election, and the Penalties for Bribery 
 or Paying for Votes. 
 
 4. The Qualifications of Members. 
 
 i. As TO THE PLACES REPRESENTED. 
 
 These places are (i) Counties, (2) Towns or Boroughs, 
 and (3) Universities, or the chief seats of the Higher Public 
 Education, and these are represented whether situated in 
 England, Wales, Scotland, or Ireland. 
 
 England and Wales. 
 
 Members 
 52 Counties ..... 187 
 
 197 Boroughs 295 
 
 3 Universities 5 
 
 Total . .487 
 
 Scotland. 
 
 32 Counties ..... 32 
 
 22 Boroughs ..... 26 
 
 4 Universities ..... 2 
 
 Total . . . .60 
 
 Ireland. 
 
 32 Counties ..... 64 
 
 33 Boroughs 39 
 
 i University ..... 2 
 
 Total . . . .105 
 
The House of Commons. 2 5 
 
 In the history of the House of Commons the places re- 
 presented have varied a great deal, according to their 
 changing size and importance. When a town loses its im- 
 portance, or becomes smaller, or is proved to have had 
 bribery very extensively practised in it, it is sometimes 
 "disfranchised," or loses its right to return a Member 
 to the House of Commons. On the other hand, if a 
 to\vii increases in importance, or grows into importance 
 for the first time, it is allowed to return more Members 
 or one Member at least (if it returned none before).. This, 
 with other changes in the representation, is effected by 
 a " Reform " Act, or law enacted for the purpose. The chief 
 Acts of this kind were passed in the years 1832 and 1867. 
 Sometimes it is enacted that a County shall return more 
 Members or fewer than it did before, or it is broken up into 
 two or three or more different constituencies, each returning 
 two or three Members. This choice of the places, and the 
 fixing the number of the representatives to be chosen, are 
 always matters of great difficulty and importance, and when 
 a change is contemplated (which does not often take place) 
 it gives rise to animated discussion. The larger towns some- 
 times return three or four Members ; and London is divided 
 into several constituencies, each represented by two or more 
 Members. 
 
 It thus comes about that every Member of the House of 
 Commons is closely connected with a body of persons living 
 in, or having property in, or (as with the Universities) re- 
 lated to, some definite place. It is generally believed that 
 County constituencies are less favourable to political innova- 
 tions than Borough constituencies : the differences due to 
 education, social influences, and occupations may, perhaps, 
 account for this. Country life is based on the slow 
 and steady production of wealth from the soil by efforts 
 mostly individual and isolated. Town life is based on the 
 rapid and speculative accumulation of wealth by organised 
 trade and commerce. The opposite tastes and opinions of 
 
26 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 the Members representing Town and Country constituencies 
 in the House of Commons give rise to much of the difference 
 of opinion in that House, and to the great " party " struggles 
 in the debates which decide who shall be the Cabinet Ministers 
 and conduct the Executive Government in the name of the 
 Crown. The subject of "party" will be considered further on. 
 
 2. QUALIFICATION OF ELECTORS. 
 
 The question of who shall be entitled to vote for 
 Members of Parliament is a matter of the utmost importance, 
 and has been settled by several Acts of Parliament, the most 
 important modern ones being, as already said, the Reform 
 Acts of 1832 and 1867. 
 
 Generally, the qualifications are being a male of 21 
 years of age, and either having property in land or build- 
 ings of a certain amount, or living in a certain settled resi- 
 dence for at least 1 2 months previous to being registered as 
 a voter. 
 
 Omitting some minor ones, the qualifications now 
 are : 
 
 A. For voting in Boroughs. 
 
 1. Being for 12 preceding months a resident occupier of 
 a dwelling house within the borough. 
 
 2. Being for 12 preceding months a resident occupier of 
 lodgings of the yearly value of io/. at least if let unfurnished. 
 
 3. Belonging to certain specified classes of persons, as 
 (in some cases) that of " freemen." 
 
 B. For voting in Counties. 
 
 i. Being a " Freeholder " of lands or buildings of the 
 yearly value of 2/. at least, these lands or buildings being 
 either occupied by the freeholder, or acquired through 
 marriage, intestate succession, a will, or promotion to an 
 office. 
 
 [A "freeholder" is one who owns lands or buildings 
 
The House of Commons. 27 
 
 either for the duration of his own life or for that of another 
 or of others.] 
 
 2. Being a " Freeholder " of lands or buildings of yearly 
 value of 5/. at least, though not satisfying the last-mentioned 
 conditions. 
 
 3. Being tenant on lease for 20 years of property at 
 5o/. annual value. 
 
 4. Being tenant for the unexpired part of a term of 
 60 years of an estate of the yearly value of 5/. at the 
 least. 
 
 4. Being for the 12 preceding months occupier of lands 
 or buildings of the yearly value of 1 2/. at the least. 
 
 Both in the case of the Borough and in that of the 
 County Franchise, in order to claim in any year the right of 
 voting, it is requisite to have paid, by the 2oth of July in 
 that year, all poor rates due up to the preceding 5th of 
 January on behalf of the premises the occupation of which 
 gives the qualification. 
 
 In order to exercise the right of voting for a Borough or 
 a County, it is indispensable to be duly " registered," that is, 
 entered on the official list of voters. Such lists are pre- 
 pared in the Summer of each year by the poor-law officers 
 (the " overseers ") of each parish, and Courts for revising 
 these lists are held on certain days in the Autumn by bar- 
 risters (called " revising bajristers,") appointed by the Judges 
 of the High Court of Justice. Claims may then be made 
 by persons whose names have been omitted, and objections 
 made to names alleged to have been improperly inserted. 
 If an objection is sustained, the name is struck off the list. 
 On points of law there is an appeal to the Court of Common 
 Pleas. 
 
 C. For voting in Universities. 
 
 Having passed certain examinations in, and had a certain 
 " Degree " or honorary distinction conferred by the parti- 
 cular University. 
 
28 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 There are three important movements now going on in 
 the country for a change in the qualifications of electors of 
 the House of Commons : 
 
 (i). The first has for its purpose the assimilation of the 
 borough and the county franchise. 
 
 It is alleged, in objection to this, that one consequence 
 must be such a re-distribution of seats as will give to the 
 towns with a large population an unfair share in the general 
 representation. Thus the country element would be wholly 
 overborne, and a loss of variety in the composition of the 
 House w r ould be experienced. This last result might be 
 counteracted by the adoption of one of the " minority repre- 
 sentation " schemes described lower down ; and, any way, 
 it is doubtful whether the opposition between town and 
 country opinions is a true one for modern times, or can be 
 a permanent one. 
 
 (2). A second movement has for its purpose the enabling 
 of all men to vote if of the proper age and not otherwise 
 incompetent, wholly independent of the ownership or occu- 
 pation of property. This is sometimes, though falsely, called 
 " universal suffrage." 
 
 There is no doubt that the present household and 
 " lodging " franchise excludes a vast number of persons who^e 
 votes would be valuable to the community and them- 
 selves. New devices will no doubt be suggested to include 
 these persons ; and the spread of national education will 
 render any mode of lowering the franchise safe. But it will 
 probably always be well to take as an electoral test some 
 formal security for the genuine concern which a voter may 
 properly be expected to have in the permanent welfare of 
 the country. 
 
 (3). The third movement has for its purpose the 
 enabling women to vote, on their possessing the same 
 qualifications as those upon which the right of voting is con- 
 ceded to men. 
 
 This movement is the moie important as a Bill for 
 
The House of Commons. 29 
 
 effecting its object has been of late annually introduced into 
 the House of Commons, and, on one occasion, was read a 
 second time. The objections to the movement seem to be 
 based upon a certain unfamiliarity in the notion of women 
 Concerning themselves actively in political affairs, and an 
 assumed incompatibility between such activity and what is 
 held to be their true domestic vocation. It is forgotten that 
 much of the coarseness and vulgarity which have hitherto 
 discredited the contentions of political life may have been 
 due to women having had no legitimate concern in them ; 
 and that the possible disadvantage of distracting women 
 from the management of their households (where they have 
 any) is likely to be more than compensated by the effect upon 
 themselves, and, indirectly, upon all whom they are called to 
 educate and influence, of a class of mental occupations 
 the largest and noblest with which human beings can be 
 concerned. 
 
 The positive arguments in favour of removing the dis- 
 abilities of women are : 
 
 i. That, under the existing law, women vote in all 
 municipal elections on the same basis as men. 
 
 ii. That unmarried women own land and houses and all 
 other things in exactly the same way as men do. 
 
 iii. That women pay exactly the same taxes estimated on 
 their property as men do. 
 
 iv. That women are affected by the law in the same way 
 as men are. 
 
 v. That women's interests, especially where they come 
 into competition with those of men, are injuriously affected 
 in Parliament through women having no control over the 
 elections. 
 
 vi. That ordinary women are in all respects as much 
 qualified in their minds for political action as ordinary 
 men ; and this is assumed in the fact of the present Sove- 
 reign being a woman. 
 
3O The Constitution and Government of England* 
 3. MODE OF ELECTION. 
 
 Two questions arise under this head : first, as to the 
 value of each vote ; and, secondly, as to the way in which the 
 votes are given. 
 
 i. As to the value of 'end 
 
 The almost, universal rule in elections is, that each 
 elector has as many votes as there are Members to be 
 elected for his constituency, but an elector need not use 
 more than one of his votes, and must not give more than 
 one vote to one candidate. 
 
 A great complaint has been made in some quarters, both 
 in England and in other European countries, against this 
 system, on the ground that it enables or tends to enable the 
 aggregate majority of votes to decide all the elections ; and 
 therefore, that although, where a different number of people 
 vote in different constituencies, it may happen that a minority 
 in one place is greater than a majority in another ; and that, 
 any way, two minorities in different places may probably 
 enough be greater than one majority, yet, under the existing 
 system, none of these minorities will be represented at all. 
 Furthermore, under the present system, the choice among 
 candidates at any election is arbitrarily limited by the 
 character of the broad public questions (generally very few, 
 and perhaps not of much lasting importance) which happen 
 to attract attention at the moment. Thus, through what 
 may be called mere election accidents, none of the minori- 
 ties in the country, consisting of it may be more than half 
 the nation, may chance to be represented at all. 
 
 To meet these evils, several remedies have been proposed. 
 One of them is now being tried in a few Parliamentary 
 constituencies, and another in elections to School Boards. 
 
 i. The method adopted in those exceptional Parlia- 
 mentary constituencies is to allow each elector to vote for 
 all the candidates save one. If votes are given for more 
 
The House of Commons. 3 1 
 
 j than the prescribed number of candidates, none of the votes 
 \ on the voting paper are counted. In this way, if any one 
 ; candidate have a fair number of supporters who vote for 
 \ him, even though they do not compose the majority of the 
 electors, he is very likely to be elected. 
 
 2. The method adopted in the elections to School 
 Boards is that called " cumulative voting/' It consists in 
 giving to each elector as many votes as there are members 
 to be elected, and allowing each elector to give all his votes, 
 or as many of them as he pleases, to any one candidate ; or 
 some of his votes to one candidate, and some to another. 
 
 The objection to both these methods is the waste of 
 so many votes ; that is, the use of so many votes in favour 
 of candidates who cannot be elected with their help, or 
 .vould be elected without their help. The result is the prac- 
 tical disfranchisement of all electors who vote for either a 
 very popular or a very unpopular candidate. 
 
 Suppose, for example, that three members have to be 
 chosen, and tnere are five candidates, and that the consti- 
 tuency consists of 1,000 electors, 900 of whom are of one 
 way of thinking and TOO of another. Suppose, in the first 
 case, that each elector has two votes and no more. If one 
 of the candidates represents the views of the minority, the 
 i oo electors will all vote for him, and probably him only ; 
 but he will stand only a small chance of being elected. 
 Thus the 900 electors have the whole choice of the three 
 members out of the remaining four candidates in their own 
 hands, and the 100 electors in the minority have nothing to 
 say to it, having exhausted all their votes in supporting the 
 candidate who alone in any sense represents them. 
 
 The same waste of votes and consequent disfranchise- 
 ment is occasioned by the School Board method of " cumu- 
 lative " voting, and by another method sometimes advocated 
 called " single " voting, in which each elector can vote for 
 one candidate and no more. 
 
 Other more exact methods have been devised, though 
 
32 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 they have not yet been adopted in this country. They are 
 sometimes called Preferential voting, or the whole system is 
 called that of Proportional representation. The most cha- 
 racteristic of these methods are the following : 
 
 1. To fix a definite number of votes, based (say) upon 
 the proportion between the number of members to be 
 elected, and the number of electors in a given area, as 
 sufficient and necessary to ensure the election of a candi- 
 date ; and to allow each elector to mention in his voting 
 paper (the forms of the ballot being preserved) the nam-es 
 of several candidates, either local or not local as may be 
 settled, to each of which in turn his vote is to be made over 
 in case the candidate to which his vote is first given has, 
 before his vote is counted, either obtained the number of 
 votes sufficient for his election, or cannot, with that vote, 
 make up the necessary number. Lists of candidates may 
 either be framed beforehand by political parties freely 
 formed, or the framing of them may be left at the last to 
 the more or less unrestricted choice of individual electors. 
 
 Thus, for example, suppose 5.000 votes are necessary 
 for a candidate to be elected. The elector prepares his 
 voting card, and either adopts a list of the candidates 
 arranged in order by the agents of his political party, or 
 himself places the names of the candidates in the order in 
 which he would desire their several claims to be preferred. 
 If the candidate he places first on his list obtains 5,000 
 votes before his vote is counted, the vote is counted in 
 favour of the second on the list, and so on ; and if the 
 candidate placed first on the list is not elected, that is, can- 
 not obtain the necessary 5,000 votes, then in the same way 
 each vote given for him is counted in favour of all those 
 who come next on the several lists. 
 
 2. To fix the number of votes as before, but to leave 
 each candidate to transfer the surplus or insufficient votes 
 giv en to himself in any way he pleases. 
 
 The common objections to all these more exact methods 
 
Tke House of Commons. 33 
 
 are that (i) they are too complex and difficult to be mastered 
 by the average elector; (2) that the necessities of practical 
 government demand that the battle of rival principles 
 should be fought outside rather than inside the House of 
 Commons ; and (3) that people must wait till they are 
 strong enough to make their opinions accepted by a majority 
 before they have any claim to be represented. 
 
 The first objection is one the force of which must gra- 
 dually decrease with practice and experience. The latter 
 objections are based upon a very rough, not to say coarse, 
 notion of the functions of Government, as though it were 
 an institution designed not to enlighten and correct, but to 
 give weight to, popular ignorance and prejudice. It is also 
 to be remembered that the House of Commons is, or ought 
 to be, eminently an Assembly for discussion and argument, 
 and not an institution for merely registering conclusions 
 arrived at elsewhere. 
 
 2. How the votes are taken. 
 
 Up to a very recent date, all the votes were given 
 publicly, in such a way that everyone could know who 
 voted for each candidate. They are now given by secret 
 ballot. Elections take place under the following circum- 
 stances. Either the case is that of a " General Election/' that 
 is, when Parliament has been dissolved, or has come to an 
 end after the lapse of seven years, and elections have to 
 take place in every constituency in England, Wales, Scotland, 
 and Ireland ; or else a vacancy has occurred during the 
 existence of a Parliament, owing to the death or retirement 
 of a Member, his appointment to certain offices under the 
 Government entailing a fresh election, or his promotion to 
 the House of Lords. In either case Writs (or official docu- 
 ments giving the proper authority to proceed to the election 
 of a Member or Members) are issued to an officer, called 
 the Returning Officer, in each constituency. These Writs 
 are issued out of " Chancery," an ancient office attached td 
 
34 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 the Lord Chancellor's Court. At a General Election the 
 Writs issue by command of the Queen with the formal 
 " advice of the Privy Council," and they mention the day and 
 place of meeting. At other times the Writ proceeds from 
 the Chancery on receipt of the Speaker's warrant issued by 
 order of the House ; or, when the House is not sitting 
 (generally), without such an order. 
 
 On receipt of the Writ it is the duty of the Returning 
 Officer to give public notice of the time (within the limits 
 fixed by Law) and the place for nominating candidates, and 
 thereby if there are no more candidates than there are 
 Members to be elected ot the election. 
 
 Between the time at which the vacancy occurs and the 
 day fixed for the nomination, candidates publish addresses 
 in which they announce their political opinions and party 
 sympathies, if any, and, usually accompanied by their friends, 
 go about among the constituents making speeches and 
 pressing their claims to support. The different political 
 " parties " (or groups of persons holding like opinions) usually 
 support different candidates and do their best to secure 
 their election. 
 
 Before the nomination day and (usually) for about two 
 hours on that da> , any elector may propose any candidate 
 he chooses, by filling up with the candidate's name, descrip- 
 tion, and residence, a printed form or nomination paper. 
 Another elector must add his name as seconding the nomi- 
 nation ; and eight more electors must add theirs as assenting 
 to the nomination. The paper so filled in and properly 
 signed must then be presented to the Returning Officer. 
 
 If. up to the last available moment for proposing new 
 candidates, no more candidates have been nominated than 
 there are Members to be chosen, the Returning Officer de- 
 clares the candidate or candidates to be duly elected. If 
 there are more candidates than Members to be elected, the 
 Returning Officer must name a time, within the limits fixed 
 by law, for a " poll," that is, a formal election, which 
 as lias already been said, be by Ballot. 
 
The House of Commons. 35 
 
 The principle of the Ballot as applied to Parliamentary 
 elections is that no one shall ever be obliged against his 
 will, or be legally permitted at the moment of election, to 
 make known to others how he votes. According to this 1 
 process each voter after satisfying the officials in attendance 
 at the time and place of taking the votes that his name is on 
 the register, or list of voters, and that he is the person so 
 named is furnished with a card containing a printed 
 list of all the candidates' names. He is instructed to 
 retire into a separate compartment, or solitary closet, and 
 to put a cross against the name of each of the candidates 
 for whom he votes. If the voter puts crosses against more 
 names of candidates than there are Members to be elected, 
 or if he attaches his own name to it, or otherwise defaces 
 the card, the card is good for nothing ; but a fresh card may 
 be obtained in the place of one accidentally defaced. After 
 marking his card, the voter takes it to a box called the 
 ballot-box, and, in the presence of an officer, drops the 
 card into it through a slit in the lid. As no name besides 
 those of the candidates appears on the card, it is not pos- 
 sible to know who dropped in the several cards. When 
 the polling is over, the cards are examined, and the candi- 
 dates who have most votes are declared to be elected. 
 Precautions are taken to prevent voters making it known 
 how they have voted, between the moments of marking the 
 card and of dropping it into the ballot-box. Provisions are 
 also made for enabling persons who, from ignorance or 
 infirmity, are not able to read, or to mark the cards, to have 
 the names of candidates they vote for marked for them by n 
 responsible officer. 
 
 The ballot for any constituency takes place on the same 
 day in a number of different places simultaneously. It is 
 usually conducted in a schoolroom, a public building, or a 
 temporary structure erected for the purpose. 
 
 The ballot is not used in elections for Universities. 
 Electors for the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge cat) 
 
36 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 vote by proxy-papers ; that is, they can have their votes 
 certified by a magistrate and then communicated to the 
 Returning Officer by letter. 
 
 The offence of Bribery, or of offering rewards or of 
 administering threats in order to procure a vote, is punished 
 in various ways. Thus 
 
 1 i ) To receive bribes or rewards for voting in a parti- 
 cular way, is a crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment, 
 both in the giver and in the receiver. 
 
 (2) If bribery is proved to have taken place at an elec- 
 tion with the knowledge of a candidate or his agents, the 
 election of the candidate is declared void, and either the 
 candidate with the next largest number of votes is declared 
 elected, or, if the whole election shall be proved to have 
 been affected by the practice of bribery, it will have to take 
 place over again. If it is proved that bribery is a persistent 
 and deeply-rooted practice, the constituency may be " dis- 
 franchised," that is, may lose its right to return any Member 
 in the future. This disfranchisement is effected by an Ac* 
 of Parliament, but has very rarely been put into practice. 
 
 The investigation into the alleged wrongful returns on 
 the ground of bribery, or other serious irregularity, was, up 
 to a few years ago, conducted by a Special Committee of the 
 House of Commons. It is now conducted by one of the 
 Judges of the Superior Courts of Law, who, upon a petition 
 presented by persons in the constituency, goes down to 
 the district where the election was held, and holds there a 
 Court of Justice, in which the proceedings are almost exactly 
 the same as on the trial for an ordinary crime. A single 
 bribe or threat, if given with the knowledge of the candidate 
 or his agent, is sufficient to invalidate the election of that 
 candidate. The proceedings still continue dependent upon 
 the jurisdiction of the House of Commons, and the Election 
 Judge makes his Report to the Speaker of the House. 
 
The House of Commons. 37 
 
 4. QUALIFICATIONS OF MEMBERS. 
 
 All persons (with the exceptions below mentioned) being 
 natural born Englishmen, and twenty-one years of age, may 
 be elected to sit in the House of Commons. It is now of 
 no consequence what property they have, nor to what con 
 stituency they themselves belong. The following person? 
 only are excepted and cannot sit : 
 
 1. English and Scotch Peers, and Irish Peers for an 
 Irish constituency. 
 
 2. Judges of the Superior Courts of Law. 
 
 3. The " Clergy," or Ministers of the Established Church, 
 who have not taken the requisite steps to rid themselves 
 of their disability. 
 
 4. The holders of various offices, specially excluded by 
 Statute, as offices of profit under the Crown created since 
 the year 1705. 
 
 5. Government Contractors, that is, persons who have 
 engaged with a Government Department to do any work 
 or carry out any undertaking, till the contract is completed. 
 
 6. Bankrupts, that is, persons who are unable to pay their 
 debts, and are declared by a proper Court of Justice to be 
 such, all their property being distributed fairly among their 
 creditors. 
 
 7. Felons, or persons convicted of the heavier classes of 
 crimes.* 
 
 If any Member of the House accepts any office of 
 Prcfit from the Crown, his election is void and a new writ 
 must issue for a fresh election ; but unless the office was 
 created since 1705, the Member is re-eligible. No fresh 
 election is needed in the case of a Member who accepts an 
 office instead of, or in addition to, another. 
 
 * It must be treated as still an unsettled question whether a felon 
 who has neither suffered the whole of his punishment, nor received 
 pardon from the Crown, can, after the date fixed for the expiration of 
 his punishment, be eligible as a Member of the House. A recent deci- 
 won of the House in the case of John Mitchell is adverse to his eligibility. 
 
28 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 A Member sometimes retires from his seat (which he 
 cannot generally do otherwise) by accepting the office of 
 Steward or Bailiff of the three "Chiltern Hundreds'' of 
 Stoke, Desborough, and Bonenham. The office is in the 
 gift of the Crown, and is ordinarily given to any member 
 who applies for it. It is merely nominal, but as the warrant 
 of appointment grants it, together with all wages, fees, and 
 allowances, it is treated as a place of profit. 
 
 II. THE INTERNAL REGULATIONS OF THE HOUSE 
 OF COMMONS. 
 
 These regulations concern : 
 
 1. The Privileges of Members of the House. 
 
 2. The Power of the House over its own Members 
 and other persons. 
 
 3. The General Business of the House. 
 
 4. The Passing of a Bill. 
 
 i. THE PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE. 
 
 No Member of the House is liable to a " civil action " 
 (that is to be sued in a Court of Justice) with a view to 
 making compensation for any words he may utter in the 
 House, however offensive or injurious to the feelings of 
 anybody outside the House. Nevertheless, a Member is 
 liable to punishment by imprisonment, or even by expulsion, 
 by the House itself, for improper language. 
 
 Generally speaking, no Member of the House can be 
 detained by the civil process of any Court of Justice, that is 
 he cannot be arrested, imprisoned, or obliged to serve on a 
 jury. For a long time it was held that a Member could not 
 even be detained in order to be a witness in a trial, but this 
 is not the case now. These privileges extend for some time 
 (some say forty days) before the commencement of a session 
 and after the close of a session, and for a convenient time 
 ' necessary for returning home " after a dissolution. These 
 
The House of Commons. 39 
 
 rules do not extend to protect Members against a criminal 
 process. 
 
 2. POWERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OVER ITS 
 MEMBERS AND OTHER PERSONS. 
 
 The House of Commons has long exercised what is 
 called the " power of commitment," that is the power of send- 
 ing persons to prison for certain offences against its own 
 dignity, whether the persons committing the offence be Mem- 
 bers of the House or other persons. Such offences are : 
 
 (i.) Disobedience to orders or rules of the House, 
 whether general or special, such as by publishing evidence 
 produced before a Committee of the House before it has 
 been reported to the House ; by neglecting rules for pre- 
 venting the forging signatures to petitions ; by not attend- 
 ing befoie the House or Committees when properly sum- 
 moned ; by not producing papers or records called for. 
 
 (2.) Indignities offered by libellous reflections, that is, by 
 writing and publishing matters tending to bring the House 
 into disrepute. 
 
 (3.) Interference with, or libellous reflections upon, 
 individual Members of the House as by arresting, obstruct- 
 ing, threatening, or making accusations against Members ; 
 by interfering with officers of the House while in the execu- 
 tion of their duty ; by bribing Members, or receiving bribes 
 as Members ; by tampering with witnesses, that is. trying to 
 make them give evidence of a special kind before the House. 
 
 For the purpose of sending persons to prison, the House 
 employs an officer called the " Sergeant-at-Arms." He is 
 appointed by the Crown, and receives a salary of i,2oo/. 
 
 The House of Commons has also the power of expelling 
 its Members for offences calculated to bring discredit upon 
 Parliament. Such offences are forgery, fraud, corruption, 
 libels, and other offences against the House itself. 
 
 The chief officers (besides the Sergeant-at-Arms) ot the 
 House of Commons are 
 
40 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 (i.) The Speaker or President of the House. He is 
 chosen out of the Members by the House itself, and the 
 appointment is confirmed by the Crown. He determines 
 all points of order, that is he decides whether a rule of the 
 House, with respect to its own proceedings, exists or not, 
 and whether it is being observed or not, by any particular 
 Member in the course of a debate. When two or more 
 Members wish to speak at the same moment, he decides 
 which of them shall be heard first. If the votes are equal 
 in any case, he gives the casting voue, that is, decides which 
 side shall prevail, but otherwise he does not vote. 
 
 The Speaker of the House of Commons is in every sense 
 a most important and dignified officer. The tone and 
 character of the debates of the House depend largely upon 
 his judicial impartiality, knowledge of Parliamentary forms 
 and precedents, and tact combined with courtesy of manner. 
 If, as a private Member, he has been identified with a 
 party, he is required to divest himself of all party sympathies 
 and to concern himself only with the maintenance of the 
 dignity and good order of the House. When he retires 
 from office (which he generally holds from Parliament to 
 Parliament as long as he pleases) he is usually created a 
 Peer. His salary is 5ooo/. 
 
 (2.) The Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees. 
 Salary i,5oo/. 
 
 (3.) The Clerk of the House, who signs all orders of the 
 House, reads whatever has to be read to the House, 
 makes entries or records of all that is done in the House, 
 and has the custody of all records or documents. 
 
 (4.) The Clerk Assistant. 
 
 (5.) The Second Clerk Assistant. 
 
 These Clerks sit at the table of the House and make 
 short entries of the proceedings of the House, which are 
 printed and distributed to the Members every day. From 
 these the " Journal " is afterwards prepared, in which the 
 entries are made at greater length. 
 
The House of Commons. 41 
 
 3. THE GENERAL BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. 
 
 The mode in which the business of the House of 
 Commons is conducted is by individual Members making 
 what is called a motion, that is, proposing a question to the 
 House upon which discussion may or may not take place, 
 and the Members of the House being asked by the Speaker 
 whether they say Aye or No to the question. If more 
 Members say Aye than say No, the motion is said to be 
 agreed to or carried. If more say No than say Aye, it is 
 said to be negatived or lost. The Speaker judges whether 
 the " Ayes " or " Noes " are in the majority by the sound of 
 the voices. He then says " I think the ' Ayes ' (or ' Noes ') 
 have it." If this decision is challenged three times by even 
 a single Member, the House must divide. If the counted 
 votes are equal, the Speaker's vote decides. 
 
 Every Motion, when agreed to, takes the form of either 
 an order or a resolution of the House. By an order, the 
 House directs some of its Members, or its officers, to do or 
 not to do certain acts ; by a resolution, the House merely 
 declares its own opinions and purposes. 
 
 A Member intending to make a motion must state the 
 form of it on a previous day, and have it entered in a book, 
 called the " Order Book," or " Notice Paper," thus : 
 
 "July 1 8th. 
 
 " Mr. Gladstone to move : ' That a Select Committee be 
 appointed to consider the existing regulations for local 
 taxation, and to report to the House what changes may 
 conveniently be made in these regulations.' " 
 
 " Mr. Disraeli to move : * That all papers relative to the 
 Geneva Arbitration be produced, and laid upon the table of 
 the House.' " 
 
 Notices of a future motion cannot be generally given for 
 more than a month in advance. 
 
 At present, Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays are set 
 
42 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 apart for matters agreed to be considered by the House on 
 the motion of a Member of the Government, called " Govern, 
 ment Orders." 
 
 Wednesday is set apart for the Orders of private Mem^ 
 bers, that is, for matters agreed to be considered by the 
 House on the motion of a Member not connected with the 
 Government. 
 
 Tuesday is generally set apart for notices of motion. 
 
 Notice of Motion. How Made. 
 
 When a Member desires to give notice of a motion he 
 first fixes on the most convenient day, having reference to 
 the printed notices and orders of the day. At the meeting 
 of the House, he enters his name upon the notice-paper 
 which is placed upon the table. Each name upon this 
 paper is numbered ; and at half-past four the clerk having 
 put the numbers into a glass, draws them out one by one. 
 As each number is drawn the name of the Member to which 
 it is attached in the notice-paper is called by the Speaker. 
 Each member, in his turn, then rises and reads the notice 
 he is desirous of giving, and afterwards takes it to the table, 
 with a note of the day fixed, to the Clerk Assistant. On the 
 day named the Member rises and makes the motion. If 
 it be agreed to, the House either makes an order or ex- 
 presses a resolution. The order may have reference to a 
 variety of matters, as for reading a Bill a first, second, or 
 third time ; for referring it to a Select Committee ; for pro- 
 ducing papers ; for appointing a Select Committee to 
 examine into facts upon which a future Bill may be required, 
 and the like. 
 
 A motion may have reference to a variety of matters 
 besides the passing a Bill (in othej words, the enacting of a 
 law) : as, for instance, a Member may move for papers, 
 accounts, or statistics that is, he may propose that the 
 House make an order that certain papers be produced, 
 documents printed, statistics of numerical estimates pro- 
 
The House of Commons. 43 
 
 cured, and the like. Or again, a motion may be made 
 for the sole purpose of nominating a Committee of Members 
 of the House to investigate certain facts which are disputed 
 or which are unknown, or upon which it is difficult to get 
 Information without examining witnesses. Or again, a 
 motion may be made in the course of a debate for " ad- 
 journment" of the House that is, for proceeding to no 
 further business that day ; or for introducing a clause in the 
 matter to be voted upon by means of what is called an 
 " amendment." This will be recurred to again in speaking 
 of the passing of a Bill. 
 
 One prominent part of the general business of the House 
 is the merely asking questions of members of the Government 
 or other Members, as to their intentions to bring forward 
 certain measures, or to proceed with certain business. 
 Notice is given of these questions in the notice-paper, and 
 sometimes by the Member from his place in the House. 
 
 The House does not generally sit on Saturday, and 
 never on Sunday. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and 
 Fridays it sits from four o'clock till late at night, and some- 
 times till one or two o'clock the following morning. On 
 Wednesdays it sits from midday to six o'clock in the after- 
 noon. 
 
 Sometimes, towards the end of a session, when there is 
 a great pressure of business, the House sits twice a day, that 
 is, it has what is called a morning sitting, from twelve to 
 four, as well as an evening one, commencing at six. 
 
 The Passing of a Bill 
 
 The most important part of the business of the House 
 Of Commons is that of " Passing Bills" The whole pro- 
 ceeding of passing a Bill is as follows : 
 
 The first step is for the Member who proposes to intro- 
 duce a Bill on any subject to have it prepared, or, as it is 
 called, "drafted' that is, written out in the form he wishes 
 the Act to bear when it is passed, and printed. A Bill 
 
44 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 must have the names of at least two Members on the back 
 of it as approving it. A Bill can be brought in either by 
 private Members that is, Members not connected with the 
 Government or by Members of the Government. In the 
 latter case it is called a " Government measure." 
 
 The next step is a Motion " for leave to bring in the 
 Bill." Notice of this motion must of course be given, as 
 of all other motions, in the way above described. 
 
 If the Motion be agreed to (which is after a debate only 
 when the Bill is of a very exceptional character) the Bill 
 is ordered to be brought in, and this is generally done the 
 same day. On it being brought in and delivered to the 
 Clerk of the House, the Bill is said to have been " received 
 by the House." The first reading of the Bill takes place 
 without debate, and is merely formal. . This is seldom ob- 
 jected to, and the " short title " of the Bill is read aloud by 
 the Clerk. The Bill is then said to have been read fat first 
 time. It is to be noted that by Standing Orders of the 
 House, Bills having reference to (i) Religion, (2) Trade, 
 (3) the Public Revenue. (4) Granting Money to the Crown, 
 cannot be introduced without having been first considered 
 in a Committee of the whole House. Standing Orders are 
 permanent regulations for the discharge of the business of 
 the House, which it makes either for the protection of great 
 public interests, or for its own general convenience. In 
 great emergencies, as when time presses, it sometimes allows 
 them to be suspended. A Committee of the whole Hoitse is a 
 meeting of the whole House in a rather less formal manner 
 than usual. The Speaker leaves the chair, and some other 
 Member occupies it, and each Member can speak as often 
 as he pleases, instead of only once in each debate, as at 
 other times. 
 
 When the Bill has been read a first time, the question is 
 put, " That this Bill be read a second time." The second 
 reading is, however, not taken at that time ; a future day is 
 named, on which the Bill is ordered to be read a second 
 
The House of Commons. 45 
 
 time. When the day arrives, the Member in charge of the 
 Bill moves that it be read a second time. This is the most 
 important stage of the Bill, and is the stage at which Bills 
 wholly disapproved by the House are usually thrown out. 
 On making the motion, the Member at this time generally 
 enters into a full description of the measure, and into a 
 defence of it against all objections. Thereupon follows a 
 more or less close debate, in which each Member may speak 
 once, and as long as he likes, the proposer having the right 
 of reply after all the rest have done. If several Members 
 rise at once, the Speaker chooses which shall be heard, ac- 
 cording as one or another has first " caught his eye," as it 
 is said. There is no rule against long speeches, but if a 
 Member is over long or tedious, or otherwise irritating, the 
 House sometimes interrupts him by making a great noise. 
 
 After the bill is read a second time, a very important 
 stage has to be passed through. This is called "committing " 
 the Bill. It is ordered that the House resolve itself into a 
 Committee, on some future day, for the purpose of consider- 
 ing the details of the Bill. When the day comes the Speaker 
 leaves the chair, another member takes the chair, and the 
 Bill is gone through clause by clause, it being open to any 
 Member to propose any alteration he thinks fit, either by 
 omitting clauses, or putting in words, or putting in fresh 
 clauses. When the House cannot agree upon any point, a 
 division is taken, and the majority of vo'tes decides which 
 side shall prevail. The opinion of the house is taken, either 
 (as was described above) by the Members saying " Aye " or 
 " No," according as they do or do not want a proposed 
 change, or by their passing out of the House, and being 
 counted as they go out, as in favour of the change if they 
 pass through one door, or as against it if they pass through 
 another door. 
 
 There is one mode by which an actual vote on the 
 question at issue may be avoided without any decision on 
 its merits being thereby assumed to be made. At the close, 
 
46 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 or in the absence, of a debate, the Speaker, on the " previous 
 question " being moved, puts a question in the form " that 
 the question be now put." Those who wish to avoid an 
 issue being come to vote in the negative, and the rest in the 
 affirmative. The "previous question" is whether the debated 
 question shall be put. 
 
 When the Committee of the whole House has finally 
 determined on the shape which a Bill shall take, it is " re- 
 ported " to the House, and if amendments have been made 
 it is ordered to be considered at a future day, on which day 
 a motion is made that the Bill be read a third time, and 
 after that a motion is made " that this Bill do pass." If 
 this is agreed to, the Bill is held to be passed by the House 
 of Commons, and is sent up to the House of Lords to be 
 passed in a similar way there. It will have been seen that 
 the following are the different stages through which a Bill 
 passes : 
 
 1. Motion for leave to bring in the Bill. Order to bring 
 it in. 
 
 2. Motion to have Bill read a first time. Order that it 
 be read a first time. 
 
 3. Motion to have Bill read a second time. Order that it 
 be read a second time. 
 
 4. Motion to have the Bill " committed." Order that it 
 be committed." 
 
 5. Committee on details of Bill. Report of Committee. 
 
 6. Motion that Bill be read a third time. Motion that it 
 'bQ passed. Passing of a Bill and sending of it to House of 
 Lords. 
 
 When the House of Lords has considered the Bill, if it 
 makes no changes in it, nothing remains to be done but to 
 obtain the Royal Assent, that is, the assent of the Queen. 
 This is now-a-days never refused, and is, in fact, a purely 
 formal proceeding. 
 
 If the House of Lords makes any changes in the Bill, it 
 must go down to the House of Commons again, and the 
 
The House of Commons. 47 
 
 House of Commons must either accept the Lords' amend- 
 ments or reject them. If it accept them the Bill is ready for 
 the Royal Assent. If it reject them the Bill is lost unless 
 the House of Lords can be induced to give up their amend- 
 ments. In order to bring this about two practices are 
 resorted to one, that of sending the Bill back to the Lords 
 with the reasons for not accepting the amendments. This i? 
 the customary mode. The other practice (which is rare) is 
 that of requesting a Conference between the two Houses, that 
 is, a meeting of certain Members of both Houses for the 
 purpose of ascertaining the points of difference between the 
 Houses, and of thereby bringing the Houses into harmony. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the House cannot begin business 
 unless forty Members are present. It proceeds, whatever 
 number of Members are present, unless a Member "takes 
 notice" that forty Members are not present. If, on the 
 House being counted by the Speaker, this is found to be so, 
 the House is adjourned. At any time during the discussion 
 of the Bill, a Member may endeavour to get rid of it for the 
 session by moving "That it be read again this day six 
 months, or three months," choosing the date so as to make 
 it fall during the vacation. A Member may also suspend or 
 arrest a Bill for a time by moving that the matter with which 
 it deals be referred to a " Select Committee," that is, a small 
 body of not more than fifteen Members sitting apart. 
 
 Select Committees of the House sit every day for a variety 
 of purposes. They examine witnesses on oath, inspect 
 documents, and investigate minutely all the details of a 
 question. Upon completing the inquiry, they report to the 
 House upon the desirableness or inexpediency of any 
 legislation proposed. 
 
 The service on Select Committees, which sit during the 
 day, involves some of the most arduous work of the House 
 of Commons, as it is in addition to the attendance on the 
 evening debate. 
 
 Sometimes a difficult question, full of details, is similarly 
 
48 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 investigated by what is called a " Royal Commission" that 
 is, a body of men, generally including Members of the 
 Houses of Lords and Commons, specially chosen by the 
 Government. 
 
 The attendance of Members in the House of Commons 
 is very variable from day to day. Sometimes (that is, on 
 very important public occasions) as many as 500 are present : 
 at other times less than 100. Members generally attend 
 most when business is being done in which they themselves 
 or their constituencies are concerned, or when great party 
 votes are to be taken. 
 
 It will be understood that all Bills, with the exception of 
 those affecting taxation, way be proposed first in the House 
 ot Lords, though, in fact, comparatively few are. When a 
 Bill has been first carried in the House of Lords it is sent 
 down to the Commons, and has there to pass through all the 
 same stages which it would have to .pass if it had been 
 originally proposed there. 
 
 One important part of the work of both Houses of 
 Parliament is the receipt of Petitions. Any person in the 
 country, and any number of persons jointly, may petition the 
 House that is, .they signify t eir wishes with respect to any 
 Bill which is before the House, or about a matter upon 
 which it is expected or feared that a Bill will be presented, 
 and may pray the House to introduce, reject, or alter a Bill. 
 The petitions must be introduced by a Member of the 
 House, and must be signed by each of the persons who join 
 in sending them. Sometimes petitions have many thousands 
 of names attached, and they are said to have a certain 
 influence on the House. 
 
 Though it is the constitutional duty of all Members of 
 Parliament to attend the meetings of the House to which 
 they belong, yet it is only when special business is about to 
 be undertaken that means are taken to secure their presence. 
 The most effective method, though one rarely resorted to, 
 is what is termed a " call of the House." This is an order 
 
The House of Commons. 49 
 
 to have the Members of either House called over, when absent 
 Members, if not capable of excusing their absence, are liable 
 to be committed into custody or even fined. There is, how- 
 ever, no compulsory process by which Members can be 
 obliged to vote. 
 
 When a Member of the House of Commons desires to 
 remain in the country, he must in strictness apply to the 
 House for leave of absence, for which sufficient reasons must 
 be given. But, in practice, it is only necessary to do so when 
 serving on Committees. 
 
 Absent peers are entitled to vote by proxy, though the 
 use of proxies is suspended by a Standing Order of the 3ist 
 of March, 1868. Similarly, in both Houses, the system of 
 " pairing," by which two Members, who belong to opposed 
 parties, or are opposed to each other on particular questions, 
 agree to absent themselves at the same time, whether it 
 be for one sitting of the House, or for weeks or months, 
 is found very convenient, though it is not publicly recog- 
 nised. 
 
 Besides expressing assent or dissent by a vote, peers 
 may record their opinion and the grounds of it by a. protest, 
 which is entered in the Journals together with the names of 
 all the peers who concur in it. 
 
 Strangers that is persons not members of the House- 
 have no legal right to be admitted into either House while 
 it is sitting. They are, however, usually admitted by cour- 
 tesy into places set apart for their use, and admission can 
 be obtained on a Member's order if there is room enough. 
 It is competent for any Member of the House of Commons 
 to " take notice " of the presence of strangers, and they 
 can be excluded on a motion for their exclusion being 
 carried by voting without debate. These rules extend to 
 reporters. The exclusion of strangers is rarely resorted to. 
 
 Either House, if it desires to do so, can withhold a know- 
 ledge of its proceedings from the public, and can punish any 
 violation of its orders in this respect. It is not customary 
 
 E 
 
5O The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 for either House to object to bond fide reports of Parlia- 
 mentary proceedings, and indeed the utmost facilities are 
 afforded to newspaper reporters in both Houses. 
 
 A very important constitutional remedy against abuses 
 by ministers of the Crown, or by other persons in important 
 public situations, is that known as Impeachment. This 
 proceeding is almost disused at present, because of its cum- 
 brousness and the strong party feelings to which it gives 
 rise. It might, however, under some circumstances, be 
 revived. 
 
 An Impeachment is a judicial trial, by the House of 
 Lords, of a person accused, by the House of Commons, of 
 grave offences which the ordinary law cannot reach, through 
 its insufficiency or uncertainty, or in case of which it is ap- 
 prehended that the execution of the law will be corruptly 
 interfered with. The proceedings are lengthy and involved 
 owing to the number of persons who must necessarily take 
 part in them. Either a Peer or Commoner, in or out of the 
 House of Commons, may be impeached for any alleged 
 offence whatever. A motion is made by a Member of the 
 House of Commons that a person named be impeached ; 
 and if a resolution to this effect be agreed to, a Committee 
 is appointed to draw up the " Articles of Impeachment." 
 These Articles, together with the answers of the accused, 
 are communicated to the Lords, who fix a day for the trial 
 In the mean time the Commons appoint "managers" to 
 prepare evidence and conduct the proceedings, and desire 
 the Lords to summon all witnesses who are required to prove 
 the charges. The accused may have summonses issued to 
 his own witnesses, and is entitled to make his full defence 
 by Counsel. The trial has usually been held in Westminster 
 Hall, and resembles, in its proceedings, an ordinary criminal 
 trial. ]f the accused be found guilty, it is for the Commons 
 to demand judgment of the Lords, and the Commons reserve 
 to themselves the right of not pressing for judgment. The 
 
An Act of Parliament. 5 1 
 
 proceedings are not discontinued by reason of a Prorogation 
 or a Dissolution. It would seem that the Commons are 
 not obliged in their Articles to allege facts which, if true, 
 would really amount to the crime charged, as a condition of 
 proceeding with the Impeachment. It has already been 
 said that the proceedings cannot be arrested through tl it- 
 pleading of a Royal Pardon ; and the Bishops absent them- 
 selves under protest in the case of sentence of death being 
 pronounced. 
 
 GENERAL FORM AND STRUCTURE OF AN ACT 
 OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 It will be convenient to give in this place a brief and 
 general description of the form of an Act of Parliament 
 The form has been very different at different historical 
 periods, and it depends a good deal upon the taste and skill 
 of the person who prepares it, that is the " draughtsman ; " 
 though even the best and most elegantly drawn Act will 
 often lose all its perfections in this respect through changes 
 introduced in the course of the Debates upon it. The 
 general style now adopted is much simpler, shorter, and 
 le s verbose than at any former period. 
 
 An Act of Parliament usually consists of the following 
 parts, the " enacting clause," however, being the only one 
 which is essential, and always (with one exception) invariably 
 the same in form. 
 
 I. THE PREAMBLE. 
 
 This commences with Whereas, and recites the causes or 
 reasons of making the new law. Preambles used to be very 
 lengthy and almost apologetic in their language. They are 
 now generally as brief as possible, and say little more than 
 that "it is expedient" to make some change or other. In the 
 case of Acts granting money, a special sort of Preamble 
 : described below) is combined with the " enacting clause.'*' 
 
52 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 II. THE ENACTING CLAUSE. 
 
 This is in the form " Be it enacted by the Queen's Most 
 Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of 
 the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this 
 present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the 
 same." In the case of Acts granting money, this clause is 
 preceded by the following. 
 
 " Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 
 " We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal sub- 
 jects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled, towards 
 raising the necessary supplies to defray your Majesty's 
 public expenses, and making an addition to the public 
 revenue, have freely and voluntarily resolved to give and 
 grant unto your Majesty the several duties hereinafter 
 mentioned, and do therefore most humbly beseech your 
 Majesty that it may be enacted : " 
 
 III. SHORT TITLE OF ACT. 
 This is a brief section in the following form : 
 
 "This Act may be cited for all purposes as (e.g.) 'The 
 Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873,' or ' The Naturaliza- 
 tion Act, 1870,' or' The Bankruptcy Act, 1869.' " It is not 
 always convenient thus to give a short title to the Act, and 
 therefore this section is not always present. 
 
 IV. TIME OF COMMENCEMENT AND PLACES TO WHICH 
 
 THE ACT SHALL EXTEND. 
 
 Thus, in "The Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873," 
 the second section is " This Act, except any provision thereof 
 which is declared to take effect OH the passing of this Act, 
 shall commence and come into operation on the 2nd day of 
 November, 1874." 
 
 In " The Bankruptcy Act of 1869," the second section is 
 " This Act shall not, except in so far as is expressly provided, 
 apply to Scotland and Ireland." 
 
An Act of Parliamcn t. 53 
 
 The third section in this last-mentioned Act marks the 
 date of the commencement of the Act. 
 
 V. DEFINITION OF TERMS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 A section for this purpose is sometimes put it the be- 
 ginning of the Act and sometimes at the end. It is some- 
 times called, if consisting of one clause, the " Interpretation 
 Clause." It sometimes, however, consists of a large number 
 of clauses, and is described in the margin as the section 
 dealing with the " Interpretation of Terms," or " Definition 
 of Terms." Thus, in "The Public Health Act, 1848," this 
 section is the second, and is to the effect " that in the con- 
 "struction of this Act the following words and expressions 
 i- shall have the meanings hereby assigned to them, unless 
 " such meanings be repugnant to or inconsistent with the 
 " context or subject matter in which such words or expres- 
 " sions occur ; that is to say : 
 
 " Words importing the Singular number shall include the 
 " Plural number, and words importing the Plural number shall 
 " include the Singular number ; the word * Month ' shall mean 
 " * Calendar Month ;' the word ' House ' shall include schools, 
 " factories, and other buildings in which more than twenty 
 " persons are employed at one time." 
 
 In the Naturalization Act, 1871, this section is the lyth, 
 the last but one of the Act ; and in the Supreme Court of 
 Judicature Act, 1873, it is the looth and last section. 
 
 VI. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE ACT. 
 
 The substantial legislation contained in the Act is dis- 
 tributed into sections, which are all numbered, and each 
 section into clauses or paragraphs, which are not generally 
 numbered, except in cases where classification must take 
 place. Where the material is very cumbrous and perplexed, 
 as in "The Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1873," an ^ 
 "The Bankruptcy Act, 1869," it is customary to distribute 
 the whole Act into parts, each dealing with distinct subject 
 
54 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 matter, and to distribute each part again into such fresh 
 divisions as the variety of the matter suggests. A marginal 
 index gives a summarised account of the contents of every 
 clause. 
 
 VII. THE REPEALING SECTION. 
 
 If the Act wholly or in part repeals former Acts, a 
 section to that effect is inserted usually as the last section. 
 For the list of Acts repealed in whole or in part reference is 
 made to the Schedules. 
 
 VIII. THE SCHEDULES. 
 
 Acts of Parliament often contain Appendices which form 
 part of the Act, but which are more conveniently placed by 
 themselves. These Appendices or Schedules contain 
 catalogues, lists, enumerations, and names of places referred 
 to generally in the body of the Act, but for more precise 
 acquaintance with which reference is made to the Schedules. 
 The Act is printed by the Queen's Printers, and bears 
 date the year of the Queen's reign in which it is passed. 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES AND THE FORMATION 
 
 OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 For a long time past the Members of both Houses have 
 oeen accustomed to range themselves in large opposed 
 parties, all voting together in certain cases, and each member 
 of a party supporting all the other members of the same 
 party. The parties have had various names at different- 
 periods ; and their origin and continued existence are due 
 partly to historical causes, partly to differences of personal 
 temperament or disposition, partly to opposed views on the 
 most important political questions of the day. The oldest 
 names of the two parties are Whig and Tory, words of un- 
 certain, or, at least, disputed origin. The modern names for 
 these two parties respectively, are Liberal and Conservative. 
 The older names are, however, still occasionally used, though 
 
 I 
 
Political Parties. 5 5 
 
 frequently in an opprobrious sense. If it be recognised that 
 Orderand Progress, Preservation and Improvement, are each 
 needful for good and wise Government, then it may be said 
 that Order and Preservation are the ideas which direct the 
 policy of Tories and Conservatives, while Progress and 
 Improvement rather inspire the policy of the Whigs and 
 Liberals. Not, indeed, that either party, and still less that 
 the individual members of either party, are wholly wanting 
 in regard for the principles of their opponents. So often, 
 however, as these principles come into direct conflict with 
 their own, or seem to do so, then they prefer to base their 
 practical policy upon their own principles. 
 
 There are a few Members of Parliament, mostly in the 
 House of Commons, called Radicals. They are far more 
 indifferent to the maintenance of the state of things as it is 
 and long has been than are either of the other parties ; and 
 are less averse to introducing, as the public good seems to 
 require, the most sudden and far-reaching changes. Their 
 political influence in Parliament is mostly due to the power 
 of resistance or of help which they can give at any moment 
 they choose to whichever of the other parties seems likely 
 to help their immediate ends. They naturally incline, how- 
 ever, in sentiment rather to the Liberals than to the Con- 
 servatives. 
 
 In an assembly composed of such various, mixed, and 
 numerous elements as the House of Commons, it is only b> 
 what is called " party Government " and party organisation 
 that any continuous policy or consistent principles of 
 Government can be maintained even for a short period of 
 time. But for the tendency by which all individual dif- 
 ferences become merged and re-expressed in the fixed op- 
 position of large bodies of persons to one another, the result 
 of any division could be no certain clue to the mind of the 
 House, or, rather, the House could scarcelv be said to have 
 any mind at all. The majority of to-day might be the 
 minority of to-morrow, and the stability of every department 
 
56 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 of home and foreign policy would thus have no better security 
 than that of the dictate of a casual and fluctuating vote. The 
 moral effect on the Members themselves would be equally 
 injurious, the suggestions of self-will, caprice, or passion 
 taking the place of a common allegiance to clearly understood 
 principles, and of a generous and mutual reliance in pursuit 
 of a common aim. Not, indeed, that the claims of party 
 loyalty must or can stifle clear individual convictions, or 
 interfere with their expression on suitable occasions. But a 
 conscientious man and good patriot will be careful to put 
 his convictions to a severe test before he interprets them in 
 such a way that they prevent him joining in common action 
 with his usual associates ; and it will only be when he has 
 in vain striven to bring his own party over to his own views, 
 and he is convinced that the question is one in which 
 practical co-operation on his part would involve dishonesty 
 that he will reluctantly take the serious step of renouncing 
 his party and choosing his own path. "Hie nature and limits 
 of party loyalty have been well expressed by Edmund Burke in 
 his "Thoughts on the Causes of the Present Discontents :" 
 " Men thinking freely will, in particular instances, think 
 differently. But still as the greater part of the measures 
 which arise in the course of public business are related to, or 
 dependent on, some great, leading, general principles of govern- 
 ment, a man must be peculiarly unfortunate in the choice of 
 his political company, if he does not agree with them nine 
 times in ten. If he does not concur in the general princi- 
 ples upon which the party is founded, and which necessarily 
 draw on a concurrence in their application, he ought from 
 the beginning to have chosen some other, more conformable 
 to his opinions. When the question is in its .nature 
 doubtful, or not very material, the modesty which becomes an 
 individual and (in spite of our court moralists) that partiality 
 which becomes a well-chosen friendship, will frequently 
 bring on an acquiescence in the general sentiment. Thus 
 the disagreement will naturally be rare ; and it will only be 
 
Political Parties. 57 
 
 enough to indulge freedom without violating concord or 
 disturbing arrangement." 
 
 Some Members profess to belong to no party, and some- 
 times vote on one side and sometimes on the other. These 
 are called " Independent Members." Again, it is only some 
 questions which are considered as party questions, and with 
 respect to which all the Members of the same party vote 
 together, whatever be their individual opinions. Most of 
 the questions proposed by the Government (the name no\l 
 given to the Queen's Ministers as a body) are party questions, 
 on which all the Members who support the Government are 
 expected to vote in favour of the measure, and those who 
 belong to the opposite party to vote against it. | Itjs from 
 one or other of the great parties, that is, the Liberals or the 
 Conservatives, that the Queen chooses all her Ministers for 
 the time being. It depends upon which party has most 
 votes in the House whether the Ministers are chosen from 
 one party or from the other. The Ministers of the Queen, 
 with their supporters, sit on one side of the House, that is, 
 on the right hand of the Speaker, and are called the " Govern- 
 ment." The Members of the opposite party sit on the left 
 hand of the Speaker, that is, opposite the Members of the 
 Government, and are called the " Opposition." The " Inde- 
 pendent Members " sit on what are called " cross benches/' 
 
 The Opposition are usually highly organised among 
 themselves, and criticise searchingly all the measures intro- 
 duced by the Government, and the details of its adminis- 
 tration. If they think it expedient, they move for a reso- 
 lution of censure on some act of the Government, or of 
 general want of confidence. If such a motion be carried, 
 the Government resign. So when the measures of the 
 (rovernment have been voted against by constant majorities 
 of Members, or when a very important Bill of the Govern- 
 ment has been rejected, the members of the Government 
 hold that they have lost the confidence of the House and 
 resign their offices into the Queen's hands. Sometimes a 
 
5$ The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 motion of " Want of Confidence " in the Government 13 
 proposed and debated at length. If such a motion be 
 carried, the members of the Government resign as before. 
 
 When the members of the Government resign, it is cus- 
 .omary for the Queen to call upon some prominent member 
 of the opposite party to " form a Government" that is, to 
 invite a number of members of his party to join with him 
 in taking the different offices vacated by the members of 
 the " Government " going out. Sometimes it is very difficult, 
 or takes some days, to form a Government, and perhaps it 
 may be almost impossible to form one, owing to members 
 not being willing to co-operate with the proposed '* Prime 
 Minister," or to take the offices offered them. In this case, 
 the Queen often urges the members of the former Govern- 
 ment to remain in office, and they occasionally consent to do 
 this, and things go on for a time as before. 
 
 It is to be noted that the party struggle above described, 
 and the defeats of the Government, go on in the House of 
 Lords as well as in the House of Commons. There are 
 always members of the Government in both Houses. As, 
 however, there is far less business in the House of Lords 
 than in the House of Commons, and as popular passion is 
 less heated, most of the great party contests take place in the 
 House of Commons; and, since the majority of the members 
 of the House of Lords is always " Conservative," a Liberal 
 Government does not necessarily resign on account of de- 
 feats or votes of censure in that House. 
 
 The task of selecting a member who shall be asked, on 
 a resignation, to form a Government, is the most important 
 part of the Queen's personal work at the present day. though 
 it has long been the constitutional practice to resort first to 
 the most prominent member of the party which is in oppo- 
 sition to the retiring Government. The members of the 
 retiring Government continue to hold office till their suc- 
 cessors are actually appointed. 
 
Functions of t,\t Government. 59 
 
 The functions of the "Government" are twofold : 
 
 (1) They take a special part in directing the hgislative 
 work of Parliament by preparing Bills on public matters 
 affecting the whole community, or by joining to resist Bills 
 introduced by members not belonging to the Government 
 if they think the Bills not likely to be useful. 
 
 Thus some of the Bills introduced into the House are 
 called "Government'' Bills; others are Bills 'of Private 
 Members. 
 
 This is not the same distinction as that between a Public 
 and a Private Bill. A Private Bill is a Bill affecting solely the 
 interest of rome particular person or body of persons, and 
 not obviously that of the whole community. A Public Bill 
 is one in which the interests of the whole community are 
 affected. There is a difference in the procedure with respect 
 to " Public " and " Private " Bills, the House taking especial 
 cire in the case of Private Bills to ascertain by a judicial 
 process that no person is injuriously affected by it without 
 full consideration. 
 
 (2) The other function of the Government is purely 
 Executive. Every member of the Government is, with rare 
 exceptions, the head of a department of the public service, 
 and as such has definite work to do during the day. Further- 
 more, he has to suggest to the other members of the Govern- 
 ment the legislation needed in the matters' belonging to 
 his own department, and with their consent to prepare Bills 
 for introduction into the House to which he belongs. He 
 rrs also to be ready to answer questions relative to the 
 business of his department which may be put to him by any 
 Member of the House, and of which proper notice shall 
 have been previously given. 
 
 An important part of the work of a member of the 
 Government is the reception of Deputations at his office, 
 that is, receiving a number of persons who have some 
 grievance to complain of, or some request with respect to 
 legislation to prefer, in the matters relating to his depart- 
 
60 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 ment. In such a case a few of the persons attending make 
 speeches in turn, explaining what they complain of or want, 
 and the minister replies, saying that he either agrees or 
 disagrees or partially agrees with the speakers, and possibly 
 saying what he will do in the future. Members of Parlia- 
 ment generally accompany and take part in the Deputations. 
 
 The formal meetings of all the members of the Govern- 
 ment are called " Cabinet Councils/' They take place at 
 irregular intervals, according to the pressure of business. 
 
 It is at these councils that all the joint acts and general 
 policy of the Government are debated and resolved upon. 
 It is here that the form of the Queen's Speech is agreed upon 
 and settled.* 
 
 THE MEMBERS OF THE CABINET AND 
 OTHER CHIEF OFFICERS OF THE EXE- 
 CUTIVE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 It is a matter of some dispute how far the " Cabinet," 
 as a select body of the Queen's ministers, is a recognised 
 part of the Constitution. The Cabinet would seem to 
 be in that semi-congealed condition in which institutions 
 appear when they have come to be practically recog- 
 nised, but not yet formally and openly adopted. For a 
 long time the Privy Council represented the only body of 
 persons who were responsible for the acts of the Crown, 
 and it was even attempted by the Act of Settlement t 
 to make each member of the Council sign the govern- 
 mental acts for which he was personally responsible It 
 nas been found, however, by a long course of experience, 
 
 * Seep. IL 
 
 t See Appendix A, p. 216. 
 
The Executive Government. 6 1 
 
 that there is a. fixed tendency in the Crown -to select as its 
 advisers from time to time a body of persons less numerous 
 and more confidential than all the public functionaries who 
 are together designated as the " Privy Council." The diffi- 
 culty has been to prevent the Crown reposing its confidence 
 in persons whose identity is not clearly ascertained, and 
 who are not directly under the control of, and responsible 
 to, Parliament. The modern " Cabinet " is, in fact, an exe- 
 cutive committee, appointed by the dominant majority in 
 both Houses of Parliament, and acting as a private and 
 permanent council of advice to the Crown. It is, in fact, 
 chosen, and its numbers determined, by the Prime Minister, 
 The Cabinet now invariably includes the following officers : 
 
 1. The First Lord of the Treasury. 
 
 2. The Lord Chancellor. 
 
 3. The Lord President of the Council. 
 
 4. The Lord Privy Seal. 
 
 5. The Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 6. The Secretary of State for Home Affairs. 
 
 7. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 8. The Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
 
 9. The Secretary of State for India. 
 
 10. The Secretary of State for War. 
 
 A number of other officers of the Government frequently 
 have seats in the Cabinet, those most frequently admitted 
 being : 
 
 11. The Chief Commissioner of Works and Buildings. 
 
 12. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
 13. The First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 
 14. The President of the Board of Trade. 
 
 15. The President of the Local Government Board 
 (until lately called the Poor Law Board}. 
 
 1 6. The Postmaster-General. 
 
 17. The Chief-Secretary for Ireland. 
 
 1 8. The Vice-President of the Council 
 
62 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Taking each of the members of the Cabinet in order, so 
 as to explair their functions, we have : 
 
 i. The First Lord of the Treasury. 
 
 This office is now invariably held by the head of the 
 Government or Prime Minister. The holder of it receives 
 5,ooo/. a year. He selects the other members of the Cabinet 
 in the way before explained. He dispenses nearly all the 
 patronage. of the Government that is, he chooses nearly 
 all the persons who shall hold offices of all sorts under 
 Government, subject to such rules as may be made from 
 time to time with respect to conferring appointments through 
 competitive examination. The Prime Minister is held gene- 
 rally responsible for all the acts of his Cabinet. If he finds 
 he cannot agree with members of his Cabinet, either he 
 and they must resign together or the members disagreeing 
 with him must withdraw from the Cabinet. 
 
 The office of the Treasury, over which the First Lord 
 presides, is administered by the following persons : 
 
 1. First Lord. 
 
 2. The Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 I Two Lords Commissioners with 2,ooo/. a year each, 
 and one Lord Commissioner without a salary. 
 
 The work of the office is the receipt and payment of 
 public money. Thus all public taxes are paid in to the 
 account of the " Exchequer," which is, in fact, though not in 
 name, a department of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer being one of the Treasury Board. The supplies 
 for the Army, Navy, and Civil Service are issued under the 
 authority of the Treasury. All the expenses of carrying out 
 the Law, and of prosecuting criminals, are examined by the 
 Treasury. The Treasury has general control over all other 
 departments of the public service in which public money is 
 
The. Executive Government. 63 
 
 collected or spent as the Board of Customs, Inland Revenue, 
 and the Post-office.* 
 
 The Treasury Board now seldom meet, and the work of 
 examining expenses and paying salaries is discharged either 
 by the Junior Lords or by the Secretaries. 
 
 2. The Lord Chancellor. 
 
 This functionary is the head of the Legal and Judicial 
 Department of the Government. He nominates, for appoint- 
 ment by the Treasury, all the Judges both in the superior 
 and inferior courts in the country. He consults with the 
 other members of the Cabinet with respect to Bills to be 
 introduced into the House of Lords for making important 
 and comprehensive changes in the law. 
 
 He is a very ancient and highly dignified officer, though 
 his functions in the Government are now very few and 
 insignificant. He is the Chief Judge in the High Court of 
 Justice and in the Court of Appeal, and usually presides in 
 the House of Lords. It is he who affixes the " Great Sea'i" 
 where it is required to give validity to Acts of the Crown. 
 He is appointed by the Crown on the advice of the First 
 Lord of the Treasury. His salary is io,ooo/. 
 
 3. The Lord President of the Council. 
 
 This is in the present day an almost honorary office, 
 that is, there is little work of necessity attaching to it. The 
 Council is the " Privy Council," at one time, as has been 
 already seen, an important body of the Sovereign's advisers, 
 but now, except for the purposes stated below and a few 
 ceremonies, obsolete, except in name. The members of 
 the Privy Council are very numerous, every member of 
 the Cabinet being a Privy Councillor, and continuing such 
 for life. There are certain small committees, or select bodies, 
 
 * See Appendix B 
 
64 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 of Privy Councillors which are of considerable importance. 
 Such are : 
 
 (i.) The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, con- 
 sisting of about seven or eight members, who form a Court 
 of Appeal for cases decided in the Colonies and India, and 
 for Ecclesiastical cases decided in this country. This Court 
 has lately been reconstructed, and, when complete, will 
 include the four Lords of Appeal in Ordinary. (See 
 p. 82.) 
 
 (2.) The Committee for Education, the purpose of which 
 is, to ascertain the condition upon which State help shall be 
 given for the education of the poor, and to regulate the 
 working of certain Acts of Parliament with reference to 
 National Education. 
 
 (3.) The Board of Trade. The Board of Trade is 
 strictly a Committee of the Privy Council. Its chief officers 
 are : 
 
 1. A President, salary 2,ooo/. 
 
 2. A Permanent Secretary, salary i,5oo/. 
 
 3. A Parliamentary Secretary, salary i,9oo/. 
 
 Its functions are very miscellaneous. It is consulted when 
 any work is to be undertaken by Governmem, in which the 
 general interests of Trade are concerned. The following 
 matters are especially laid before it : 
 
 1. The negotiation of Commercial Treaties. 
 
 2. Alterations in the " Excise " Laws ; that is, the laws 
 affecting inland taxation, as assessed on certain things, as 
 on sale of spirits, malt, beer, tea, and tobacco. 
 
 3. Bills relating to railways, canals, docks, harbours. 
 The Board reports upon them. 
 
 4. Statistics respecting the extent of commerce, manu- 
 factures, and produce. 
 
 5. The supervision of the construction and working of 
 Railways. 
 
 6. The regulation of the examination of masters ard 
 mates of foreign-going vessels, and the registration of seamen. 
 
The Executive Government. 65 
 
 4.T/ie Lord Privy Seal. 
 
 The Lord Privy Seal is the keeper of one o! the Seals 
 of the Crown, used to give authority to certain classes of 
 documents. It was used by Elizabeth and by some of her 
 predecessors to give authority to modes of taxing the people 
 under the guise of raising voluntary loans, when the 
 Sovereign attempted to tax without authority of Parliament. 
 The other seals are (i) the Great Seal already mentioned ; 
 (2) the " Signet," or Seal used for the Queen's private letters. 
 The office is now almost wholly an honorary one. 
 
 5. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 
 This minister is chief of the department called the Ex- 
 chequer^ that is, the department concerned with collecting 
 the taxes. The chief business of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer is preparing for the House of Commons a state- 
 ment of the contemplated expenses of the year, and devising 
 a scheme of taxation. This statement is produced some 
 time in April, and is called " the Budget." The Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer usually introduces some changes in the 
 taxes from year to year, according to the amount of the last 
 year's or the coming year's expenses, and to the amount de- 
 rived from a particular tax in, the last year.* 
 
 6. The Secretary of State for the Home Department 
 originally " The Secretary of State" 
 
 This official has the following departments under his 
 special control : 
 
 1 . The Police. 
 
 2. The General Administration of justice; whereby if 
 any prisoner has been wrongfully convicted, it is always in 
 the power of the Home Secretary (when the matter is 
 
 * See, afterwards, "Taxation and the Revenue," and Appendix B. 
 
 F 
 
C6 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 brought to his notice) to recommend the Queen to " pardon " 
 him, on the principles already described. 
 
 3. The " Signet " Office, in which the instruments for 
 making certain grants and appointments are prepared. 
 
 The Home Secretary has a quantity of multifarious work 
 to do with respect to furnishing information to Parliament; 
 issuing Commissions of Inquiry, protecting Public Health and 
 Public Order, and preventing Crimes. He sees that the sen- 
 tences of Criminal Courts are rigidly carried out. He 
 appoints Inspectors of Prisons, and approves of rules for their 
 regulation. 
 
 l.The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 This minister conducts all the correspondence between 
 the Government and English Ambassadors in Foreign States, 
 sending messages through the Ambassadors to the Govern- 
 ments of those States. He is also the organ of communi- 
 cation between the Government and Foreign Ambassadors 
 resident in this country. He expounds to the House of 
 Commons or to the House of Lords (to whichever he 
 belongs) the state of relations of this country with foreign 
 States from time to time, and, if difficulties arise, explains 
 the policy of Government with respect thereto. Similarly 
 he answers questions of Members of Parliament with respect 
 to foreign affairs. He grants Passports to British citizens 
 travelling abroad, and provides for their protection when 
 travelling or resident abroad. In the event of a war or of a 
 Treaty being made, it is he who explains the circumstances 
 to Parliament, and either asks fpr money to carry on the 
 war, or invites the concurrence of the House in the terms of 
 the Treaty. He nominates all Ambassadors, Consuls, and 
 other Diplomatic Representatives in foreign countries.* 
 
 8. Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
 
 This minister conducts all the correspondence of Govern- 
 ment \vith the Governors of British Colonies, which are very 
 
 * Appendix C. 
 
The Executive Government. 67 
 
 numerous, important, and widely scattered. He answers all 
 questions in the House respecting Colonial matters. Where 
 the Colonies have local Legislatures, he advises the Crown 
 as to such of their Acts as cannot become law without the 
 Royal assent ; and where they have no such Legislatures, 
 he organises a Government for them. He appoints all 
 Colonial Governors, and directs their action as occasion 
 requires. He consults with his colleagues as to the intro- 
 duction of Bills into the House of Lords or Commons 
 affecting the Colonies, and explains the purpose of such 
 Bills to the House to which he belongs. 
 
 9. Secretary of State for India. 
 
 This minister does very much the same in respect of 
 Indian matters that the Secretary of State for the Colonies 
 does in respect of them. He is assisted, though not abso- 
 lutely controlled, by a Council of fifteen members, consisting 
 chiefly of persons who have occupied distinguished positions 
 in the public service in India. 
 
 10. Secretary of State for War. 
 
 This minister proposes and explains all Bills affecting 
 the constitution and management of the Army. He 
 submits to Parliament the estimates and expenses for the 
 current year. He has the general civil administration of 
 the Army, as distinguished from the military command, 
 which belongs to the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 ii. The Chief Commissioner of Works. 
 
 The Board of Works and Public Buildings consists cf 
 the Chief Commissioner (salary 2,ooo/.) and the President 
 and Vice-President of the Board of Trade, who are ex-officio 
 Commissioners. The duties of the Board are the erection 
 
 F 2 
 
68 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 and repair of Royal Palaces and of the buildings used for 
 various branches of Government ; the management of 
 public museums and parks ; the making of new streets and 
 roads, and other public works and structures. 
 
 12. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
 The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster holds a 
 purely sinecure office, though he often has a seat in the 
 Cabinet. This affords a useful means of retaining a 
 Minister whose counsels may be valuable, but who may 
 not be able through want of health to superintend an 
 administrative department. The Duchy Chamber of 
 Lancaster over which the Chancellor or his deputy presides 
 has a special jurisdiction in relation to lands held of the 
 Crown in right of the Duchy of Lancaster. 
 
 13. First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 
 This minister has much the same to do in respect 
 of the Navy that the Secretary of War has to do in respect 
 of the Army. 
 
 There are six Lords of the Admiralty, of which the 
 above-named minister is the first. 
 
 The Admiralty has a variety of functions to discharge, 
 as that of managing and distributing naval prize-money 
 (that is, the value of ships captured in war) ; raising and 
 maintaining the forces employed in the Navy and Coast- 
 guard ; controlling the construction of piers and harbours ; 
 repairing and building ships, as directed by the Government ; 
 making contracts for the hire of vessels and supply of stores. 
 
 14. President of the Board of Trade. 
 
 The functions of this minister have already been indicated 
 in the description of the Board of Trade as a department of 
 the Privv Council. 
 
The Executive Government. 69 
 
 15. President of the Local Government Board. 
 
 This minister recommends to Parliament all legislation 
 for the purpose of promoting public health, convenience, 
 or the relief of the poor, by the institution and management of 
 "Local Boards," elected by the ratepayers of districts through- 
 out the country. The Central Board has to approve of 
 the rules made by the Local Boards, and in some cases 
 to press their formation, and generally to supervise and con- 
 trol the Boards. 
 
 The Local Government Board consists of a President, 
 salary 2,ooo/. ; Permanent Secretary, salary i,5oo/. ; Parlia- 
 mentary Secretary, salary i,5oo/. This was, up to 1871, 
 called the Poor Law Board. The functions of the Board are 
 in course of becoming largely extended. 
 
 The following are the sorts of purposes for which Boards 
 under the control of the Local Government Board are at 
 present constituted : 
 
 i. Relief of the Poor. 
 
 2. Promoting of Sanitary Arrangements, Removing 
 Sewage, Providing for Cleanliness, Building Hospitals. 
 
 3. Making and Repairing Roads. 
 
 4. Making Bridges, Cane Is, Viaducts. 
 
 5. Lighting and Improving Streets. 
 
 6. Preventing Smoke, and other nuisances. 
 
 The Local Government Board, in London, has a general 
 supervision over the Local Boards. Its special functions 
 are as follows : 
 
 1. To appoint Inspectors, upon whose report Local 
 Boards may be established, even against the wishes of the 
 majority of the ratepayers. 
 
 2. To regulate the election of Local Boards, as by fixing 
 the number of the members. 
 
 3. To appoint certain officers in connection with the 
 Public Health and the Relief of the Poor, as : 
 
7O The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 1. Medical Officers. 
 
 2. Registrars. 
 
 3. Surveyors. 
 
 4. Overseers of the Poor. 
 
 4. To regulate Public Vaccination. 
 
 5. To provide for the building and management of Houses 
 for the Reception of the Poor; also for the Education of 
 Children in those houses, and for the care of the Sick.* 
 
 1 6. Postmaster-General. 
 
 This minister is the head of the whole letter-carrying and 
 telegraph service in the country. He appoints all sub- 
 ordinate officials. He recommends Bills to Parliament for 
 facilitating the transmission of letters or altering the price 
 of postage (where not left to his discretion). In his name 
 are made all contracts with carriers for the conveyance of 
 letters and packages. 
 
 The Post-Office is a large institution for carrying letters 
 and small parcels all over the kingdom and to foreign 
 countries. With the Post-Office are now connected : 
 
 1. The inland Telegraph system. 
 
 2. The Money- Order system, by which people 'can send 
 money from one part of the country to the other, and to 
 some foreign countries or the English Colonies, by merely 
 paying it into the Post-Office, and sending an order to their 
 correspondent, which is presented and paid at the Post- 
 Office nearest him. 
 
 3. A system of Savings Banks, by which small sums 
 can be put in, and a small rate of interest is given. A system 
 of Government Annuities is also attached to the Post-Office. 
 
 17. Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
 
 The Chief Secretary for Ireland (salary 4,ooo/.) is the 
 Chief Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in Dublin 
 
 * See, afterwards, " Local Government." 
 
Government Offices. /i 
 
 and London. He is the chief medium in one of the 
 Houses of Parliament (generally the House of Commons) 
 between the Irish Government and the House, and, assisted 
 by the Irish Law Officers, has to advocate all measures 
 needed for the maintenance of public order in Irelano 
 and the general improvement of the country, and to defend 
 them against objections. 
 
 1 8. The Vice- President of the Privy Council. 
 
 The functions of this official can be understood from 
 what has been said of those of the Lord President of the 
 Council. As the Lord President is always a member of the 
 House of Lords, the Vice-President represents the Privy 
 Council Board, especially the Education Board, in the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 CERTAIN SPECIAL GOVERNMENT OFFICES. 
 Civil Service Commission. 
 
 The Civil Service Commission consists of : 
 
 1. First Commissioner, salary i,5oo/. 
 
 2. Seconcf Commissioner, salary i,2oo/. 
 
 Their functions are to provide for the admission and 
 examination of candidates for employment in Government 
 offices. It depends upon the several Government offices 
 themselves whether they will or will not adopt the scheme 
 of the Commissioners. In some offices the appointments 
 are open to general competition ; in others the appointments 
 are not open to competition, though upon nomination an 
 examination has generally to be passed. 
 
 The Charity Commission. 
 
 The Charity Commission consists of : 
 i Unpaid Commissioner. 
 
 1 Chief Commissioner, salary T,5oo/. 
 
 2 Commissioners, salary i,2oo/. each. 
 
J 2 77te Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Their work is : 
 
 1. Generally to supervise the management of, and occa- 
 sionally to reconstruct, charitable institutions which have 
 been endowed, that is, have had funds given and left to 
 them for ever. 
 
 2. To give authority to the trustees of such institutions 
 to sell or buy land, to make leases, and generally to deal 
 with the funds of the charity. 
 
 Such institutions are endowed poor-houses, hospitals, 
 and schools. 
 
 The Lunacy Commission 
 
 Consists of six Commissioners, with salaries of i,5oo/. 
 Their work is : 
 
 1. To inspect and license all buildings used for the con 
 finement of lunatics. 
 
 2. To secure lunatics in every way against abuses, either 
 through undue detention or cruelty. 
 
 3. To provide that proper lunatic asylums, or houses for 
 the confinement of lunatics, are built in places needing 
 them. 
 
 The Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commission. 
 
 The " Ecclesiastical Commission " at present consists of 
 the Archbishops and Bishops, and a limited number of Cabinet 
 Ministers, Judges, Deans, and eminent laymen. 
 
 The " Church Estates Commission " consists of two paid 
 Commissioners (salaries i,2oo/. and i,ooo/.), and one unpaid 
 Commissioner. 
 
 The purpose of both these Commissions is to maintain a 
 standing body of responsible trustees of funds or other 
 property which, under different Acts of Parliament, or 
 otherwise, arise from the sale, or surrender of Church 
 property. The Commissioners have special powers given 
 them of dealing with the funds placed in their hands in 
 carrying out general ecclesiastical objects prescribed and 
 limited by law. Such are the increase of poor livings, the 
 building and repairing of churches, the foundation of new 
 bishoprics and the like. 
 
National Debt. 73 
 
 The Mint and Coinage Department 
 
 Has for its purpose the coining of money. It is under the 
 superintendence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 The National Debt Office 
 
 Is concerned with the reduction of the National Debt. The 
 National Debt is very large, amounting to about 760,000, ooo/. 
 Some of it is constantly being paid off. It has arisen through 
 the borrowing of money to carry on war. The yearly interest 
 is abont 26,ooo,ooo/. 
 
 When a nation finds itself engaged in war, there are two 
 modes in which it can provide itself with money for the 
 purpose : one is by additional taxation, which is called 
 raising the money " within the year ; " the other is by a loan. 
 In the last case, the money may be lent by persons who are 
 members of the borrowing State or of any other State. The 
 borrowing State usually pledges its honour and credit to re- 
 pay the principal within some time named, and, till repay- 
 ment, to pay a fixed amount of interest regularly. This 
 interest is raised by taxation, and often absorbs, as in England, 
 a large share of the taxes. The liability to pay the interest 
 and to repay the principal passes on from one generation to 
 another ; and as a State always holds itself entitled to charge 
 posterity in this way in order to carry on a necessary and 
 just war (or what it holds to be such), so each generation is 
 held morally bound to recognise the debts contracted by 
 a previous generation. 
 
 It is always a question whether the State at any given 
 time should make special exertions to pay off the National 
 Debt which has been transmitted to it. This must depend 
 upon the comparative easiness of the terms upon which the 
 money can be borrowed or obtained for the purpose, upon 
 what access of taxation can be submitted to, and upon whether 
 or not a better period for making such exceptional efforts 
 seems likely soon to be at hand. The whole amount of the 
 debt, looked at from the creditors' point of view, as a claim, 
 and in which each creditor has a certain share, is called 
 
74 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 transferred from one person to another with the utmost 
 facility, and command a price in the market, which varies, 
 like other saleable things, according to the supply and de- 
 mand, that is the quantity at any time for sale and the 
 number of persons wishing to purchase. The interest is 
 generally about 3 per cent. Any circumstance which might 
 affect the security of the country, or which might make it likely 
 that the Government should need a fresh loan, and therefore 
 might induce creditors in respect of the existing National 
 Debt generally to sell their shares in order to buy more 
 valuable shares in the new stock, tends to make the price of 
 stock as it is called " go down." The opposite class of cir- 
 cumstances tend to make the price go up. The price of 
 ioo/. stock at 3 or 3! per cent, interest generally varies at 
 the present day from 897. to 93/. The National Debt was 
 little over half a million at the time of the accession ot 
 William III. in 1689. Over 15,000,0007. debt was added in 
 his reign. Over i20,ooo,ooo/. debt was contracted during 
 the war with the American Colonies commencing 1775. 
 Over 6oo,ooo,ooo/. debt was contracted during the French 
 war commencing in 1793. 
 
 One mode of reducing the debt practised of late has 
 been by converting a portion of it into that is, by selling 
 annuities for terms of years or for the duration of a certain 
 & amber of lives. In this way the interest is increased while 
 the annuities last ; but when they expire, the part of the 
 debt which they represented is extinguished with them.* 
 
 Patent Office. 
 
 A Patent right is the right of some one to produce and 
 sell the result of a valuable invention, without other persons 
 being allowed to produce and sell it. It is granted for a 
 certain number of years. The invention must be new and 
 useful. The " Patent " has to be described in a written 
 paper, which is deposited under the care of the Government, 
 and the Patent is registered. 
 
 * Appendix D 
 
Government Offices. 75 
 
 The management of this is committed to the above 
 office, under the care of the " law officers," that is, the re- 
 sponsible legal advisers, of the Crown. 
 
 Public Record Office. 
 
 This office has the care of all the public documents of 
 the State. Of these there is an enormous number, dating 
 from very ancient times. They are now deposited in a 
 great building in Fetter Lane. A number of clerks (men 
 and women) are attached to the office, and are daily em- 
 ployed in making catalogues of the records, and in assisting 
 persons who wish to consult portions of them. 
 
 Office of the Registrar of Friendly Societies. 
 
 By certain Acts of Parliament, persons joining togethei 
 for mutual assurance against the pecuniary accidents of sick- 
 ness, age, or death, can, by complying with certain rules, 
 become registered, the effect of which is that they can be 
 treated as corporate bodies, and bring actions at law, or 
 hold property. The object of this registration is to afford a 
 protection to ignorant or incautious persons against societies 
 having a fraudulent purpose or based on unsound economical 
 principles. The principle of these societies is that every 
 member pays in a certain sum every week, month, or year, 
 and if he becomes ill, or unable to work through age, he 
 receives a large weekly or monthly payment from the common 
 fund, or his family receives a sum on his death. 
 
 Commissioners of Woods and Forests. 
 
 These are persons who manage the Woods and Forests 
 belonging to the Crown, that is to the State. Their function 
 is to appoint subordinate keepers and servants, as may be 
 needed, and to make the regulations under which the public 
 shall make use of the Woods and Forests. They also have 
 to undertake all business connected with selling wood, or 
 selling, exchanging, or purchasing lands, forming, or to form, 
 port'ons of the Crown Woods and Forests. 
 
76 TJie Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Customs Inland Revenue. 
 
 The two offices to which these departments belong are 
 concerned with the Public Revenue of the State. The 
 Customs is that part of the Public Revenue which is de- 
 rived from foreign imports of all sorts, as spirits, tea, tobacco, 
 wine, and all the foreign products which are taxed on being 
 introduced into this country. 
 
 The Inland Revenue includes the part of the National 
 Revenue which is derived from all other sources, as the 
 income tax, excise (that is, a tax on home products, as home- 
 made spirits, malt, and certain other like things), and Stamps 
 and Duties, that is, payments to Government on certain trans- 
 actions or events, as (i) succeeding to landed property on the 
 death of the last owner, (2) taking money by Will, (3) mak- 
 ing certain transfers and contracts.* 
 
 Education, Science, and Art. 
 
 This office (i) makes grants to schools in certain cases. 
 It also controls the South Kensington Museum, which con- 
 tains scientific and artistic specimens, and in which public 
 lectures are given, under the control of the Government, on 
 scientific and artistic subjects. 
 
 The Government offices are all independent one of 
 another, though, for the management of some of them, certain 
 of the individual members of the Cabinet are (as has been 
 seen) directly responsible. Thus the Prime Minister is the 
 First Lord of the Treasury Board, and the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer is also one of the Board. The Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer is now head of the Department of the Mint. 
 He is also responsible, as representing the Treasury Board, 
 for the management of the National Debt Office, the 
 Customs, and the Inland Revenue. The Post Office is 
 subject to the superintendence of the Postmaster General, 
 though the monetary side of it, as an instrument of revenue, 
 is under the control of the Treasury, represented by the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 * See, afterwards, "Taxation and the Revenue." 
 
Judicial Organisation. 77 
 
 The Patent Office is undek the general control of the 
 Treasury, with the assistance of the Law Officers of the Crown, 
 
 Commissioners in every case sit by the force of the 
 Royal Commission under which they are appointed, and are 
 wholly independent of any Minister of the Crown. It is 
 true that the Cabinet always nominates the Commissioners, 
 in the Queen's name. 
 
 yUDICIAL ORGANISATION. 
 
 The subject of the Judicial Organisation of England may 
 be divided into that relating to the Superior Courts and 
 that relating to the Inferior Courts. The former differs from 
 the latter (i) (as to civil cases) in the amount of money at 
 stake in the causes tried in them ; (2) in the degree of 
 perplexity of the legal questions involved ; or (if the matter 
 of investigation be a crime) in the magnitude of the crime, 
 and, therefore, of the penalty. One function of some of 
 the Inferior Courts (as Police Courts and Courts of Petty 
 Sessions) is to take the initial steps in a Proceeding the full 
 conduct of which belongs to a Superior Court. 
 
 SUPERIOR COURTS. 
 
 The present must be regarded as a peculiarly transitional 
 period in the growth of Judicial Organisation in this country, 
 especially as concerns the Superior Courts. The most 
 vital changes have been recently made in the structure, 
 procedure, and mutual relations of all the Superior Courts, 
 but the names and formal jurisdiction of these several 
 Courts are preserved as much as possible. The great 
 instruments of change have been the " Supreme Court of 
 Judicature Acts" of 1873. 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1881, and 
 the " Appellate Jurisdiction Act " of 1876. 
 
 To understand the nature of the alterations made by 
 
S 77ie Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 this Act and the present condition of things, it is necessary 
 to notice that up to the time of the Act coming into force, 
 the following were the Superior and Central Courts of 
 Justice ; with the Judges appertaining to each Court or 
 group of Courts. 
 
 THE COURT OF CHANCERY, with seven Judges, in- 
 cluding the Lord Chancellor ; the two Lords Justices of 
 Appeal; the Master of the Rolls (an official of high 
 antiquity, originally the keeper of the Rolls on which the 
 King's grants were entered, or even occasionally of the 
 Great Seal, and assessor of the Lord Chancellor, and still 
 chief of the department of Public Records) ; and three 
 Vice-Chancellors. 
 
 THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH, with five Judges, 
 including the " Lord Chief Justice of England " and four 
 " puisne " Judges. 
 
 THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, with five Judges, 
 including a " Lord Chief Justice " and four puisne Judges. 
 
 THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER, with five Judges, includ- 
 ing a " Lord Chief Baron " and four " Barons of the Ex- 
 chequer." 
 
 THE HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY, with one Judge. 
 
 THE COURT OF PROBATE. ~] With one 
 
 THE COURT FOR DIVORCE AND MATRI- > "Judge in 
 MONIAL CAUSES. J ordinary." 
 
 THE LONDON COURT OF BANKRUPTCY, with one " Chief 
 Judge." 
 
 The rules of Law administered in the classes of causes in 
 respect of which the COURT OF CHANCERY had exclusive or 
 concurrent jurisdiction have been long named " Equity " as 
 opposed to the rules of Law administered in all the other 
 Courts and called " Common Law." So also any division 
 of t?he Court of Chancery is often called a "Court of Equity." 
 
 The opposition between " Common Law " and " Equity," 
 as species of Law, is originally an historical one, and grew 
 out of the different classes of Courts in which justice was 
 administered. This distinction of Courts was due to the 
 
Judicial Organisation. 79 
 
 King's Head Secretary, or " Chancellor," interfering, as 
 occasion required, to correct the hardships or supply the 
 defects of the Law as administered in the ordinary Courts. 
 In modern times the Court of Chancery greatly enlarged 
 its jurisdiction, and drew within its cognizance large 
 classes of matters (especially those involving questions of 
 Fraud, Trust, or the cross claims of a large number of 
 persons) which seemed to demand, for their judicial settle- 
 ment, a kind of discretionary power which could not usefully 
 be conceded to a Jury, or which was alien to the con- 
 stitution of the Common Law Courts. The rules of Equity 
 are, however, now as fixed and unswerving as rules of 
 Common Law. 
 
 It is to be observed that the expression " Common Law " 
 is often also used to express all that part of the law of Eng- 
 land which is not made by Statute ; that is by Acts of Par- 
 liament.* 
 
 The Court of Chancery was subdivided into a number 
 of Component Courts, of Original Jurisdiction and of Appeal. 
 The Courts of original Jurisdiction were severally presided 
 over by the Lord Chancellor, the Master of the Rolls, and 
 each of the Vice-Chancellors. The two Lord Justices, and 
 the Lord Chancellor, constituted a variety of co-ordinate 
 Courts of Appeal, according as they sat together or separately. 
 
 For some time past there has been an increasing tendency, 
 strengthened by the operation of Acts of Parliament, to 
 recognise in Courts of Common Law, where it was con- 
 ducive to the ends of justice, the rules of Law (that is 
 the principles of " Equity,") recognised in Courts of Equity. 
 One of the most important changes brought about by the 
 Supreme Court of Judicature Acts is concerned with 
 getting rid entirely of the practical inconveniences following 
 from the distinction between Law and Equity, and so, 
 gradually, of the distinction itself. This is achieved by (i) 
 according to each Judge, in every division of the new 
 Court constituted by the Act. jurisdiction in all matters 
 whatever, irrespective of the class of Courts to which alone 
 * See pp. 1 08, 109. 
 
So The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 they could have been referred previous to the Act coming 
 into force; (2) enabling every Judge to grant, in respect 
 of any matter before him, every kind of remedy and relief 
 which could previously have been obtained in any Court ; 
 and (3) facilitating to the utmost, and with the smallest 
 amount of delay and trouble to suitors, the transfer of causes 
 from one divisional Court to another to which the cause 
 seems to be more appropriate. 
 
 The Judges of any two of the three Courts of QUEEN'S 
 BENCH, COMMON PLEAS, and EXCHEQUER constituted a 
 Court of Appeal, called the " Court of Exchequer Chamber," 
 for points of Law decided in the third Court. 
 
 All the Judges of the three Courts of Queen's Bench, 
 Common Pleas, and Exchequer constituted a Court of 
 Criminal Appeal on points of Law, called the Court for the 
 " consideration of Crown Cases reserved." 
 
 The HIGH COURT OF ADMIRALTY was a very ancient 
 Court, and had its jurisdiction extended and defined by 
 recent Statutes. The Court was concerned with suits for 
 the enforcement of wages due to the master or crew of a 
 ship, or money due in respect of pilotage or towage ser- 
 vices ; or for recovering of compensation in cases of collision 
 and of damage done by ships. The High Court of Admiralty 
 also acted as a " Prize Court " in time of war for the purpose 
 of ascertaining whether " prize of war " or booty taken at 
 sea by English ships properly commissioned was taken in a 
 way conformable to the rules of International Law, and 
 thereupon to adjudicate if necessary between the original 
 owner of the prize and each of a variety of claimants who 
 may have contributed to the capture. The procedure of 
 the High Court of Admiralty was always based rather upon 
 the methods of Roman, than upon those of English, Law. 
 
 The COURT OF PROBATE and the Court for DIVORCE 
 AND MATRIMONIAL CAUSES were presided over by the 
 Judge of the Court of Probate, who in the Court for 
 Divorce and Matrimonial Causes sits as " Judge Ordinary." 
 
Judicial Organisation. 8r 
 
 In the latter Court the Lord Chancellor and all the Judges 
 of the thiee Common Law Courts were associated with him 
 
 The operation of the Supreme Court of Judicature Acts 
 is to constitute three Courts which absorb all the Courts 
 above mentioned, except the Court of Bankruptcy, of 
 which all the Judges of these Courts were the first Judges. 
 
 One of these Courts is styled ' ; Her Majesty's High Court 
 of Justice," and is presided over by the following '"Justices": 
 
 The Lord Chancellor. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice of England. 
 
 The 3 Vice -Chancellors. 
 
 The Judge of the Court of Probate and of the Court for 
 Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. 
 
 The several puisne Judges of the Courts of Queen's 
 Bench. 
 
 The Judge of the High Court of Admiralty. 
 
 The other Court is styled " Her Majesty's Court of 
 Appeal." It is presided over by the following Judges : 
 
 5 Ex-offitio Judges, that is : 
 
 The Lord Chancellor. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice of England. 
 
 The Master of the Rolls. 
 
 The President of the " Division" for Probate, Divorce, 
 and Admiralty. 
 
 ' Ordinary" Judges, called " Lords Justices of Appeal," 
 not exceeding five, to be appointed by the Queen from time 
 to time 
 
 l< Additional Judges," not exceeding four, to be selected 
 at the request of the Lord Chancellor from time to time 
 from the Judges of the High Court (excepting those of the 
 Chancery Division) by the Judges of tne Division to 
 which they belong. 
 
 The House of Lords, as an appellate Court, has been 
 remodelled. There must always be present at least three 
 Lords of Appeal, out of the following list : The Lord Chan- 
 cellor, Peers holding or who have held " high judicial office," 
 
 G 
 
82 TJie Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 two (and hereafter four) " Lords of Appeal in Ordinary." 
 These last are specially created Peers for the purpose, rank 
 as Barons, and are entitled to a Writ of Summons to attend 
 and to sit and vote in the House of Lords, but their "dignity 
 as a Lord of Parliament does not descend to their heirs." 
 
 The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (see p. 64) 
 consists of certain high Lay and Ecclesiastical officials, and, 
 when the changes are completed, of the four Lords of 
 Appeal in Ordinary. 
 
 Notwithstanding the formal changes, however, the gene- 
 ral character of the old distribution of Courts, and even 
 the names of the Courts, are preserved as much as possible. 
 The real differences between the old and the new system are 
 in the simplification of detailed Procedure in all the Courts 
 and in the constitution of the new Court of Appeal. 
 x x x The High Court of Justice is distributed into five divi- 
 sions, corresponding severaLy to the previously existing 
 Courts. These five divisions are called respectively the 
 Chancery Division ; the Queen's Bench Division ; the 
 Common Pleas Division ; the Exchequer Division ; and the 
 Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty Division. The general 
 business apportioned to the several divisions corresponds 
 as nearly as possible to the business which usually came 
 before the several Courts the names of which before the 
 change are still preserved ; but a large amount of liberty is 
 left to suitors to choose the division in which they will prefer 
 to proceed or be proceeded against, subject to a right on the 
 part of the Judge to transfer causes from the division selected 
 to a more suitable one. 
 
 The general rules of Procedure in all the Courts are to be 
 of the simplest and most uniform character. They will be 
 described further on. Subject to certain leading principles 
 for securing such simplicity and uniformity, the more detailed 
 rules of Procedure are settled by the Judges, and become 
 law on not being objected to by either House of Parliament 
 after lying for forty days "on the table" of both Houses. 
 
 The Superior Criminal Courts and the Circuit Courts 
 
Judicial Organisation. 83 
 
 which sit by special Commission from the Crown, are for- 
 mally incorporated in the High Court of Justice, but other- 
 wise they are not affected by the Act. These Courts are : 
 
 1. The Court for the Consideration of Crown Cases Re- 
 served^ of which all the Judges of the Common Law Divisions 
 of the Supreme Court are members, and which has cognizance 
 of appeals in a prisoner's favour on points of law specially 
 reserved by Judges of Assize or Courts of Quarter Sessions. 
 Either the judgment of the " Court below " is postponed, 01 
 execution of the judgment is respited, till the question has 
 been finally decided. There is no appeal of this sort where 
 the question is one of fact, or where dissatisfaction on any 
 ground is felt merely with the verdict of a Jury. 
 
 2. The Central Criminal Court, which sits monthly in Lon- 
 don, and has cognizance of all offences committed in London 
 and Middlesex, and in portions of the adjoining counties. 
 There is also provision made for criminal cases being brought 
 before the Court, even though the offence was committed at a 
 distance from London, if there is good reason to fear that 
 the local feeling is so strong as to prevent the trial being im- 
 partially conducted in the neighbourhood. All the Judges 
 of the Common Law Divisions of the Supreme Court are 
 Judges of the Central Criminal Court, and sit in rotation. 
 A number of other persons are also formally described as 
 Judges of the Court, and one or other of them usually sits 
 on the Bench with the presiding Judge, or, as in the case of 
 the " Recorder of London " and the " Common Sergeant," 
 themselves preside in other divisions of the same Court 
 sitting at the same time. Such persons are the Lord 
 CLancellor, the Lord Mayor, and the Aldermen of the City 
 of London. 
 
 3. The Circuit or Assize Courts, which sit by force of 
 constantly renewed Commissions from the Crown, and form 
 one of the most ancient features in the judicial system of the 
 country. Twice, or sometimes three times, in the year that 
 is, about February, July, and (possibly) December, two 
 
 G 2 
 
8/4 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Judges of the Common Law Divisions of the Supreme Court, 
 attended by a certain number of barristers (who have selected 
 that "circuit," and become permanently and exclusivelycon- 
 nected with it) visit all the chief towns in a certain district of 
 the country, called a " circuit," into eight of which the whole 
 of England and Wales is, for this purpose, partitioned. The 
 Judges hold their Courts by virtue of five separate commis- 
 sions or written authorities from the Crown. Two of these 
 Commissions empower them to hold civil Courts for the 
 trial of that part of a civil cause which turns upon disputed 
 facts, and is determined by a jury under the presidency of 
 the Judge. One Commission gives the Judges all the 
 customary powers of a Justice of the Peace. The other two 
 Commissions empower the Judges to hold Criminal Courts. 
 These are called Commissions of ( i ) " Oyer and Terminer,"- 
 old Norman expressions for "to hear and to determine; " and 
 (2) of "general gaol delivery." The two Commissions to- 
 gether empower the Judges to try and either sentence or libe- 
 rate every prisoner who shall be in the gaol when the Judges 
 arrive in the circuit town, whatever the crime which may be 
 alleged against them. A number of the more eminent 
 members of the Bar attending the Circuit are usually named 
 in the Commission together with the Judges, to help the 
 Judge, if necessary, in completing the work of the Assize, 
 or (as it is called) in " clearing the calendar" that is the list 
 of prisoners with the crimes alleged against them, the dates 
 of their committal, their ages and amount of instruction. 
 Sometimes, on the sudden breaking out of an aggravated 
 class of crimes, and owing to the importance of not keeping 
 the public mind in a state of continued suspense and agita- 
 tion, special or extraordinary Commissions of Oyer and 
 Terminer and of gaol delivery are issued by the Crown. 
 
 A description of the usual course of the proceedings 
 both in a civil and a criminal trial in the Superior Courts is 
 given on pp. 89, 99. 
 
 For the Ecclesiastical Courts see p. 175. 
 
Judicial Organisation. 85 
 
 INFERIOR COURTS. 
 
 The inferior Courts, Civil and Criminal, may be arranged 
 as follows : 
 
 Civil. Criminal. 
 
 1. County Courts. 3. Quarter Sessions. 
 
 2. Quarter Sessions. 4. Petty Sessions. 
 
 5. Police Magistrates' Courts. 
 
 i. County Courts. 
 
 There are fifty-nine circuits of County Courts scattered 
 all over the country. In connection with each circuit there 
 are from one to sixteen different Courts. The circuits are 
 so arranged that there shall be a County Court in every 
 large town, and that no place, however small, shall be very 
 far from a court. There are 521 places in which courts are 
 held. They are held generally once a month, and one 
 Judge belongs to each circuit. The causes tried are nearly 
 .ill civil causes in which the matter in dispute does not 
 exceed a certain value. These courts were originally in- 
 tended to be used chiefly by tradesmen for the recovery 
 of small debts; but their jurisdiction has been constantly ex- 
 tended, so that there are very few matters indeed, at one 
 time appropriated to the Superior Courts of Law aod 
 Equity and the High Court of Admiralty, which are not 
 now in practice adjudicated upon in County Courts. The 
 procedure is generally simple, and lesj expensive than in 
 the Superior Courts. 
 
 2 and 3. Quarter Sessions. 
 
 This court is both a Civil and a Criminal Inferior Court. 
 It is held in the chief town in each county at least four 
 times a year. The Judges are the " Magistrates," or " Justices 
 of the Peace" of the County. A number of such Justices 
 are appointed for each county by the Government. They 
 must be chosen from residents in the county owning land 
 
86 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 worth at least ioo/. a year. The Lord Chancellor appoints 
 in the name of the Queen, and a person called the " Lord 
 Lieutenant" of the County, who has very little else to 
 do, though in former times he had important powers 
 in the administration of county (especially military) affairs, 
 names the persons who seem fitted to be Justices of the 
 Peace. 
 
 These Justices sit in two classes of Courts, those of 
 Quarter Sessions and those of Petty Sessions. At the Court 
 of Quarter Sessions, the presence of two Justices is sufficient, 
 though a large number more are generally present, and ail 
 the Justices of a county have a right to be present and to 
 take part in the proceedings. They choose a permanent 
 chairman, who presides and acts as chief judge. The 
 matters coming before this Court are partly Administrative 
 and partly Judicial. 
 
 As an Administratiye\yQ r \y, the Court of Quarter Sessions 
 has to apply Acts of Parliament relative to such matters as 
 the following : County Gaols ; County Lunatic Asylums ; 
 Highways ; Public Halls or Buildings and Courts of Justice. 
 They have to regulate the expenditure of County funds, and 
 to appoint subordinate officers of all sorts. 
 
 T\\Q Judicial functions of the Court of Quarter Sessions 
 are partly Civil and partly Criminal. 
 
 The Civil business is concerned with Appeals from 
 Courts of Petty Sessions (to be presently described) and from 
 the orders of Justices of the Peace made in certain cases in 
 accordance with certain Statutes. The subject-matter of 
 the Appeals is (i.) Charges and rates imposed for the relief 
 of the Poor. (2.) Stopping or diverting Highways. (3.) 
 Rates imposed on particular places for general County pur. 
 poses. 
 
 The Criminal business of the Court of Quarter Sessions 
 is concerned with the Trial of a vast number of Crimes, 
 those being excepted and reserved for Courts of Assize 
 which are of the heaviest kind, or on which the points of 
 
Petty Sessions. 87 
 
 Law to be discussed are peculiarly intricate. The mode of 
 trial is the same as that in Courts of Assize. 
 
 In the Corporate Towns, the Courts of Quarter Sessions 
 are presided over by a " Recorder," who is a barrister of not 
 less than five years' standing. In some few populous towns 
 a paid Chairman of special legal capacity is appointed by 
 the Crown. 
 
 4. Petty Sessions and Police Courts. 
 
 A Petty Sessions is a meeting of two or more Justices of 
 the Peace for the execution of some power vested in them 
 by law. It is thus a " Court of Justice," and generally meets 
 once a week in all the towns or even large villages of every 
 county. One of the Justices present acts as chairman, and 
 conducts the proceedings, consulting the other Justices, and 
 being assisted by a " Clerk of the Sessions." There is no 
 jury. The work done at Petty Sessions is of a great variety 
 of kinds, being partly Judicial and partly Administrative. 
 
 The Judicial work is two-fold, being concerned with 
 (i) Summary Convictions', that is, investigating and finally 
 deciding trifling offences, the penalty seldom being more 
 than two months' imprisonment with hard labour, or a line 
 of 2o/. (2) Committals for Trial at Quarter Sessi ns or at 
 the Assizes in the case of all other offences than those which 
 are matter of " Summary Conviction." 
 
 In both classes of cases the proceedings commence alike. 
 They are as follows : The accused person is first summoned 
 to appear on the charge of some person injured, or of a 
 policeman, the summons being obtained from a Justice and 
 served on the accused person. The information upon which 
 the summons is granted need not (generally) be upon oath. 
 In many cases, however, the prisoner miy be brought up at 
 once by " warrant " (or formal written authority of a Justice), 
 without previous . ummons. 
 
 If the prisoner do not appear in obedience to the 
 "summons,' 5 and oath is made that the "summons" was 
 duly served, the Justice issues a " Warrant" for the appre- 
 
88 The Constitution ana Government of England. 
 
 hension of the accused. This " warrant " empowers any 
 policeman using it to seize and detain the person of him or 
 her who is named in it. If the warrant is executed in another 
 county than that in which it is granted, it must be " backed' 7 
 that is, be signed at the back by a Justice of that county. 
 The ''warrant" entitles the policeman using it to break 
 open doors in case of necessity. If it is necessary to search 
 houses for stolen goods, a special warrant for the purpose, 
 called a "Search Warrant," specifying the place and particu- 
 lars, must be obtained. If a crime has just been committed, 
 and a policeman strongly suspects a person of having com- 
 mitted it, he may seize him at once, and get a " warrant " 
 afterwards for his confinement till he can be brought before 
 the Petty Sessions or (as in London) the Police-Magistrate, 
 who, in his proper court, exercises all the powers of Justices 
 of Petty Sessions. 
 
 When the prisoner appears either in obedience to the 
 summons or on a warrant for his apprehension and detention, 
 his accusers (the policemen or others) are put upon their 
 oath, and after giving their account of the facts, the prisoner 
 or his lawyer is invited to " cross-examine " them ; that is, 
 to ask them any fresh questions in order to show the un- 
 truth of the story, or generally to impair their credit. The 
 prisoners' witnesses are examined and cross-examined in 
 exactly the same way. The prisoner is thereupon asked 
 whether he would like to say anything. He is, however, 
 carefully warned that anything he says may " hereafter be 
 used against him." Sometimes the prisoner " reserves his 
 defence," that is, says nothing, but waits for his Trial to 
 defend himself. 
 
 Every word both of the witnesses and of the prisoner 
 (if he makes a statement) is carefully taken down in writing 
 and read over to the speakers. The whole papers together 
 are called the " Depositions." These are sometimes read in 
 full at the Trial. 
 
 If the Justices are of opinion that there is not sufficient 
 evidence to convict the prisoner, they can either dismiss the 
 
Petty Sessions. 89 
 
 prisoner or adjourn the case, in order to obtain further evi- 
 dence. This is called " remanding " the prisoner. He can 
 either be sent to prison in the mean time, or, at the dis- 
 cretion of the Justices, be let loose on bail, that is, on his 
 friends or himself engaging to pay large sums of money if he 
 do not appear at the proper time. 
 
 If the Justices are of opinion that there is sufficient 
 evidence for " summary conviction " or " committal for 
 trial," they will proceed, in the one case to assign the penalty, 
 and in the other case to sign a " Warrant of Committal "- 
 that is, a warrant empowering the proper officers to remove 
 the accused person to prison in order to await his Trial at 
 Quarter Sessions, the Assizes, or the Central Criminal Court. 
 A prisoner may here also be let out on " bail." 
 
 The Administrative functions of the Court of Petty 
 Sessions then called Special Sessions, as all Justices in the 
 district must be specially summoned are very numerous, 
 and are concerned with carrying out Acts of Parliament, 
 such as the Poor Laws and the laws for licensing public 
 houses and theatres, and hearing appeals against rates. 
 
 THE COURT OF THE CORONER. 
 
 The Coroner is a judicial officer chosen for life by the 
 freeholders of a County or part of a County, or by the Council 
 of a Borough having a separate Court of Quarter Sessions. 
 He is only removable for definite reasons by the Lord 
 Chancellor. He holds a Court for inquiry into the causes 
 of sudden deaths, into shipwrecks and discovered treasure. 
 He has a jury of twelve or more, twelve of whom must 
 assent to the verdict, and, in case of a person being sus- 
 pected of intentionally causing death, must affix their seals 
 to the " inquisition " to be laid before the Court of Assize. 
 
 GENERAL COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS IN A 
 CRIMINAL TRIAL. 
 
 If the offence charged be not one which can be disposed 
 of as has been seen by the "Summary Jurisdiction" of the 
 
oo The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Justices of the Peace in Petty Sessions, the accused is either 
 kept in prison till the time of nis trial, or is allowed to go 
 home on condition of himself or his friends forfeiting a sum 
 of money if he does not appear for trial. This is called 
 (as was said above) "Bailing" the prisoner. It depends 
 generally on the discretion of the Justice, according to the 
 nature of the crime charged, the evidence forthcoming in 
 support of it, and the punishment annexed to the crime, 
 whether a prisoner shall be allowed to go out on " Bail " or be 
 kept in prison till his trial, though an Appeal is allowed to a 
 Judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the Supreme Court. 
 
 At the time of trial, that is, at the next sitting of the 
 Court of Quarter Sessions or of Assizes, the prisoner's case 
 is laid before a number of gentlemen, called the " Grand 
 Jury." These are persons living in the county and satisfying 
 certain conditions to be described lower down. There 
 must be at least twelve, but there are generally a good many 
 more, yet they must not exceed twenty-three. They have 
 to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to make it 
 necessary to have the prisoner tried at all. If they think 
 not, the prisoner is released, and the Bill of the Indictment 
 is said to be "ignored." If they think there is, "a true Bill" is 
 said to be " found," and the real trial is proceeded with.' 
 Before they retire to hear the evidence, they are instructed 
 by the Judge in what is called " a charge," as to the quality 
 and amount of evidence requisite and sufficient (if uncon- 
 tradicted) for conviction in the several cases coming before 
 them. 
 
 At the trial there is what is called a " Common Jury," 
 composed of twelve sworn men impartially selected from 
 those living in the county, who have to listen to the evidence 
 for and against the prisoner, to the speeches of the advocates 
 on both sides, and to the comments of the Judge. After 
 hearing the case thus argued and commented upon, they have 
 to decide by all agreeing together whether they think the 
 prisoner is guilty or not. If they give as their " verdict" that 
 
Criminal Court. 91 
 
 the prisoner is guilty, the Presiding Chairman or Judge pro- 
 nounces the punishment which is affixed to the offence by 
 law. This punishment is generally variable within certain 
 limits, and the amount depends on the discretion of the 
 Judge. In case of Murder, Piracy, and Treason, the 
 Judge must pronounce sentence of Death. 
 
 If the Jury give as their verdict that the prisoner is 
 " Not guilty," the prisoner is released. 
 
 Sometimes Juries cannot agree on their verdict, though 
 they are left together sometimes for a whole night in the 
 hope of making them agree. If they are finally dismissed 
 without coming to an agreement, the trial will have to take 
 place again, probably at the next Quarter Sersions or 
 Assizes. Many persons at the present time think it very 
 desirable that a simple majority of the Jurymen two-thirds 
 of them or some other large fraction should be sufficient to 
 find a verdict. This is the practice in Scotland. 
 
 Every prisoner may be assisted by a lawyer, if he can 
 pay for it. It is weli urged that every prisoner ought to be 
 assisted by one, whether he can pay or not. 
 
 The following is the order of the Proceedings : 
 
 (1) The Advocate* for the Crown, that is for the 
 Prosecution, makes a speech explaining the nature of the 
 accusation and the general state of the facts. 
 
 (2) The witnesses in support of the Prosecution are 
 called one by one and sworn. Each one is first asked 
 questions by the Counsel for the Prosecution, and then asked 
 some very searching questions testing his opportunities of 
 knowledge, and the reasons for his belief, by the Prisoners 
 Advocate, or (if he has none) by the Prisoner himself. 
 (Cross-examination.) The Judge may ask questions at any 
 time. 
 
 (3) The Advocate of the Prisoner, or the Prisoner him- 
 self, makes a speech explaining the defence and arranging 
 the facts from the point of view of the Prisoner. 
 
 * Appendix E 
 
92 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 (4) The witnesses for the Prisoner are examined and 
 cross-examined in exactly the same way as were the witnesses 
 for the Prosecution. 
 
 (5) The Advocate of the Prisoner or the Prisoner makes 
 a fresh speech, drawing what conclusions he thinks proper 
 from the evidence, and inviting the jury to look at the whole 
 case from the Prisoner's point of view. 
 
 (6) The Advocate for the Prosecution does exactly the 
 same. 
 
 (7) The Judge or Chairman at Quarter Sessions sums up ; 
 that is, assists the jury by recalling to them all the evidence, 
 shows where it is inconsistent or worthless, criticises the 
 arguments of the Advocates, and tells the jury what is the 
 law applicable. 
 
 (8) The Jury consider and finally deliver their verdict 
 of " Guilty " or " Not Guilty." 
 
 (9) If the verdict is Guilty, the Chairman or Judge 
 passes sentence of Punishment. 
 
 If the Prisoner produces no evidence, the Advocate for 
 the Prosecution sums up his case immediately after his 
 witnesses have been examined and cross-examined, and the 
 Prisoner or the Advocate simply makes a single speech in 
 defence. 
 
 TRIAL BY JURY. 
 
 The institution of Trial by Jury is one of those which 
 it is the custom of Englishmen to prize more than almost 
 any other, and for foreigners especially to envy or to 
 copy. 
 
 The early histoiy of Trial by Jury is shrouded in con- 
 siderable obscurity. It probably had two or three different 
 parentages, and it is most likely that the jury in criminal 
 cases and in civil cases cannot be traced to the same source. 
 Among the sources of Trial by Jury generally may be men- 
 tioned (i) the general custom among the Teutonic races of 
 referring questions in dispute to the body of the people, 
 
Trial by Jury. 93 
 
 especially in cases of crime ; (2) the custom, growing 
 out of the former one, of appointing some definite number 
 of the people (often twelve or some multiple of twelve) be- 
 lieved to be specially acquainted with the matter in dispute 
 to give a decision on behalf ol the rest ; (3) the " inquests " 
 and " recognitions " which, so familiar in Norman adminis- 
 tration, can even be traced to the Roman Law as incorpo- 
 rated in the laws of the Barbarian Emperors, and by 
 which a body of men (generally twelve) were nominated, 
 as occasion required, on the ground of their presumed 
 familiarity with the subject-matter, to inquire into the truth 
 of facts in dispute, whether judicially or otherwise. 
 
 The political value of the jury at the present day is sup- 
 posed to rest in the fact that no man can be deprived of his 
 liberty or life in a criminal process, or of his land or goods in 
 a civil process, without the unanimous verdict of twelve men 
 who are chosen from the body of the people with the utmost 
 impartiality. The fact is not exactly true at the present day, 
 inasmuch as the large and constantly increasing mass of cases 
 capable of being summarily decided by magistrates with- 
 out a jury, and the modified resort to the jury system in the 
 County Courts, must be held (whatever else may be the re- 
 commendations of these Courts) to impair the general value ot 
 the institution as a positive safeguard. 
 
 The Jury in a civil case may be either a " Common 
 Jury " or a " Special Jury," The only difference is that the 
 latter are supposed to come from rather a better informed 
 class of society, and a Jury of this kind can be generally 
 had (at the risk of adding to the expenses of the action) by 
 either party in the cause. 
 
 Both in a civil case and in a criminal trial the Jury may 
 be " challenged " by either of the parties ; that is, the Jury 
 or some member or members of it may be objected to, and 
 a new Jury or fresh Jurymen may have to take the place of 
 the former. 
 
 The challenge may be either to the " array," that is to 
 
94 The Constitution and Government cf England. 
 
 the whole jury, when it is alleged that the jurors have not 
 been impartially chosen or properly procured ; or to " the 
 poll " when exception is taken to individual jurors on such 
 grounds as infancy, partiality, crime, or where a " lord of 
 Parliament " is empannelled. 
 
 In criminal cases challenges may be made for all these 
 causes assigned, and in a trial for treason or felony jurors 
 may be objected to by the prisoner without any cause 
 assigned. In high treason generally as many as thirty-five 
 such peremptory challenges are allowed ; but in the heaviest 
 kind of treason, as where the Queen's death is alleged to 
 have been attempted, in murder, and other felonies, only 
 twenty peremptory challenges are allowed. 
 
 In criminal cases the Grand Jury " of presentment," 
 which is still spoken of as " the county," reproduces the 
 " body of the people " of the old Teutonic times, or the 
 body of freeholders in the Saxon County Court. The 
 Common Jury reproduces the ancient inquest. 
 
 Jurymen are either (i) Grand Jurymen, 
 or (2) Common Jurymen, 
 or (3) Special Jurymen. 
 
 (1) Grand Jurymen must be freeholders that is, must 
 have an estate in land for life at least resident in the 
 county. They are usually taken from among the Justices 
 of the Peace. It has aheady been seen that their function 
 is to determine at Quarter Sessions or at Assizes whether a 
 trial of a prisoner shall take place or not. 
 
 (2) and (3) Common Jurymen and Special Jurymen must 
 have the following qualifications : 
 
 1. They must be between the ages of twenty-one and 
 sixty. 
 
 2. They must have either io/. a year in land, freehold ; 
 or 20/. a year leasehold, for twenty-one years or a longer 
 term ; or be householders rated for the support of the poor, 
 or (in Middlesex) pay " house duty " on not less than 307. 
 
TJie Habeas Corpus Act. 95 
 
 Special Jurymen are persons described as " Esquires," 
 "Bankers/' or "Merchants." 
 
 Special Jurymen are only summoned for the trial of civil 
 cases where the pecuniary interests at stake are very large, 
 or where the proceedings are peculiarly intricate an^ 
 requiring special education and experience for under- 
 standing them. 
 
 The following persons are exempt from the duty of 
 serving on juries : Peers, judges, practising lawyers, gaolers, 
 clergymen of the Established Church and Catholic Church, 
 and ministers of dissenting chapels registered, officers in the 
 army, physicians, surgeons, officers in the customs, and 
 members of the House of Commons. 
 
 Jurymen are fined if they do not attend when they are 
 summoned. 
 
 There are many complaints now made from time to time 
 that the same jurymen are summoned over and over again, 
 and that many persons who ought to be summoned are 
 never summoned at all. A Bill for the remedy of this has 
 recently been brought into the House of Commons. 
 
 THE HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 
 This Act was passed in the reign of Charles II. (1679) 
 for the purpose of giving facilities for granting the old writ 
 of " Habeas Corpus ad subjicieiidum" so called from the words 
 in which it ran, " You may have the body brought up before 
 you." The writ was obtained from a Court of Justice, that is, 
 the Court of Chancery, the Queen's Bench, the Exchequer, 
 or the Common Pleas, on proof that there was some cause 
 to believe that a prisoner was unjustly detained in prison. 
 The effect of the Act, with its later amendments, is to facilitate 
 the process by which any prisoner who thinks that he is un- 
 justly detained, either by a gaoler or by anyone else, can have 
 his case at once judicially investigated, in order to see whether 
 he ought legally to be in prison or not. The Judge, on the 
 
9<5 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 application of the person detained, grants the writ, which 
 commands the persons detaining the prisoner to bring him 
 up before some judge, in order to have the cause of his im- 
 prisonment investigated. When the prisoner is brought up, 
 the persons detaining him allege (generally with the help of 
 lawyers) the reasons for detaining him, as, for instance, that 
 he was sentenced to be imprisoned by a competent Court of 
 Justice, or that he is being detained waiting for a trial under 
 the Warrant of Committal of a Justice of the Peace. If 
 this is proved to be the case, the prisoner is sent back to 
 prison. If it is proved not to be the case ; or if the prisoner 
 can show any other reason why he should not be detained 
 in prison, he is immediately set free. 
 
 The operation of the Habeas Corpus Act is to threaten 
 heavy penalties on judges not granting the writ on the 
 demand of a prisoner. In such a case a judge is liable to 
 be fined 5oo/. The Act also threatens with a fine of ioo/. 
 and (on a second offence) zoo/, any officer not delivering 
 up prisoners in accordance with the terms of the writ, or 
 not giving to the prisoner or his agent, within six hours after 
 demand, a copy of the warrant of commitment. 
 
 If the prisoner is committed for treason or felony, as 
 expressed in the warrant, the judge need not grant the writ. 
 
 The Act further provides that every person committed 
 for treason or felony shall be brought to trial in the next 
 term or session after his committal, unless the witnesses for 
 the Crown cannot be produced at that time ; and if he is 
 not tried in the second term or session, he must be dis- 
 charged from his imprisonment. No person once delivered 
 by habeas corpus can be re-committed for the same offence, 
 on penalty of 5oo/. No inhabitant of England " can be sent 
 as prisoner out of the country within or without the British 
 dominions, on pain that the party committing, his advisers, 
 aiders, and assistants, shall forfeit to the party aggrieved 
 a sum not less than 5oo/. to be recovered with treble costs ; 
 shall be disabled to bear any office of trust or profit ; shall 
 
The Habeas Corpus Act. 97 
 
 incur the penalties of prcemunire ; * and shall be incapable of 
 the Queen's pardon." 
 
 The Amending Act passed in the fifty-sixth year of 
 George III.'s reign extends the benefit of the Act to persons 
 confined " otherwise than for some criminal or supposed 
 criminal matter," and empowers a judge in vacation time to 
 examine into the truth of the facts alleged in the " return " to 
 the writ, so as to obviate the injustice which might be facili- 
 tated by giving false returns. 
 
 In times of great civic disorder (as occasionally 
 in England in the reigns of the Georges, and not long 
 ago in Ireland) the action of the Habeas Corpus Act 
 is suspended ; that is, persons are allowed to remain in 
 prison for an indefinite time on mere suspicion, without the 
 question of their guilt or the reason of their confinement 
 being investigated. 
 
 This suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is very rarely 
 resorted to, and is in the highest degree unpopular, inas- 
 much as it puts any person in the country at the mercy of 
 the police and the Government. 
 
 The writ of Habeas Corpus does not run into a colony 
 or foreign dominion of the Crown, where Courts are estab- 
 lished having authority to grant and execute the writ them- 
 selves. 
 
 THE PUNISHMENT AND REFORMATION OF CRIMINALS. 
 
 A very important topic of government is the policy with 
 respect to the Punishment and Reformation of Criminals. 
 The only punishments or modes of correction known to 1 the 
 English Law are 
 
 * This celebrated offence (so called from the words of the writ pre- 
 paratory to the prosecution thereof, ^^pramunire [or prccmonerc\ facias, 
 cause A.B. to be forewarned"), was originally that of introducing a 
 foreign power into the realm by paying obedience to Papal process. The 
 penalties, which were exorbitantly severe, and included forfeiture of 
 lands and goods, complete outlawry, and imprisonment at the pleasure of 
 the Crown, were extended by statute to a variety of very different offences, 
 
 a 
 
98 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 1. Death by Hanging. In cases of treason, this is 
 accompanied by " drawing " the criminal on a hurdle to the 
 place of execution, afterwards severing his head from his 
 body, and then dividing his body into four quarters. The 
 Sovereign may, however, after sentence, change the whole 
 punishment into beheading. 
 
 2. Penal Servitude. 
 
 3. Imprisonment with hard labour. 
 
 4. Flogging. 
 
 5. Imprisonment without hard labour. 
 
 6. Reformatory or Industrial Schools for juvenile offen- 
 ders, convicted or not convicted of crime. 
 
 7. Fine. 
 
 Death is only inflicted for treason, piracy, and killing 
 with malice aforethought ; that is, for murder. The execu- 
 tion is private, and takes place within the walls of the prison 
 where tiie convict was last confined, in about three weeks 
 after the trial and sentence. 
 
 Penal Servitude implies imprisonment with hard labour 
 in certain Government prisons. The work is hard, though 
 adapted to the capacities and health of the convict. It 
 must be at least for a period of five years, and may be for 
 life. The length of the term is generally determined by the 
 Judge who tries the prisoner, and depends on the character 
 and frequency of the offence, or the previous habits of the 
 criminal. Sometimes good behaviour during the term of 
 servitude may lead to a slight shortening of it. In this case 
 the prisoner obtains what is called "a ticket of leave." He 
 is allowed to go abroad, but must report himself to the 
 police at regular intervals. If he omit to do so, his " ticket 
 of leave " is cancelled, and he is sent back to prison 
 again as soon as apprehended. A term of imprisonment 
 with hard labour cannot be for longer than two years. 
 It takes place in a county or borough gaol, and not in a 
 Government prison. The labour may be of different sorts, 
 arid somctimts is wholly unprofitable, as in the case of the 
 
Criminal Punishments. 99 
 
 treadmill, unless something is ground by it. The " silent 
 and solitary " systems are used only as occasional punish- 
 ments for misbehaviour or insubordination in gaol, and to a 
 very limited extent, it being believed to be hurtful to the 
 health or reason of prisoners. Juvenile offenders can be 
 sentenced to be whipped, or can also be sent to a " refor- 
 matory school." 
 
 Flogging is at present inflicted only for particular 
 sorts of brutal attacks on the person. It is proposed 
 to extend it to attacks of all sorts upon women or children ; 
 but the use of this punishment is opposed in some quarters, 
 on the ground that it is a cruel punishment resembling tor- 
 ture ; that cruel punishments never diminish crimes, because 
 they infuriate and brutalise the class who perpetrate them ; 
 and that it is desirable rather to pacify and tame than to excite 
 those brutal feelings in society which give rise to crimes 
 against the person. On the other hand, the necessity of 
 absolutely repressing this class of crimes, at almost any -cost, 
 cannot be over-estimated, supposing it to be proved that this 
 or any other remedy were adequate to the purpose. 
 
 The whole subject of Reformation and Punishment is. 
 one of great interest both in this country and in America.. 
 Within the last few years persistent and intelligent efforts 
 have been made to improve the internal management and 
 the construction of gaols; to educate and teach ignorant 
 prisoners, and especially the young, and to withdraw child- 
 ren from the scenes of temptation ; to watch over those 
 who come out of prison ; and to select for infliction those 
 classes of punishment which seem most likely to be com- 
 patible with the moral reformation of the offender. 
 
 GENERAL COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS IN A CIVIL 
 TRIAL, AND OF MIXED CIVIL AND CRIMINAL 
 PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 The whole course of a Civil Trial extends over three 
 stages, which are simpler and shorter, or more intricate and 
 longer, according to the nature of the subject matter of the 
 
I oo TJic Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 contention, and the corresponding character of the Court 
 which has jurisdiction in respect of it These three stages 
 are (i) Pleading; (2) Hearing of Evidence and Decision of 
 disputed matters of Fact ; and (3) Consideration and Decisions 
 of disputed points of Law. The two latter stages are gene- 
 rally intermingled in practice, though they can always be 
 clearly distinguished. It will be more convenient to treat 
 them together. 
 
 (i) Pleading. 
 
 By " Pleading " is meant the process by which the parties 
 to a suit endeavour to ascertain out of Court, though subject 
 to general rules and the control of the Court, the real points 
 in dispute between them. The object of the process is to 
 prevent needless disputation upon matters which really are 
 not in controversy at all, and to reduce the questions, 
 whether of fact or of law, which really are in controversy, to 
 as simple a form as possible, for the purpose of distinct 
 adjudication upon them. 
 
 The system of Pleading, especially in the " Common- 
 Law " Courts, was down to a time still recent, so complex 
 and artificial that it was a scandal to the administration of 
 justice. Unless a plaintiff or defendant observed with the 
 utmost strictness the most technical rules, unless he used the 
 precise terms required, unless he exactly expressed all that 
 was essential, and rigidly abstained from assertions that were 
 superfluous, he lost his cause, whatever might be its moral 
 merits. By a series of reforms this state of things has been 
 gradually brought to an end. In the first place the requisite 
 modes and forms of pleading were largely simplified, and 
 facilities given for amending pleadings or repairing accidental 
 mistakes and omissions. Then, in newly-introduced Courts, 
 such as the County Courts and the Courts of Probate and 
 Divorce, a simple form of statement, answer, and reply, (sub- 
 stance being in all cases preferred to form), was substituted 
 for the stricter methods of Pleading still retained in the Superior 
 Courts of I aw and Equity. Finally, the Supreme Court of 
 judicature Act substituted the simple form of an inartificial 
 
A Civil Trial. ' id* 
 
 statement, answer, and reply, for all' the methods' pnJvMusly 
 in use in any Court whatever. 
 
 It is to be observed that the Pleadings in the Court of 
 Chancery have always been less severely strict and technical 
 than those in use in Common-Law Courts. This was 
 partly due to the influence in the Court of Chancery of the 
 methods known to the later Roman Law ; partly to the 
 fact that the necessity of reaching a single definite " issue * 
 was less pressing in a trial by an accomplished Judge than 
 (as in Common-Law Courts) in a trial by an untrained Jury; 
 and, partly, to the vast complication of interests, and, there- 
 fore, of disputed facts, out of which proceedings in the 
 Court of Chancery usually arose, as contrasted with the 
 simpler matters of fact in dispute in Common-Law Courts. 
 
 Under the new procedure the method, already largely in 
 use in the Court of Chancery, of allowing the parties at the 
 time of Pleading to put written questions (called " Inter- 
 rogatories") to one another, and to obtain written answers 
 on oath, is recognised and adopted. This process of 
 what is called " Discovery," if controlled by the discretion 
 of a Court, is often of the utmost value in bringing 
 out the real matter in dispute, and preventing a sudden 
 surprise as to the nature of the claim or the defence, after 
 the real trial has commenced. 
 
 (2) Hearing of Evidence and Decision of disputed matters of 
 Fact, and (3) Consideration and Decision of disputed points 
 of Law. 
 
 The general order of the proceedings at a Civil Trial is 
 the same in all Courts as already described for a Criminal 
 Trial, the plaintiff and the defendant severally taking the 
 place of the prosecutor and the prisoner. The plaintiff or 
 his advocate opens the proceedings by explaining the origin 
 of the suit, the precise nature and extent of the claim, and 
 the general character of the evidence he is about to produce. 
 The evidence on the side of the plaintiff is then produced. 
 
IO? The' Cnmii'iiition and Government of England. 
 
 ' -'.' Before th** SapYeme ."Court of Judicature Act came into 
 operation, tHe evidence produced in the Court of Chancery 
 was almost invariably the written and sworn testimony ol 
 witnesses examined by an officer of the Court before the 
 time of hearing, while evidence of this sort (except in the rare 
 cases of enforced absence, or serious illness, or approaching 
 death) was wholly excluded in Courts of Common Law, 
 and only the testimony of witnesses actually present in 
 Court and sworn was admitted. The general rule in 
 all Courts excluded, under the name of " hearsay," all 
 evidence consisting of the words and writings of absent 
 persons, that is, all evidence whatever which rested for its 
 value not only on the personal credit of a witness examined 
 and sworn in Court at the time of the trial, but also on the 
 credit of some other person not present, whose words or 
 handwriting are reported or produced by a present witness. 
 The chief exception to this rule was (i) the admission of 
 "confessions " and " dying declarations," when precautions 
 were taken, or otherwise assumed to exist, sufficient to guard 
 the witness against the operation of any improper induce- 
 ment to make them ; (2) of " common report " in pedigree 
 cases ; and (3) of words spoken in cases where the mere fact 
 of the words being spoken, Avhether true or not, is an 
 essential fact to be inquired into. 
 
 The operation of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 
 is to render the mode of taking evidence uniform in all 
 Courts, and to select the method of examining the witnesses 
 viva voce in open Court, as previously practised in Common- 
 Law Courts and in Criminal Courts, as the general type to 
 be followed. The general rules regulating the exclusion of 
 " hearsay " remain as before. 
 
 Besides oral testimony, evidence may consist of docu- 
 ments, extracts from public registers, judgments of Courts 
 of Justice, certificates, and physical monuments, such as 
 historical inscriptions or notices on tombstones. These are 
 not "hearsay " evidence, as they do noi rest for their value 
 
Laws of Evidence. 103 
 
 on the credit due to absent persons, but rather have an 
 independent value of their own due to their antiquity, 
 their publicity, or a special authority conceded to them by 
 Law. 
 
 After each witness on the side of the plaintiif has been 
 examined by the plaintiff or his advocate, the witness may 
 be, and usually is, " cross-examined " by the other side as to 
 his opportunities of observing the facts he relates, and as tc 
 his general credit. He may also be further re-examined by 
 his own side as to matter brought out in cross-examination. 
 The Judge may ask any questions he pleases of any witness 
 at any time. 
 
 If the testimony is written, it is read to the Court, gene- 
 rally by an officer of the Court. 
 
 If the defendant produces no evidence, the plaintiff or 
 his advocate then makes a speech commenting upon or 
 " summing up " the effect of the plaintiff's evidence, and then 
 the defendant or hi; advocate simply makes a single speech 
 pointing out the worthlessness of the plaintiffs case. 
 
 If the defendant produces evidence, he or his advocate 
 makes a speech immediately after the witnesses for the 
 plaintiff have finished giving their evidence, and explains 
 the nature of the defence and the general effect of the 
 evidence about to be produced. The witnesses for the 
 defence are then called, examined, cross-examined by the 
 other side, and (possibly) re-examined exactly in the same 
 way as were the plaintiff's witnesses. The defendant or his 
 advocate then makes a speech, summing up what he takes 
 to be the effect of the evidence produced on his side, and 
 the plaintiff or his advocate then makes a final speech on 
 the whole case. 
 
 Thereupon the Judge sums up the effect of the evidence 
 on both sides, and informs the Jury (if there is one) of the 
 legal effect of the material facts according as the Jury may 
 hold them to be established one way or another. 
 
 The Jury (if there is one) then consider, and, with more 
 
IO4 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 or less delay, deliver their " verdict," upon which they must, 
 as in a criminal case, be unanimous. If there is no Jury 
 (as to which a large option is permitted to the parties if 
 agreed) the Judge either delivers " judgment " at once, or 
 reserves it for further consideration and delivers it at a 
 frture day. The " verdict " and " judgment " may take a 
 variety of forms according to the matter in dispute. A 
 " verdict" declares either that the plaintiff has not made out 
 his case, when the verdict is said to be " for the defendant ; " 
 or that he has made it out, and then it is said to be " for the 
 plaintiff." In this last case the judgment assigns the amount 
 of compensation or damages to be paid by the defendant. 
 Sometimes, indeed, the verdict is " special," and only sub- 
 stantiates the evidence of a certain condition of facts, leaving 
 the consequences as affecting the claims of the plaintiff or 
 the defendant to be fixed by a Superior Court. 
 
 A "judgment," on the other hand also in some Courts 
 called a " decree " not only ascertains barely which party is 
 in the right and how much compensation (if any) the defend- 
 ant has to give, but also often dictates a course of conduct 
 in which a number of persons are to take part, and provides 
 for the satisfaction of a number of claims and the protection 
 of a variety of interests which the facts of the case have 
 brought to light. 
 
 The ordinary rule is that the losing party pays the 
 reasonable " costs " of the proceedings, but a wide discretion 
 is reserved to Judges to qualify or even to reverse this rule 
 when the proceedings disclose that, though there was a 
 technical wrong, there was no substantial grievance to com- 
 plain of; or where the losing party has been needlessly 
 embarrassed in the conduct of the suit ; or where the action 
 was brought in a higher Court than was strictly appro- 
 priate to it. 
 
 When the result of the trial is that the defendant has to 
 pay a sum of money or to do, or abstain from, a certain act, 
 the order to pay, to do, or to abstain, is said to be a 
 
A Civil Trial. 105 
 
 judgment, or order, and can be enforced either by execution 
 (that is, by seizure at the hands of the Sheriff of the goods 
 or the person of the defendant), or by imprisonment of the 
 defendant for contempt of Court. Some discretion is left to 
 judges as to hastening execution or deferring it beyond the 
 ujual date, according to the merits of the case, the situation 
 of the defendant, or the probability of an Appeal being 
 undertaken. 
 
 The Sheriff is an official of high standing in every 
 County, chosen annually by the Crown out of three persons 
 proposed by the Judges of the High Court of Justice and 
 certain members of the Privy Council. When appointed, 
 he cannot refuse to serve. His functions are to enforce the 
 sentences of Courts, to make certain judicial inquiries under 
 *' writs " issued for the purpose, to summon jurymen, and 
 generally, to help in maintaining public order. He is 
 assisted by an u under-sheriff," a " deputy- sheriff," and by 
 inferior officers called "bailiffs." 
 
 The legal aspects of the proceedings of a trial before a, 
 single Judge or a Judge and Jury may now be carefully re- 
 viewed before a Court composed of a large number of 
 Judges. The result of such a revision of the proceedings 
 may be a new trial, or a simple reversal of the judgment of 
 the Court below, or an entry of the verdict for the side 
 opposed to that for which it was originally given. The 
 grounds of such a revision of the original proceedings are 
 such as the laying down of unsound law by the Judge, the 
 admission of improper evidence, irregularities in the pleading 
 or in the order of proceeding at the trial, or a verdict given 
 against the weight of evidence or for " excessive " damages. 
 
 A plaintiff who even on his own showing, and apart from 
 all consideration of the defendant's reply, is held by a Court 
 not to have made out his own case is said to be "non- 
 suited." 
 
 There are certain special and extraordinary proceedings 
 which take place in one or other of the divisions of the 
 High Court of Justice, which are often supplementary to, or 
 
io6 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 take the place of, the ordinary proceedings. Such are 
 " Certiorari? "Mandamus" "Quo Warranto" and "In- 
 formations" 
 
 Certiorari. 
 
 This is an ancient writ by which an inferior Court is 
 commanded to " certify " or formally remit a cause pending 
 in it to a superior Court to be tried there. It is by this writ 
 that the trial of peers indicted for treason, felony, or mis- 
 prision of treason is removed into the Court of the Lord 
 High Steward, and ordinary criminal indictments in certain 
 cases of special importance or difficulty are removed into the 
 Division of the Queen's Bench. 
 
 Mandamus. 
 
 This writ (which is called a " prerogative " writ, as issuing 
 under the prerogative of the Crown) issues from the Division 
 of Queen's Bench, and directs persons, corporations, and 
 courts, not easily reached by any ordinary process, to do 
 certain specified acts ; as, for instance, to admit to office, or 
 to replace, a properly qualified officer, to proceed to pro- 
 nounce judgment, and the like. 
 
 Quo Warranto. 
 
 This writ is a very ancient one, though the procedure in 
 respect of it has varied from time to time. Its original 
 purpose was to command some one who claimed or exer- 
 cised any office or franchise to show by what authority he 
 supported his alleged right. The writ was largely used in 
 Charles II/s time to procure a forfeiture of the Charters of 
 corporate towns by alleging a neglect or abuse of the 
 franchises created b them. The proceeding by " informa- 
 tion " in the nature of a " quo warranto " is now principally 
 used to determine disputes between corporations and their 
 officers, or to ascertain the validity of existing Charters. 
 
 Informations. 
 
 "Informations" are of various sorts ; but they are all extra- 
 ordinary modes of obtaining civil remedies or criminal con- 
 
Extra-ordinary Judicial Remedies. 107 
 
 victions by a direct application for justice made by the 
 Attorney-General to a division of the Supreme Court. Their 
 purpose may be (i) (if made in the Division of the Exche- 
 quer) to recover money due to the Crown, or to obtain 
 satisfaction for a wrong committed upon the lands or goods of 
 the Crown ; (2) (if made in the Division of the Queen's 
 Bench), to obtain a penalty due partly to the Crown and partly 
 to the informer upon a penal Statute ; or (3) to secure the im- 
 mediate and certain trial of an alleged offender either against 
 the Crown directly, or as in cases of riot, libel, and atro- 
 cious immorality against the Crown and a private person 
 jointly. In these last cases the effect of granting leave 
 to file " a criminal information " is to put the accused 
 immediately on his trial without requiring a true Bill 
 to be found by a Grand Jury. The purpose of the 
 procedure is to avoid the delay, uncertainty, or even popular 
 prejudice which may attend a more regular course of pro- 
 ceeding. It is entirely in the discretion of the Court to 
 grant the application ; and in determining how to exercise 
 their discretion, they take into consideration the time that 
 has elapsed, the evidence on which the charge is founded, 
 the motives of the applicant, and the sufficiency, for the 
 purposes of doing complete justice, ot the ordinary mode of 
 proceeding. When the information is filed, the trial takes 
 place either " at Bar," or, like an ordinary civil case, at Nisi 
 Prius, in the county where the offence is charged to have 
 been committed. In either case judgment is given by the 
 Division of the Queen's Bench. A " Trial at Bar " is a trial 
 before the Judges of the Court in which the action is brought. 
 The Judges sit together (or in banco}. This mode of trial 
 is resorted to only in cases of great difficulty or importance, 
 or wrier cr the Crown has its interests involved and insists on 
 such a mode of trial. As any criminal case may be removed 
 by certiorari into the Division of the Queen's Bench, the 
 highest Criminal Court of original Jurisdiction in the country, 
 any criminal case may, in the discretion of the Court, be 
 tried at the Bar of the Court. 
 
IO8 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF THE INSTITUTIONS 
 AND PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH LA W. 
 
 The constitution and government of England are impli- 
 cated at so many points with the system of English 
 Law, that it is not possible thoroughly to understand the 
 former without a comprehension of the general character of 
 the latter. On this account, and in particular connection 
 with the Judicial organisation of the country, a description 
 of the leading institutions and principles of English Law is 
 here interposed. The subject may be conveniently and 
 succinctly treated under the following heads, it being under- 
 stood that Constitutional Law, which forms the main topic of 
 the whole of this treatise, and Laws of Procedure, of which 
 an account has just been given, are omitted from what would 
 otherwise be their proper places. 
 
 I. SOURCES OF ENGLISH LAW. 
 II. LAW OF PROPERTY. 
 
 III. LAW OF CONTRACT. 
 
 IV. LAW REGULATING CERTAIN SPECIAL RELATION- 
 SHIPS, AS THOSE OF HUSBAND AND WlFE, OF GUARDIAN- 
 SHIP, AND OF TRUSTEESHIP. 
 
 V. LAW OF CIVIL INJURIES. 
 VI. CRIMINAL LAW. 
 
 I. SOURCES OF ENGLISH LAW. 
 
 The word Source in reference to Law is used sometimes 
 (i) to signify the facts to which the existence of particular 
 laws is immediately due ; and sometimes (2) to signify the 
 authorities to which reference must be made in order to 
 know what the state of the Law is. 
 
 In the first sense of the word " source " that of the facts 
 to which particular Laws immediately owe their existence 
 the Sources of English Law are - 
 
 (i) Ancient at id General Customs or institutions, such as 
 those of the feudal system as gradually modified by the sue- 
 
Sources of English Law. 109 
 
 cessors of William I., and such as those implied in the 
 i elation of the Church of England to the State. 
 
 (2) Statutes or Acts of Parliament, that is, formal expres- 
 sions of the will of the Legislature. 
 
 Some parts of the Law are wholly due to this source. 
 Other parts, such as the law regulating commercial contracts, 
 Jury trial, and procedure generally, are only partly due to it. 
 Some parts, again, are not affected by this source in the least. 
 
 (3) Public engagements made at critical epochs by persons 
 held to represent conflicting claims and interests in the 
 State. Either the fact of these engagements is tacitly 
 recognised or express evidence of them is preserved. They 
 thus share the character both of Statutes and of universally 
 binding customs. 
 
 (4) Judicial decisions on cases actually controverted in 
 Courts of Justice, where such decisions are generally ac- 
 quiesced in by successive races of Judges, or supported on 
 appeal to the highest tribunal. 
 
 (5) Foreign Law accidentally introduced in early times 
 into this country, and still maintaining in some Courts and 
 in some portions of the Law a distinct amount of influence. 
 Thus Roman Law has prescribed many of the rules of pro- 
 cedure and some of the principles adopted in the Court of 
 Chancery and the High Court of Admiralty, while the 
 Canon Law (which was a system introduced by Papal 
 decrees for the government of the Clergy, and largely 
 fashioned after the type of Roman Law) originated many of 
 the rules of procedure adopted in the Ecclesiastical Courts, 
 and has largely affected that part of the Law which relates 
 to wills, intestate succession, marriage, and divorce. 
 
 The result of the process by which English Law has 
 been gradually built up from the above various materials is, 
 that in order to know what the state of the Law is on any- 
 given point, reference must be made to one or other of the 
 following authorities, or 'it may be) to both conjointly. Hence 
 the following are Sources of English Law in the second of 
 the senses of the word Sources. 
 
1 1 o TJie Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 (1) Statutes of the Realm^ including the great constitu- 
 tional documents of Magna Charta, as successively con- 
 firmed ; the Petition of Rights ; and the Bill of Rights. 
 
 The Statutes are scattered through a large number of 
 bulky volumes. They are now in course of being revised 
 and subjected to a sifting process by which the repealed 
 parts are separated from the still subsisting parts. 
 
 (2) Reported Decisions of Courts of justice. These are 
 said to be scattered through 1,300 volumes, and to apply to 
 100,000 cases. It is to these decisions that recourse must 
 be had to ascertain (i) what universal customs have been 
 incorporated into the Law of England, and become either 
 the " Common Law " or the principles and rules of " Equity/' 
 as the case may be ; (ii) what sorts of local or class customs 
 are incorporated into the Law ; (iii) what logical rules for 
 the interpretation of written language are recognised by Law ; 
 and (iv) what is the actual meaning impressed by Courts ol 
 Justice on the language of Staiutes. 
 
 This distinction between Law as gathered from the de- 
 cisions of Courts of Justice and Law expressed in the form 
 of Statutes is sometimes marked by calling the one " Un- 
 written," and the other " Written," Law. 
 
 The principles of " Equity " are those which, up to the 
 time of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act coming into 
 force, were recognised only in the Court of Chancery. They 
 grew, as has been indicated elsewhere, out of the somewhat 
 arbitrary jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor, who originally 
 represented the King in controlling the rigour, and enlarging 
 the contracted field of operation, of the Common Law. The 
 Lord Chancellor was originally an ecclesiastic, and versed in 
 the principles of the Roman and the Canon Law, which thus 
 became to some extent the basis of the system applied in 
 Ins Court. The Court of Chancery gradually gathered to 
 its jurisdiction most of the more complicated matters to 
 which an advancing social condition gave birth, and. more 
 especially those matters for which the procedure of trial by 
 jury was inadequate or unsuitable. Such matters were 
 
Law of Property. 1 1 r 
 
 those in which " Trusts " or " Fraud " wnre involved, or in 
 which the competing claims and interests of a number of 
 persons needed protection and reconciliation. The opera- 
 tion of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act in abolishing 
 the practical consequences of the distinction between Equity 
 and Common Law has already been described. 
 
 II. LAW OF PROPERTY. 
 
 All the things that can be owned are, according to 
 English Law, distributed under the two main heads of real 
 property and personal property. There are some few things, 
 indeed, which have the legal qualities of real property foi 
 some purposes, and of personal property for others. 
 
 Real property includes lands and houses, and mostly 
 coincides with what are sometimes called Immovable things 
 as opposed to Movable. Real property includes the things 
 which were the chief or sole subject of attention in primitive 
 times, and, in consequence, the modes of dealing with it are 
 less simple and (as it were) natural than the modes of dealing 
 with personal property. But, for some time past, the tendency 
 has been to assimilate the laws relating to real and to 
 personal property, and, so far, to abolish the distinction 
 between them. The chief practical differences between the 
 two sorts of property lie in the modes in which they descend 
 on the death of the owner without his leaving a Will, 
 and in which they can be disposed of in his life-time. 
 
 On a person's death, if he leaves no Will, his real property 
 descends to his eldest surviving son ; or if he has no son, to 
 his daughters in equal shares ; or, if he has no children, to 
 his father, grandfather, uncles, aunts, cousins in succession ; 
 always tracing back to the nearest surviving ancestor; and 
 children throughout taking the place (according to their 
 seniority if males and in equal shares if females) of their 
 deceased parents. His personal property, on the other 
 hand, in the event of his leaving no will, is distributed among 
 all his children, whether sons or daughters, equally, if he 
 
112 77/6' Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 leave no widow ; if he leave a widow, one-third goes to 
 the widow, and the remaining two-thirds to the children ; 
 and if he leave a widow, and no children, half goes to the 
 widow, and the remaining half to persons described as " next 
 of kin." These persons are the deceased's father and 
 mother, grandfather and grandmother, brothers and sister*, 
 uncles and aunts, each generation from a common ancestor 
 being reckoned as one " degree " of relationship, and a 1 
 persons related to the deceased in the same degree sharing 
 equally. 
 
 In the life- time of the owner, real property can be dis- 
 posed of only by deed, that is by a solemn and precisely 
 written document, usually on parchment, properly witnessed 
 and signed, certain formal words being used by the parties 
 at the time of signature. In certain cases these deeds have to 
 be registered in a public office before the expiration of a 
 fixed time. 
 
 Personal property, on the other hand, can be parted with 
 in a variety of ways according to its nature. Most movable 
 things pass from one person to another by simple delivery. 
 With respect to the ownership of other things, belonging to 
 die class of personal property, as leases for a term of three 
 years or more, the transfer can be effected by deed only. 
 
 The largest interest or " estate " which a person can have 
 m real property is what is called " a fee-simple " estate. Such 
 an estate is said to be vested in a man "and his heirs." He 
 can sell, or give away in his life-time, the land (if it be land) 
 to whom he likes ; or, by making a Will, he can choose the 
 person or persons who shall succeed to his rights at his 
 death ; or, if he makes no Will, the land descends to his 
 heirs in the way above described. 
 
 The next largest estate is an " estate tail." The person 
 in whom this kind of estate is vested could till lately neither 
 sell the land nor choose his successor on his death. The 
 land must descend, at the death of the last " tenant in tail," 
 to his eldest son or daughter or their representatives, or, in 
 their delault, to other persoi s mentioned in the document 
 
Law of Property. 113 
 
 creaung the entailed estate. In the present day great facili- 
 ties are allowed for either " cutting off the entail " (that is, 
 converting the estate tail into an estate in " fee simple "), or 
 for selling the property and investing the proceeds of the 
 sale on trust. 
 
 Other and minor interests in real property are estates tor 
 life, for years, for a year or portions of a year, and at the will 
 of another person. An estate fora less period than for the life 
 of the owner or some one else is said not to be a "freehold," 
 and is classed as " personal property," so that the same piece 
 of land ma/ be treated in respect of one person (that is. 
 of him who has the fee-simple estate in it) as real pro- 
 pd'ty, and in respect of another person (that is, of him 
 who has a lease of it for a number of years) as personal 
 property. 
 
 There is now little difference in form or solemnity be- 
 tween a Will for the disposal of Real Property and a Will 
 for the disposal of Personal Property. In each case the 
 Will must be in writing and signed by the testator in the 
 presence of two witnesses who sign their names in each 
 other's presence. The Will operates from the date of the 
 testator's death. If any addition is made to it or alteration 
 made in it, these may be embodied in what is called a 
 " Codicil," which must be signed and witnessed in the same 
 way as the original Will. No gift can be given under the 
 Will to one of the witnesses. A Will can be rendered of no 
 effect by (i) destroying it intentionally ; (2) by making a 
 fresh Will ; (3) by subsequent marriage. 
 
 The main difference between a Will of Real Property 
 and a Will of Personal Property is that the former vests the 
 property passed by it at once in the persons in whose favour 
 the Will is made, while the latter vests the property in the 
 first instance in one, two, or more quasi-official persons 
 specially charged with the functions of carrying all the 
 details of the Will into effect. These quasi-official persons 
 are called Executors, or, when not named in the W ill, but 
 appointed by the proper Division of the Supreme Court in 
 
1 14 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 order to carry into effect a Will otherwise complete,. 
 Administrators with the Will annexed. 
 
 The first duty of the Executors, after providing for th 
 funeral of the deceased, is to obtain " Probate " of the Will ; 
 that is, to take the Will to a Public Office, where it is copied 
 out, a copy being gi '-en to the Executors (who are thereupon 
 sworn to administer their trust faithfully), and the original 
 document being retained. The other duties of the Executors 
 are to ascertain, and pay within a year, the debts of the 
 deceased, and to transfer to the different persons in whose 
 favour the Will is made the goods or money allotted to 
 them. Executors are usually near relatives or intimate 
 friends of the deceased. They receive no payment or profit 
 for their trouble, though a small legacy is often left them in 
 consideration of it. They may decline to act, if they choose ; 
 but if once they have undertaken the functions, they cannot 
 free themselves from them at their will, nor decline the legal 
 responsibilities which attach to them. These responsibilities 
 belong to the general topic of Trustees, to be considered 
 lower down. 
 
 If there is no Will, the Real Property descends at once 
 to the legal heirs as already described ; but the Personal 
 Property can be distributed to the legal successors only by the 
 intervention of a semi-official person called an Administrator. 
 He is appointed by the proper Division of the Supreme 
 Court, and is usually chosen irom among the nearest rela- 
 tives of the deceased. His duties resemble as closely as 
 possible those of an Executor. 
 
 It was from early days of English history a fixed 
 principle of policy to prevent land coming into the hands of 
 religious corporations. The grounds of this policy were that 
 land was thus withdrawn for ever from the general market ; 
 that corporate bodies were held to be less competent than 
 individual persons to perform the duties accompanying 
 ownership : and that an undue influence was liable to be 
 exercised over dying persons to induce them to divert the 
 
Mortmain Laws. 115 
 
 succession to their property away from their natural heirs to 
 those who had comparatively small moral claims upon them. 
 Gifts of this sort were called gifts "in mortmain," or in 
 mortua manu in a dead hand because the corporate 
 bodies who acquired the gifts were looked upon as not less 
 unserviceable to the State in some respects than if they 
 were dead. 
 
 Severe statutes were enacted from time to time for the 
 prevention of such gifts, though many exceptions were in-, 
 troduced mto them, a license from the Crown being always 
 held sufficient to save the forfeiture that would be otherwise 
 incurred, and lands left to "charitable" as opposed to 
 " religious " uses being generally exempted from the appli- 
 cation of the statutes. The law now is that no lands 
 can be given even for charitable uses unless the deed 
 of gift proves to have been executed in the presence of 
 two witnesses at least twelve months before the death of 
 the donor, and enrolled in the proper office within six 
 months after execution. Stocks in the public funds may be 
 transferred by a deed made only six months previous to the 
 donor's death. The gift must be made to take effect abso- 
 lutely on the donor's death after the expiry of six months, and 
 must not contain any reserved power of alteration. The 
 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, their Colleges, and 
 the scholars upon the foundations of the Colleges of Eton, 
 Winchester, and Westminster, are excepted from the opera- 
 tion of the law. Other public institutions have recently 
 been also excepted, among which are the British Museum, 
 Greenwich Hospital, and the Foundling Hospital. 
 
 III. LAW OF CONTRACT. 
 
 A very important part of English Law, as of every system 
 of Law, is concerned with the public regulation of Contracts, 
 that is, the engagements which people make with one 
 another for the purpose of binding each other's future con 
 duct, and to which, if made in a proper way and for pur- 
 poses which the Law countenances, Law lends its support 
 
 J 2 
 
1 1 6 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 The simpler purposes of contracts are buying and selling, 
 letting and hiring, carriage, service, agency, and deposit. 
 Other less simple purposes are Partnership, the Negotiation 
 of Bills of Exchange and of Promissory Notes, and Assurance. 
 A Partnership contract is one in which two or more persons 
 make certain contributions either in money or labour towards 
 a definite work, with the understanding that each is to bear 
 a certain proportion of the losses and to reap a certain pro- 
 portion of the profits. An important form of partnership is 
 what is called a " Joint-Stock Company," with either limited 
 or unlimited liability. A Joint-Stock Company is a partner- 
 ship of not less than seven persons, who bind themselves 
 together by the terms of a document registered in the 
 proper office and entitled the "Memorandum of Association." 
 The purpose of such companies is to enable a vast number 
 of persons to take part in a common concern, with the 
 utmost facility for adding to, or varying, the members and 
 with securities for simplicity of government, and for the 
 protection of individual members against the consequences 
 of one another's fraud or negligence. The property of the 
 company is divided into " shares," which, by the simple pro- 
 cess of registration, may be transferred from one person to 
 another. The person to whom the transfer is made becomes 
 thereupon a member of the company, and is liable for the 
 losses of the company, either to the amount of his share 
 in which case his liability is said to be " limited," or to the 
 amount of his whole property in which case his liability is 
 said to be " unlimited." Careful provisions are made for the 
 choice and regulation of directors, and for the dissolution 
 or " winding-UD " of the companies. 
 
 A Bill of Exchange is a simply written document 'in 
 which a debtor promises that another person indebted to 
 himself will, at some future time named, pay over to the 
 creditor, or to any person into whose hands the bill may 
 come, the amount expressed on the face of the bill. An 
 ordinary Cheque on a bank is a species of bill of exchange. 
 A. Promissory Note is similarly a simply written document 
 
Bills of ExcJiange. 1 1 7 
 
 by which a debtor promises to pay to his creditor or to 
 any person into whose hands the note may come, at some 
 future time named, the sum expressed on the face of the 
 note. A common Bank-note is a promissory note. The 
 peculiarity of both a bill of exchange and a promissory 
 note is that the original creditor to whom the one or the 
 other is made payable can, by simply transferring the docu- 
 ment (and, generally, also signing his name at the back of 
 the bill or note), make a fresh contract of the same nature 
 as the original one with the person to whom the transfer is 
 made. This may take place any number of times, and a 
 multiplicity of distinct contracts may be the result. Thus 
 the last possessor of a bill has, in the event of its not being 
 paid " at maturity," a succession of alternative actions 
 against (i) the acceptor of the bill, that is, the person who 
 is indebted to the " drawer" of the bill, or has money of his 
 in his hands ; (2) the "drawer" of the bill ; and (3) each of 
 the persons successively whose names stand at the back of 
 the bill. The last possessor of a note similarly has a suc- 
 cession of alternative actions against (i) the " maker "01 
 promisor ; and (2) all the " endorsers " in succession. 
 
 In the case of an Assurance contract, one person engages 
 to pay a fixed sum of money or " premium " at definitely 
 recurring periods to another person, or associated company 
 of persons, on the understanding that, upon a certain event 
 happening whether it be certain to happen sooner or later, 
 or whether it be such an one as may never happen at all 
 the person paying the premium (or his representatives) is 
 to receive a stipulated amount by way of compensation for 
 loss sustained, or supposed to be sustained, through the 
 happening of the event. The events most commonly insured 
 against (as it is called) are death, and destruction of property 
 by fire, shipwreck, hailstorms, and other accidents. 
 
 Marriage is sometimes said to be a contract, though it 
 is only incorrectly so called in this country, as all the cir- 
 cumstances of the parties are fixed for them by law and not 
 
1 1 8 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 by themselves, and the engagement cannot be dissolved (as 
 in the case of true contracts) by the mere consent of the 
 parties. A mutual promise to marry is, however, a legal 
 contract for all purposes. 
 
 Contracts may, or must, be made in a variety of ways 
 sufficient (or held essential) to signify a common under- 
 standing by the parties. Such ways are by word of mouth, 
 by simple writing, and by formal deed. No contract for a 
 sale of goods exceeding the value of io/. is good, for in- 
 stance, unless part of the price is paid or part of the goods 
 received by the buyer, or unless some note or memorandum 
 of the bargain is made and signed by the party charged by 
 the contract. In some few cases, as in making leases of 
 land for a certain term of years, the contract must be made 
 by deed. 
 
 If a contract is broken, an action may be brought 
 against the person breaking it, and the remedy may take a 
 variety of forms, as that of compensation (involving im- 
 prisonment if the compensation is unpaid and the goods of 
 the debtor are insufficient to make it up), or a compulsory 
 process in which a performance of the actual engagement is 
 enforced. 
 
 If it should seem likely that a person will not be able 
 to fulfil a particular contract or his contracts generally, there 
 are certain special remedies provided by law. Such are 
 Lien and Bankruptcy. 
 
 The process of Lien enables in certain cases a contractor 
 To retain hold of the property of his co contractor, which is 
 accidentally or temporarily in his hands, until the obliga- 
 tion of the co- con tractor is performed. 
 
 Bankruptcy is a summary proceeding by which a person 
 who seems unable to fulfil all his contracts is made to 
 desist from any further operations, to surrender all his pro- 
 perty into the hands of trustees, and, under the control of 
 the Division of the High Court of Bankruptcy, to submit to 
 have it distributed fairly among the creditors, according to 
 the nature of their several claims upon the terms of having 
 
Husband and Wife. 1 19 
 
 his person protected (except in case of special misconduct} 
 from imprisonment, and of being allowed subsequently to 
 make money afresh free from all interference on the part of 
 his former creditors. 
 
 Friendly " compositions " with creditors, that is, special 
 agreements for part payment of debts, are also favoured and 
 supported by law. precautions being taken to provide 
 against fraud, unjust preferences, and collusion of all sorts. 
 
 IV. LAW REGULATING CERTAIN SPECIAL RELATIONS, 
 i. Husband and Wife. 
 
 (i) First, as to the conditions of entering into the rela- 
 tionship of Husband and Wife : 
 
 The man must be at least 14 years of age, and the 
 woman 12 years of age. They must have the amount of 
 reason or mental capacity needed for other voluntary legal 
 acts, and must neither of them have a wife or husband (as 
 the case may be) living. They must, furthermore, not be 
 related to one another within what are called the prohibited 
 degrees of consanguinity or affinity. 
 
 The mode of reckoning degrees of relationship practised 
 in the Roman Law is that adopted for this purpose. Ac- 
 cording to this mode the number of degrees separating two 
 related persons is the sum of the number of generations 
 between each person and a. common stock. The common 
 stock counts as one generation, and one alone of the two 
 persons is included in the calculation. Thus brothers and 
 sisters are in the second degree, uncles and nieces in the 
 third, first cousins in the fourth degree, and so on. 
 
 Marriage is forbidden (i) between persons in the as- 
 cending or descending line, that is, persons related to each 
 other as parent and child, grand-parent and grand-child; 
 (ii) between those related to each other in a degree within 
 that of the third degree inclusive; (iii) between equally 
 close connexions through marriage (relations by affinity}. 
 Thus a man may not marry his sister nor his wife's sister, 
 
J2O The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 each being related to him, either by consanguinity or affinity, 
 in the second degree ; nor his sister's daughter nor his wife's 
 sister's daughter, each being related to him in the third 
 degree. But a man may marry his first cousin, for she is 
 related to him only in the fourth degree. 
 
 The consent of parents or guardians of persons under 
 2i years of age is not essential to the validity of the 
 marriage ; but, if one of the parties be under that age, the 
 party who procures the marriage to take place is made 
 responsible, by the exaction of an oath or other security, for 
 the consent of the minor's father, guardian, or mother, or 
 (under special circumstances) of a Judge of the Division ol 
 the Court of Chancery having been obtained ; and if such 
 consent has not been obtained, special proceedings can be 
 taken by way of forfeiture to intercept any pecuniary ad- 
 vantage he or she might derive from the marriage. 
 
 (2) As to the formal modes of entering into the marriage 
 state, they are, 
 
 (i) By Banns [the word Ban is an old French word for 
 proclamation or proscription], that is. an oral publication or 
 notice of the intended marriage for three successive Sundays 
 in the parish churches of the places where the parties are 
 residing, followed by marriage in one of those churches 
 according to the forms of the Church of England. 
 
 (ii) By u Licence " to marry without Banns, whether 
 "Special/' that is, obtained directly from the Archbishop; 
 or " Common," that is, obtained from an ecclesiastical officer 
 in the neighbourhood called a Surrogate. The marriage is 
 according to the forms of the Church of England, 
 
 (lii) By a " Superintendent Registrar's " Certificate, ob- 
 tained after compliance with rules as to residence in the 
 district and public notice. The marriage consists of either 
 a religious ceremony in a place of worship registered 
 tor the purpose, or a civil ceremony at the office of the 
 Superintendent Registrar. Except in the case of some 
 
Marriage. 121 
 
 privileged religious bodies (as of Quakers and Jews), the 
 marriage must take place before two or more credible 
 witnesses in addition to the Registrar, or, for the civil cere- 
 mony, to the Superintendent Registrar, with open doors, 
 and between the hours of eight and twelve in the forenoon. 
 Careful provision is made for the registration of marriages 
 .ind for the punishment of ministers of religion or others 
 assisting in the celebration of a marriage without first ob- 
 taining the formal securities that the legal conditions for the 
 marriage have been complied with. 
 
 (3) As to the consequences of marriage, they affect either (i) 
 the person or (ii) the property of the married persons. 
 
 i. In respect of the person. Each of the parties to a 
 marriage has a general legal claim to considerate treatment 
 and conjugal fidelity on the part of the other. These claims 
 can be enforced before a Justice of the Peace, who can re- 
 quire sureties for good behaviour on the part of the husband 
 or wife threatening to beat the other, and also in the Court 
 of Divorce, though the remedies are in both cases necessarily 
 very insufficient. These remedies in the last case may take 
 one of two forms ; that is, either what is called a "judicial 
 separation " or a " divorce." The effect of a "judicial separa- 
 tion " is to relieve both of the parties from all the general 
 legal liabilities consequent upon the marriage, though new 
 and special liabilities in respect of supporting one of the 
 parties or of maintaining the children may be imposed at the 
 discretion of the Court. The other remedy, that of Divorce 
 or dissolution of the marriage, is only granted on the grounds 
 of conjugal infidelity on the part of the wife, or like infidelity, 
 coupled with cruelty, on the part of the husband. This 
 judicial act enables each party to marry again. When a 
 Divorce is decreed, special arrangements, suggested by the 
 conduct of the parties and all the circumstances of the case, 
 are made tor the protection of the monetary interests 
 involved and for the guardianship of children. Special 
 
1 22 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 precautions are taken to provide against a Divorce being 
 obtained through collusion of the parties, and no Divorce is 
 decreed if both parties are proved to have been equally in 
 the wrong. The first part of the proceedings takes place 
 before a single Judge the Judge of the Division of 
 Divorce, assisted or not by a Jury, at the will of either of the 
 parties. The final decree is made by the full Court of the 
 Division. 
 
 Besides these compulsory remedies, private arrangements, 
 carried into effect by "deeds of separation," are sometimes 
 made by married persons indisposed to live together, to 
 which a qualified effect is cautiously given by Courts of 
 justice. 
 
 ii. In respect of property, the effects of marriage are 
 determined, partly, by the old " Common -Law," partly by 
 certain doctrines and practices which have during the last 
 i oo years acquired recognition in the Court of Chancery, and 
 partly by the operation of Statutes recently passed for the 
 amendment of the older law. 
 
 According to the old English Common-Law, which 
 still subsists in force so far as it is not affected by the new 
 principles and rules, presently to be mentioned, the 
 personality of the wife was so completely merged in the 
 husband by the marriage, that all her personal property and 
 the proceeds of her real property as they became payable 
 instantly vested in the husband. He was irresponsible in 
 his use of the property which came to him ; and on the birth 
 of a child, he became entitled (by the " curtesy of England") 
 to an estate for life, on his wife's death, in any lands of which 
 she was absolute owner at any time during the marriage. 
 The only compensation which a wife received was that, on 
 the death of her husband, she had an estate for life in one 
 third part of any lands of which her husband was absolute 
 owner. This was called the wife's right of " dower." The 
 wife had special actions for enforcing her claim, and, how- 
 ever short the duration of the husband's ownership, it was 
 
Marriage Settlements. 123 
 
 hardly possible to exclude the wife's claim. But DOW, 
 thiough recent legislation, there are very fe\v cases in which 
 the claim can attach. 
 
 The gradual limitation or subversion of the above 
 doctrines has been broug'it about partly by the action of 
 the Court of Chancery, and, partly, by express legislation, 
 especially by a Statute passed in the year 1870. 
 
 The Court of Chancery has gradually elaborated the 
 doctrine that property may be settled " in trust " for a 
 married woman, either at the time of her marriage or after- 
 wards, and either by her husband or by any other person, 
 in such a way that the wife should in some respects be as 
 free to use the income of it independently of the consent of 
 her husband as an unmarried woman, but, in one respect 
 supposed to be beneficial to herself, should be less free than 
 any other woman, whether married or unmarried. Thus, if 
 money or land were settled on a married woman " for her 
 soie and separate use, without benefit of anticipation, and 
 free from the control of her present or any future husband," 
 the Court holds her to be free to do what she likes in re- 
 spect of the income even as against her husband, but holds 
 her restricted in respect of the capital, even though desirous 
 of dealing with it with her husband's concurrence. The 
 policy is to make her free so far as in the concerns of daily 
 life she might wish to act independently of her husband, 
 and restricted so far as a state of freedom might afford a 
 temptation to his prejudicial interference. 
 
 The objection to these doctrines is that, first, they only 
 apply to those married people who are rich enough to afford 
 the expense necessarily involved in making even the simplest 
 form of marriage settlement, and, consequently, they bring 
 no relief to the wife of the receiver of weekly wages, 
 whose circumstances, in the present respect, are as perilous, 
 and whose moral claims are of course as great, as those of 
 the wives of the wealthiest. Secondly, it becomes, in certain 
 classes of society, a fixed practice to <; tie up " the money of 
 
124 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 persons about to marry in all cases, including, very frequently, 
 those in which absolute freedom to deal with it, as circum- 
 stances from time to time dictate, would be in the highest 
 degree expedient for the interests of husband, wife, and 
 children. The inconvenience of interposing trustees, the 
 difficulty of procuring competent and considerate ones, and 
 the family discord or irritation to which the discharge of 
 their functions very frequently gives rise, suggest further 
 objections to this mode of redressing the inequalities of 
 husband and wife. 
 
 A Statute passed in 1870 improved the law on the whole, 
 but, inasmuch as it preserved the old Common-Law doc- 
 trines in their integrity, and only affected to qualify their 
 operation in special cases, it was cumbrous in its structure, 
 and the remedy accorded was very insufficient. 
 
 The way in which the Act operated was two-fold. As 
 to some species of property which, but for the Act, would 
 have passed to the husband, the Act secured it in all cases 
 for the separate use of the wife just as effectually as if a 
 marriage settlement had been made or as if the wife were 
 unmarried. As to other species of property, the Act gave 
 the wife the power of making a simple declaration, which 
 had the same effect of settling the property to her separate 
 use. 
 
 To the former kind of property belong, for example, 
 all money or goods under 2oo/. and the rents and profits of 
 landed property descending to a married woman. To 
 the latter kind of property belong, for example, money 
 amounting to 20/. at least, invested in the public stocks or 
 funds at or after marriage. This Statute was largely ex- 
 tended by an Act of 1882, by which a married woman is 
 enabled to hold or acquire all real or personal property of 
 whatever kind, and to dispose of it by will or otherwise, 
 just as freely as if she were unmarried. All distinctions 
 introduced by the former Act as to amount and kind of 
 property were abolished. 
 
Guardianship. 125 
 
 The wife is now entitled, counter to the principles of the 
 Common-Law, to maintain an action, in her own name, in 
 respect of her separate property. She is made primarily 
 liable, on the other hand, to pay her own debts contracted 
 before marriage ; and she may, under certain circumstances, 
 have to maintain her husband and to contribute to the 
 maintenance of her children. 
 
 (2) Guardians. 
 
 Under ordinary circumstances the Father is treated as 
 Guardian of his children under the age of twenty-one or till 
 their marriage under that age. He is entitled to the custody 
 of them as against other persons up to the age of twenty-one, 
 and up to the age of sixteen they cannot leave him against his 
 will. He is obliged to provide adequate food, clothing, 
 medical aid, and lodging for his children up to the age of 
 fourteen, under pain of six months' imprisonment ; and he is 
 liable, under pain of a continuing fine, to provide for, and 
 maintain, his children and orphan grandchildren, up to any 
 age, if blind, lame, impotent, or otherwise unable to work. 
 Under recent laws, he is also obliged to have his children 
 educated up to the age of fourteen. The same liabilities in 
 most respects fall on the mother or grandmother in the case 
 of their surviving the father or grandfather, or in case of 
 their having separate property under the Married Women's 
 Property Act of 1870. Though the mother is not con- 
 sidered to be a guardian during the father's life, yet she can 
 claim access to her infant children (that is, children under 
 the age of twenty-one), at such times and subject to such 
 regulations as the Court of Chancery may think proper ; and 
 she has a right to the entire custody of them under the age 
 of seven years. 
 
 The father may, by Will, appoint the mother or any one 
 else, or the mother in addition to some one else, to be 
 guardian to his children after his death. If a child has 
 
126 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 property and the father have appointed no guardian, the 
 Court of Chancery will appoint one. 
 
 The general rights and duties of Guardians in respect of 
 the custody of the children, and if they have funds for the 
 purpose in their hands of maintaining and educating them, 
 are exactly the same as those of the Father. In respect of 
 the management of the Ward's property, the subject is in- 
 cluded under the general head of " Trustees." 
 
 (3) Trustees. 
 
 It was previously seen that the policy of the " Mortmain " 
 Acts was to prevent lands coming into the hands of religious 
 corporations. A persistent effort to evade these Acts was 
 made by means of interposing persons who could legally 
 become owners, and leaving it to their honour or good faith 
 to allow the religious corporations for whose benefit a gift 
 was made to enjoy the fruits of lands conveyed or devised 
 to themselves. These efforts, though favoured by the Court 
 of Chancery, which was presided over by ecclesiastics, were 
 resolutely withstood by the Legislature, which at last suc- 
 ceeded in sweeping away the whole system. But the notion 
 that a gift might be made to one person in trust for the 
 benefit of another became familiarly recognised in the Court 
 of Chancery, which, in cases of gifts so made which did not 
 fall within the Mortmain laws, compelled the persons who 
 were the immediate recipients of the gifts to fulfil the trusts 
 imposed upon them. The varieties of these trusts were, in 
 course of time, largely multiplied, and at" the present day the 
 topic of Trusteeship and of the rights and duties of Trustees 
 is one of the most important branches of Law. The Court 
 of Chancery keeps a watchful, or rather severely critical eye 
 on the acts and omissions of trustees, and employs its most 
 potent and searching mechanism to secure that trustees 
 shall draw as little, and those on whose behalf the trust is 
 held (the cestui que trusts in old Law French) as much, per- 
 
Trustees. 127 
 
 sonal benefit as possible from the trust. Trustees are thus 
 bound (under the penalty of being liable to make compen- 
 sation out of their own private resources) to take the utmost 
 care of property committed to their charge, to protect it 
 from waste, to invest funds safely and advantageously, and 
 to incur such expenditure as, and no more than, is strictly 
 necessary and profitable. 
 
 Trustees may be distributed into two classes, passive 
 and active, according as they have merely to be intermediate 
 organs for the receipt of money entrusted to them from one 
 quarter and the payment of it to another, or as they have, 
 in addition to this, a variety of active duties cast upon them. 
 To the latter kind of trustees belong guardians of children 
 and lunatics, executors and administrators, and assignees in 
 Bankruptcy (that is, the persons to whom all the insolvent's 
 money or goods are transferred in trust for distribution 
 among his creditors). Nevertheless, as has been seen above, 
 all trusts have some active duties attached to them, though 
 where more than one trustee is appointed, it is usually one 
 of them only who acts in the name of the rest, the rest 
 remaining none the less responsible. Trustees must gene- 
 rally assent to undertake the trust imposed upon them, though 
 there are numerous cases in which persons interfering with 
 the property of others, or accidentally having funds of theirs 
 in their hands, are treated as trustees even against their will. 
 
 V. LAW OF "TORTS" OR CIVIL INJURIES. 
 
 The notion of a Tort, or Civil Wrong, is that of such a 
 violation of a right as is neither a Breach of Contract nor a 
 Crime. The rights wh ch afford occasion to this violation 
 thus fall under one of three classes, that is (i) rights of 
 ownership; (2) rights of special classes of persons ; and (3) 
 those universal rights which appertain, in a greater or less 
 degree, to every member of the community, such as rights 
 to personal security, to free locomotion, to the conditions of 
 
128 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 a healthful existence, and to that amount of fair reputation 
 to which their character and conduct entitle them. The 
 violation of these different classes of right which are some- 
 times made to be crimes as well as torts are such as tres- 
 pass to property or to the person, false imprisonment, 
 malicious arrest and prosecution, nuisances in all their 
 various sorts, slander and libel. The remedy is pecuniary 
 compensation, accompanied (in some cases) with restitution 
 of a thing detained. 
 
 VI. CRIMINAL LAW. 
 
 A crime is an act which the State absolutely forbids, and 
 which it employs all the machinery of police, prosecution, 
 and punishment, which it has at hand, either wholly to pre- 
 vent or at the least to render as infrequent as possible. 
 
 In English Law every crime is said to be either a Treason, 
 or a Felony, or a Misdemeanour. The two first of these 
 terms are old feudal words, the first implying an active 
 breach of good faith on the part of a vassal towards his lord, 
 and the second implying such a breach of feudal duty as 
 carried with it forfeiture of the lands held. As society pro- 
 gressed the older classification of crimes was felt to be no 
 longer sufficient to meet the growing forms of violence, and 
 gradually a new class of crimes, that is, the class of " misde- 
 meanours," founded on the notion of a civil in ury sustained 
 by the Crown, was added to the old ones. The class of 
 " felonies " and the class of " misdemeanours," especially the 
 latter, were gradually enlarged as fresh manifestations of 
 fraud, malice, and violence accompanied the growing com- 
 mercial and social complexity of modern life. At the 
 present day the distinction between misdemeanours and 
 felonies is little more than nominal, involving as it does 
 only a slight difference of procedure. All forfeitures for 
 felony have been recently abolished. 
 
 The crime of Treason may be generally described as an 
 offence directed against the constitution or administration 
 
Treason, 1 29 
 
 of the State. It is more particularly described by a number 
 of Statutes, commencing with that of the twenty-fifth year of 
 Edward III This Statute was very general in its terms, 
 and included under the head of" treason " a number of acts 
 of very different moral complexion and political importance. 
 Consequently, a number of successive Acts were needed to 
 interpret the first one and to protect personal liberty against 
 abusive constructions of it. Some of these Acts prescribe 
 the number of witnesses requisite for conviction, and the 
 number and quality of essential facts to which their testimony 
 severally must relate. Others secure that the accused is 
 furnished at a definite period before his trial with a list of 
 the jurors and the adverse witnesses, and with a copy of the 
 " indictment," or formal statement of the offences charged 
 against him. In spite, however, of these statutory precau - 
 tions, a tendency constantly manifested itself in Courts of 
 Justice (which were largely under the influence of the Crown) 
 to extend the construction of the Treason Statutes, so as to 
 bring under them all sorts 'of offences, even of the nature of 
 riot or of the mere free expression of political opinion. 
 These doctrines of what is called " constructive treason " 
 were repudiated by the Bar in the reign of George III. ; 
 but in that reign Statutes were nevertheless passed giving 
 legislative substance to these very doctrines. 
 
 A more lenient tendency has, however, prevailed of 
 late. Recent Statutes have relegated to the general head of 
 felonies a number of acts which, by constant judicial con- 
 struction, had come to be treated as treasons. A double 
 advantage is thus gained. Innocent persons are less ex- 
 posed to slanderous State prosecutions ; and persons really 
 mischievous can be tried by the less complicated process 
 common to felonies generally. 
 
 Felonies and Misdemeanours are offences directed against 
 either person or property, or against both conjointly. 
 Provision is made for the punishment of accessories to 
 crimes, whether before or after the,fact, of those who attempt 
 
 K 
 
130 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 to commit crimes, and- for the aggravated punishment of 
 those who commit repeated crimes. An anomalous form of 
 offence is that styled " misprision of treason.'' It consists in 
 the bare knowledge or concealment of treason, and is evi- 
 denced by a person apprised of treason forbearing to com- 
 municate it to a judge of assize or justice of the peace. 
 
 A large number of acts are made felonies or misde- 
 meanours for the purpose of indirectly securing ulterior 
 moral and political ends. Such acts are bigamy, false entries 
 in public registers, frauds by trustees or bankrupts, and 
 cruelty to animals. 
 
 Besides " crimes," which are technically classified as 
 treasons, felonies, and misdemeanours, and are the subject- 
 matter of indictments at Courts of Quarter-Sessions, 
 Courts of Assize, and the Central Criminal Court, there are 
 many other offences which are described by successive 
 Acts of Parliament, and are tried by a Court of Petty 
 Sessions or by a Police Magistrate. They are said to be 
 cases for summary conviction, though in most of these cases 
 the accused has the option of having the trial reserved for 
 a supe ior Court ; and in some cases an appeal to a Court 
 of Quarter-Sessions is specially allowed. 
 
 The offences forming the subject-matter of summary 
 convictions are very various, including acts of the merest 
 civic irregularity as well as those which involve moral guilt. 
 They cover what are called " breaches of the peace/' frauds 
 against the revenue, and offences against Acts for the regu- 
 lation of the Metropolis, of public health, of public educa- 
 tion, public morals, and game preserving. 
 
 The rapid multiplication of offences punished summarily 
 is a danger to public liberty which ought to be jealously 
 watched. No Jury is needed, and the Judges are either 
 unskilled country gentlemen, or lawyers appointed, remov- 
 able, and capable of promotion, by the Executive Govern- 
 ment. In the course of rapidly discharging a multiplicity 
 oi ro'itine business of this sort, the Judge and the policeman 
 
The L ibcrty of the Subject. 131 
 
 must almost inevitably come into 'an easy rapport with one 
 another, highly convenient for the icady and agreeable dis- 
 charge of their functions, but very perilous to public liberty, 
 and unfavourable to the patient discrimination of the charac- 
 ter of individual cases. No doubt it would be impossible to 
 reserve every transgression of a bye-law or police regulation 
 for a formal trial by jury. But none the less the jurisdiction 
 in question demands to be jealously watched and rigidly 
 circumscribed. As few offences as possible should be in- 
 cluded under such jurisdiction ; every protection to the 
 accused in the way of favourable presumptions, and, if pos- 
 sible, of re-hearing before a differently constituted tribunal, 
 should be afforded ; the Judges should be known to be 
 impartial, disinterested, and qualified for their office by good 
 legal training ; and the police should be carefully selected, 
 strictly supervised, and made readily accountable for mis- 
 conduct. 
 
 The topic of Criminal Punishments has already been 
 treated in connection with Criminal Procedure. 
 
 SECURITIES FOR THE "LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT." 
 
 It is always held to be a valuable characteristic of the 
 English Constitution that, under it, the maintenance of what 
 is called the " Liberty of the Subject " is treated as a matter 
 of peculiar consideration -and consequence. The expression 
 " Liberty of the Subject " does not, of course, mean that 
 there is any member of the State who can do everything he 
 likes, or is exempt from the control of the Laws. It means 
 that the Laws are (if the true principles of the Constitu- 
 tion be observed), or are intended to be, made and exe- 
 cuted in such a way that no individual person's freedom 
 is impaired to a greater extent than is absolutely needed in 
 order to secure the largest possible amount of freedom and 
 benefit for all. The doctrine thus both discredits all laws 
 which interfere with personal liberty without an adequate 
 reason for such interference based on considerations of the 
 
132 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 public good, and also discredits all methods of putting laws 
 in force which expose individual citizens, however obscure 
 or even undeserving of general moral sympathy, to arbitrary 
 aggression on the part of the police or of the judicial 
 administrators of law. 
 
 The chief safeguards of the Liberty of the Subject con- 
 cern (I.) the mode of making laws ; (II.) the judicial admini- 
 stration of laws, that is, the trial of accused persons; (III.) 
 the general prevention of illegal imprisonment ; and (IV.) the 
 definition and circumscription of the duties of the police, 
 especially in respect of subjecting suspected persons to a 
 preliminary judicial examination. 
 
 I. The first class of safeguards is found in the exist- 
 ence and mode of composition of the House of Commons, 
 the popular and representative branch of the Legislature. 
 The infirmities of this safeguard are (i) that it is a most 
 arduous, or even impossible, task to obtain a body of 
 persons which shall do more than very roughly represent the 
 desires and sentiments of even the majority of the persons in 
 the community, let alone those of all persons; and (2) that 
 the constant temptation besetting a popular body, through 
 its unwieldy size, its want of information, its consequent reli- 
 ance on authorities the value of which it cannot gauge, is to 
 legislate in respect of public liberty as heedlessly and tyranni- 
 cally as an aristocratic body or even a despotic autocrat. 
 
 II. The second class of safeguards includes the pro- 
 vision for Trial by Jury in the more important criminal cases. 
 This institution has been already explained. The political 
 value of it is that the ultimate judges of whether an ac- 
 cused person is "guilty" or "not guilty" are not appointed 
 by the Executive Authority, but are chosen (subject to certain 
 restrictions and exemptions) at random out of the body of 
 the people ; and that, inasmuch as they can be individually 
 objected to or " challenged " by trie accused (as well as by 
 the prosecution) at the time of trial, with or without reason 
 given, according to the quality of the offence charged and 
 
TJie Liberty of the Subject. 133 
 
 the number challenged, the personal proclivities of particular 
 persons who might be summoned as jurymen are provided 
 against, and any attempt to "pick," or choose unfairly, a 
 jury in order to secure a verdict in favour of the Executive 
 is frustrated. 
 
 To the same class of safeguards belongs the protection 
 accorded to jurymen by which they cannot be made civilly 
 or criminally responsible for their verdicts. The only relief 
 against the consequences of an adverse verdict is in civil 
 cases, when, if a very strong case can be made out for it, a 
 " new trial " is granted. To this same class also belongs the 
 protection of the functions of jurymen against possible 
 encroachment by Judges. Such a protection was empha- 
 tically accorded by Mr. Fox's Libel Act, the effect of which 
 is to entitle a jury, on an indictment for criminal Libel, to 
 find whether upon the whole evidence a prisoner is guilty or 
 not guilty, without confining themselves (as it had been 
 argued and even judicially decided that they must do) to 
 the mere question of publication, the libellous quality of the 
 matter published being absolutely determined by the J udge. 
 
 To this class of safeguards also belongs the indepen- 
 dence of the Judges of the Superior Courts, secured by the 
 clause of the Act of the reign of William III. by which the 
 succession to the Crown was settled in the present reigning 
 family, enacting that thereafter "judges' commissions should 
 be made quamdiu se bene gesserint (during good behaviour), 
 and their salaries ascertained and established ; but, upon 
 the address of both Houses of Parliament, it might be law- 
 ful to remove them." The Judges were thus taken out of 
 the reach of temptations which either fears or hopes from 
 the Crown might present, and up to that time had noto- 
 riously presented. 
 
 III. The third class of safeguards are those which provide 
 against illegal imprisonment or confinement. These safe- 
 guards either take the form of securing that any one whose 
 liberty is restrained shall have an^eeportnnity Jsuch as that 
 
1 34 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 presented by the proceedings for obtaining the writ of 
 Habeas Corpus, already described) of having the ground 
 of his restraint judicially investigated ; of being speedily 
 brought to trial if accused ; and of the executive being re- 
 stricted as to the place of his imprisonment : or they take 
 the form of securing compensation in a civil action for illegal 
 detention. The general principle that " excessive bail must 
 not be required" is an acknowledged, if not very available, 
 safeguard for the same end. It would seem that every 
 offence is " bailable/' though the allowance and amount of 
 bail demanded must depend upon the circumstances of the 
 case. 
 
 IV. The fourth class of safeguards concerns the definition 
 and circumscription of the duties of the police, especially in 
 respect of subjecting suspected persons to a preliminary 
 judicial examination. There are three ways in which an 
 accused person may be brought before Justices of the 
 Peace sitting in Petty Sessions, with a view either to sum- 
 mary conviction or to committal for trial before a Superior 
 Court. P^ither(i) the accused maybe * summoned* 'and appear 
 voluntarily in obedience to the summons ; or (2) be brought 
 up, whether with or without previous summons, by a police- 
 man pursuant to a warranter written document which states 
 the name of the accused, the character of the offence, and 
 the name of the policeman executing it, and which is signed 
 by the Justice who grants it ; or (3) the accused may be 
 brought up by a policeman or other person without warrant 
 Which of these processes may be resorted to in a given case 
 depends partly upon general principles of the Common 
 Law, and partly upon the provisions of any special Act of 
 Parliament (of which there are a vast number) directing the 
 particular procedure applicable. Generally speaking a 
 policeman is justified in arresting a suspected person with- 
 out warrant, if he has reasonable ground to suspect that a 
 felony has been committed ; and any private person may 
 similarly arrest a suspected person if a felony has actually 
 
The L ibcrty of the Subject. \ 3 5 
 
 been committed. This means that if a private pe-son were 
 sued in such a case for malicious arrest or false imprison- 
 ment, the only sufficient defence would be proof of the fact 
 that a felony had actually been committed, and that there 
 was reasonable ground for suspecting the plaintiff. There 
 are, however, a vast nunuer of cases, under special Statutes, 
 in which policemen and even private persons may make an 
 arrest without warrant. Such cases are those of persons 
 believed to be on the point of committing treason or felony 
 (as by loitering about in a highway or yard for the purpose) ; 
 of persons offending against certain municipal regulations for 
 public health, locomotion, decency, and convenience ; and of 
 persons resisting a policeman in the execution of his duty. 
 
 The purpose of a warrant is to secure the responsible co- 
 operation and assent of a judicial officer at the earliest stage 
 of the proceedings. Thus the judicial officer (who for this 
 purpose may be a Secretary of State) has to judge of the 
 sufficiency of the grounds of suspicion before he grants 
 the warrant ; and in some cases he can only grant the 
 warrant when the information on which it is founded is 
 given on oath. It is on this principle that what is called a 
 "general warrant," that is, a warrant to apprehend all 
 persons suspected, without naming or describing any per on 
 specially, or to apprehend all persons guilty of a crime 
 therein specified, are illegal, and will not, like legal warrants, 
 protect the officer who executes them. 
 
 It is a common maxim that an " Englishman's house is 
 his castle :" this means, however, no more than that an 
 Englishman's house or private room cannot be forcibly en- 
 tered by the police except for a few clearly denned purposes 
 and for important public ends. Thus a policeman, in pursuit 
 of one whom he believes to be a felon, may break open 
 any doors which obstruct his course ; or he may search any- 
 one's premises for goods believed to be stolen, on procuring 
 from a Justice of the Peace a search-warrant specifying the 
 premises and the character of the goads ; but no such 
 
136 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 wan ant can be issued (as was contended in a celebrated 
 case) by a Secretary of State to seize the papers of an author 
 of a seditious libel. 
 
 Extradition. 
 
 A peculiar case affecting the liberty of the subject is 
 presented when a foreign State demands the surrender or ex- 
 tradition of a person who is alleged to have committed a 
 crime in the territory of that State, and who has taken refuge 
 in this country. There is much reason to doubt whether, 
 apart from special treaties for the purpose, one State can be 
 said by International Law to have any legal right to the 
 surrender of persons who are in the territory of another. As 
 a matter of fact, the right (if any) is denned, its measure 
 ascertained, and the procedure for giving it effect described, 
 by " Extradition Treaties," which are becoming increasingly 
 numerous. In the year 1870 a statute was enacted in this 
 country for the purpose of supplying a uniform procedure, 
 in view of which all future Extradition Treaties between 
 England and Foreign States should be made, and to which 
 they should bear reference ; it having been previously the 
 custom to enact a separate Statute for the purpose of giving 
 effect to each successive Treaty. This Statute was amended 
 in 1873. 
 
 The Statute of 1870, as amended in 1873, secures (i) 
 that no accused person shall be apprehended or given up to 
 a foreign State unless the evidence is of the same quality as 
 that which, even if uncontradicted, would be needed to 
 procure the issue of a warrant for the apprehension or the 
 committal for trial of a person charged with the same crime 
 committed in this country ; (2) that either the police magis- 
 trate or the Secretary of State at whose hands the surrender 
 is sought shall be empowered to refuse the surrender, if, in 
 the view of either of them, it appear that the real purpose 
 of the requisition is to punish the fugitive for a political 
 offence ; (3) that a sufficient period, tint is, fifteen days, be 
 allowed to intervene between the committal of the accused 
 
Extradition. 137 
 
 to prison and bis surrender, in order to afford him a fair 
 opportunity of having the grounds ot his committal judicially 
 investigated on the return to a writ of habeas corpus ; (4) 
 that power be reserved to the Secretary of State at any time 
 during the proceedings to order the prisoner to be dis- 
 charged from custody. 
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 It will be convenient to interpose in this place an 
 account of the chief institutions for the conduct of Local 
 Government. This portion of the whole Government of 
 the country is carried out by a variety of local authorities 
 appointed in different ways ; some of which trace their 
 origin to the most ancient institutions in the country, while 
 others have been called into being by a series of modern 
 Statutes. 
 
 The subject is rendered a perplexing one by the fact 
 that, owing to the hap-hazard way in which legislation has 
 proceeded, the same geographical area is distributed for 
 purposes of local government according to a number of 
 different systems for different purposes ; and sometimes the 
 same local authority is charged with a variety of very dif- 
 ferent functions, or a number of different local authorities 
 exist side by side charged with functions scarcely distin- 
 guishable in their general nature. 
 
 Some of the divisions into which the territory of England 
 and Wales is distributed are very ancient, and have thus 
 become, owing to changes in population, unsuited to the 
 wants of the present day. Thus for many purposes the old 
 divisions have been altered, large and populous districts 
 being broken up into several parts, and smaller districts 
 being united together. The general principle in local 
 government is that they who pay a tax shall take part in 
 administering the proceeds of the tax, or, at least, shall 
 tied those who administer such proceeds. The chief excep- 
 
1 38 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 lion is in the case of Justices of the Peace, who are chosen 
 by the Crown out of the County gentlemen who have a cer- 
 tain amount of property, and who at their Court of Quarter 
 Sessions have command over all the money collected by 
 taxes for the general use of the County, as for instance, 
 for building gaols, prosecuting offenders, and payment of 
 salaries to County officials. 
 
 The largest division of the country is into Counties _ or 
 Shires. A County or Shire seems to have been at first a 
 separate kingdom. In Henry the Eighth's reign counties 
 were placed, for military purposes, under the control of the 
 Lord Lieutenant. A county has an organization of its own, 
 the centre of which is the Court of Quarter Sessions. 
 Large Counties are for many purposes further subdivided, 
 as, for instance, Yorkshire into Ridings. There are 52 
 Counties in England and Wales. Each County is divided 
 into a number of parishes of which there are 11,099 m 
 England and Wales and, if the parishes are small, they are 
 often, for certain purposes, joined together into districts', or, if 
 the parishes are very large, they are broken up into districts , 
 so that in some cases a large parish may contain a num- 
 ber of districts or a small parish may be united with other 
 small parishes to form a district. These districts are always 
 made by special Acts of Parliament, while the parishes and 
 the counties are very ancient, and preserve their old limits. 
 
 The purposes of Local Government may be classed as 
 follows : i. Relief of the Poor. 2. Public Health. 
 3. Education. 4. Making and repairing highways, con- 
 structing publ'c buildings, halls, libraries, gaols, lunatic 
 asylums, and workhouses for the poor. 5. Taxation. 
 
 I. RELIEF OF THE POOR. 
 
 The professed principles upon which the poor are re- 
 lieved out of the proceeds of taxation are that only those poor 
 are supported who by reason of extreme youth or age, or acci- 
 dent, or sickness, are unable to work, or who, though able to 
 work, cannot obtain work. This principle is carried out 
 
Poor Laws 139 
 
 by a number of parishes being joined together into a 
 district called a " Union ; " or if the parish be very popu- 
 lous (as in London) by making a single parish into a 
 " Union." Every Union is liable to support its own poor; 
 that is, all the householders in each parish of the Union, 
 living in houses worth above a certain value, are taxed in 
 proportion to the value of their houses for relieving the poor 
 on the principles above described. No poor person can be 
 charged upon a Union unless he or his parents were born in 
 a parish belonging to the Union, or unless he or they have 
 gained a " settlement " in certain definite ways, as (for in- 
 stance) by renting a tenement of the minimum value of 
 io/., having resided therein for forty days, and having been 
 assessed to the poor-rate and paid the same for one year. 
 Should a person become chargeable to a Union who does 
 not satisfy these conditions, he can be removed to his own 
 Union at the expense of that Union, but not if he has resided 
 for three years in the new parish. 
 
 The officers who administer the Poor Law in each 
 Union are a Board of Guardians, one Guardian at least 
 being elected annually by the ratepayers of each parish. 
 The number of Guardians to be elected for each Union, and 
 the qualifications of Guardians, are fixed by the " Local 
 Government Board " in London. In each parish there is 
 also a special set of officers called Overseers. There may 
 be only one, or, in the case of a large parish, there may be 
 as many as four. They are appointed annually by the 
 Justices of the District, generally on the nomination of the 
 parishioners. In some cases Guardians are enabled to 
 appoint a paid Assistant- Overseer. The Guardians and 
 Overseers are not paid. Every Union is constructed by the 
 Local Government Board in London, and all the officers of 
 the Union are under its direct and constant control. The 
 duties of the Guardians and Overseers are as follows : 
 
 i. The Guardians have (i) to investigate the claims of 
 applicants for relief; (2) to piuvide houses for the reception 
 
140 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 of the poor ; (3) to provide for the due education of pauper 
 children ; (4) to provide for the proper care of the sick poor 
 or for the lunatic poor ; (5) to provide that paupers able to 
 work should do certain tasks set them while resident in the 
 workhouse ; (6) to send poor not belonging to the Union 
 to their proper parishes. 
 
 2. The work of the Overseers is (i) to grant relief in 
 pressing cases, and before the case can be examined into 
 by the Board of Guardians, and (2) to make and collect the 
 rates assessed upon the parish for the relief of the poor. 
 These are called the " Poor Rates ; " but the money when 
 collected has to be applied by the Overseers not only to 
 the use of the Guardians, but to a vast number of other 
 purposes not strictly connected with the relief of the poor. 
 
 There are constant complaints of the inefficiency of the 
 existing systems of poor relief. It is said that the operation 
 of the poor laws is to multiply paupers by teaching persons 
 to rely upon the support of the State instead of upon their 
 own exertions. It is said that the really unfortunate poor 
 are neglected and badly treated, while the idle, improvident, 
 arid fraudulent are relieved. It is said also that Union 
 workhouses and hospitals are badly managed, and that the 
 aggregation of children in pauper schools tends to pei- 
 petuate a race of paupers. It is fur 4 her complained that 
 the unscrupulous mode in which relief is given by private 
 persons tends to aggravate many of these evils. To meet 
 this it has been suggested that no out-door relief should 
 ever be given, except to the sick and aged, and that private 
 persons and charitable bodies of persons should endeavour 
 to co-operate with the poor-law authorities so as to assist 
 them in discovering the real character and wants of appli- 
 cants for relief. Some such scheme has been tried with 
 excellent results in some parts of Germany, in Paris, New 
 York, and Glasgow. 
 
Local Government. 141 
 
 2. PUBLIC HEALTH. 
 
 The policy of recent Acts of Parliament has been to 
 extend the facilities for forming, and to increase the power 
 of, Local Boards for the purpose of promoting public health. 
 These Boards are formed by the Local Government Board 
 in London, upon a resolution of the ratepayers, or of some 
 permanent local authority, as the " Town Council " of a 
 Borough, or (in some cases) upon a petition to a Secretary 
 of State signed by one-tenth of the resident ratepayers, and 
 supported by evidence. 
 
 It is the function of a Local Board to provide for the 
 general cleanliness and health of the district, for the cleans- 
 ing of cesspools, the removal of nuisances, the sale of good 
 m'eat, the supply of fresh water, the construction of a sound 
 system of sewerage, the regulation of slaughter-houses and 
 common lodging-houses, the widening of streets, and the 
 laying out of pleasure-grounds. 
 
 Local Boards have considerable powers of making rates 
 and entering into contracts, borrowing money, and building 
 and pulling down premises, though in some cases they can 
 only act with the approval of the Local Government Board 
 in London. 
 
 3. EDUCATION. 
 
 The national education of the country is now conducted 
 partly by the Church of England, partly by voluntary bodies, 
 and partly by School Boards. School Boards are Local 
 Boards elected by the ratepayers every three years, by what 
 has been already described as " cumulative voting." There 
 is a School Board for each of the greatest towns in the 
 country, and School Boards are elected in other towns and 
 districts, if, upon a report of a Government inspector, it 
 appears that there is not sufficient school accommodation, 
 or if the inhabitants generally desire a Board. The Board 
 when constituted has considerable power of making rates, 
 
142 7 he Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 and of building schools, and has to appoint the masters, 
 and to determine the plan of education. It can also, sub- 
 ject to approval by the Privy Council, make attendance at 
 school compulsory, the parents of absent children being 
 punishable by fine. The School Boards consist of different 
 numbers of members, according to the size of the district. 
 In London there are as many as between fifty and sixty. 
 In small places there are from ten to fifteen. 
 
 4. MAKING AND REPAIRING HIGHWAYS, AND CON- 
 STRUCTING PUBLIC BUILDINGS, HALLS, LIBRARIES, 
 GAOLS, LUNATIC ASYLUMS, AND WORKHOUSES 
 FOR THE POOR. 
 
 These tasks are performed either by Justices of the 
 Peace at Quarter-Sessions, or by Local Boards, or by 
 similar local authorities elected by the ratepayers under 
 Acts of Parliament, as those styled " Improvement Com- 
 missioners." 
 
 5. LOCAL TAXATION. 
 
 1'he present modes of local taxation in the country are 
 very various, and, owing to historical causes, the whole 
 matter is confessedly in such a complex state that there 
 is an urgent demand for fresh legislation. At present 
 the following is the general plan of local taxation. The 
 taxes are required (i) for general county purposes, as, for 
 repairing bridges, building gaols, prosecuting offenders, the 
 maintenance of pauper lunatics, the pa}ment of salaries to 
 county officials : or (2) for the purposes of particular dis- 
 tricts^ as parishes or unions of parishes. Such purposes are, 
 the relief of the poor, the repair of highways, lighting and 
 watching, carrying out the Public Health and the Local Go- 
 vernment Acts, and establishing museums and public libraries 
 under special Acts of Parliament. The amount of money 
 needed is determined by the Board charged with the parti- 
 cular duty in the performance of which it is to be expended. 
 
Local Taxation. 143 
 
 This is generally either a Local Board, or Justices sitting at 
 Special Sessions, or some special Board created under parti- 
 cular Acts of Parliament. 
 
 In the case of the County Rate, the amount to be paid 
 by each district in the county is estimated by a committee 
 of not less than five Justices, acting under the direction and 
 appointment of a Court of General or Quarter Sessions. 
 
 The amount payable by each individual person is 
 assessed upon the value of his property in the district, the 
 property upon which he is liable to be rated being generally 
 land or houses. The occupier of a house is the person who 
 is treated as the owner, and obliged to pay the tax. The 
 value of a house or piece of land is " assessed " by the 
 " overseer " of the parish, and the amount " in the pound," 
 that is, the amount everyone has to pay for each pound of 
 rateable value of his land or house, is fixed at a meeting of 
 ratepayers. 
 
 The local government of certain towns, now very 
 numerous, has long differed much from that of county 
 districts. At different periods the Crown has granted 
 them " Charters," that is, has, by a public document, en- 
 gaged that they shall be governed, for some purposes, by 
 persons chosen out of their own body, have magistrates 
 of their own, and, to a proportionate extent, be exempted 
 from the operation of the general law. Some of these 
 towns have long ceased to be as important as they once 
 were. Others have become more important ; while great 
 abuses had sprung up in the old (so-called) corporations. 
 In 1835 an Act was passed for the regulation of corporate 
 towns, and it has been introduced into about 200 towns. 
 According to this Act, the Local Government is managed 
 by a Town Council chosen by persons who for about three 
 years shall have occupied any house or shop within the 
 borough, and also been inhabitant householders within 
 the town or within seven miles of it, and been rated in 
 respect of the premises, and paid rates. The Councillors 
 
The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 elect a " Mayor," or Chief Magistrate, and " Aldermen. ' ? 
 Aldermen are elected for six years. The Mayor is in office 
 for one year, but may be re-elected. Every three years one- 
 half of the number of Aldermen retires. 
 
 The general functions of the Council, Aldermen, and 
 Mayor are to do what has already been described as the 
 work of Local Boards. The Mayor is always a Justice of 
 the Peace. Any town is empowered to have lunatic 
 asylums and prisons of its own. The general powers of 
 acting and taxing belonging to a Town Council are similar 
 to those of a Local Board. 
 
 The City of London has had a long series of Charter^ 
 granted to it commencing with that of William the Con- 
 queror. The fifth Charter of King John "granted and con- 
 firmed to the Barons of London the right of choosing a 
 Mayor every year, and at the end of the year of removing 
 him and substituting another if they will, or electing the 
 same again." The last Charter, that of George II., con- 
 stituted all Aldermen for the time being Justices of the 
 Peace. 
 
 The " City of London " is, however, only a small part 
 of the whole metropolis, and it is now one of the most 
 pressing political problems to ascertain how to extend to the 
 whole metropolis the advantages of municipal institutions 
 without impairing their characteristic value or bringing them 
 into competition with the Central Government. 
 
 ORGANISATION OF THE POLICE. 
 
 In early times the duty of keeping the peace and pre- 
 venting wrong-doing was held to lie equally upon all the 
 inhabitants of the country ; but, as all could not be con- 
 stantly on the watch, the inhabitants of each Parish elected 
 one man as Parish Con stable , to preside over the affairs of 
 
Organisation of the Police. 145 
 
 the Parish ; and four others were to be under his authority. 
 When he " raised the hue-and-cry " everybody was bound 
 to help to catch the offender within the bounds of that 
 Parish, and the duty was passed on to the neighbouring 
 parishes. But as time passed, and the country became 
 more thickly populated, fresh arrangements were made, 
 gradually superseding this popular election of constables, 
 and tending to lay the responsibility of keeping order upon 
 paid officials. The strongest traces left of the old doctrine, 
 that everybody was bound to help to keep order, exist 
 in the swearing in of Special Constables (see later on), and 
 in the nearly obsolete institution of Parish Constables. 
 These are entitled to no payment though the Vestry, or 
 body of assembled ratepayers, may vote them payment 
 and they are liable to a penalty if they refuse to serve or to 
 find a substitute, unless they come within the class of 
 exempted persons. The persons exempted from service as 
 constables are Qcj members of either House of Parlia- 
 ment; (2) lawyers; (3) clergy and ministers; (4) school- 
 masters ; (5) medical practitioners ; (6) persons employed in 
 the civil service ; (7) officers of the army and navy, and officers 
 and men serving in the yeomanry. The persons disqualified 
 for serving as constables are all who have been convicted of 
 any infamous crime, dealers in excisable liqinors or in beer 
 (retail), licensed victuallers, and gamekeepers. Parish 
 constables are now no longer appointed, except under the 
 special direction of a Court of Quarter Sessions. 
 
 The powers and duties of the Police are divisible into 
 (I.) the execution of the criminal law, and (II.) the fulfilling 
 of duties under other portions of the law. 
 
 I. They are to arrest without warrant (i) "disorderly 
 persons," as defined by an Act of Parliament ; (2) persons 
 whom they see committing a breach of the peace ; (3) 
 persons who are charged with a breach of the peace ; (4) 
 persons whom they reasonably suspect to be guilty of 
 felony. They are to arrest any person on the warrant of a 
 
 L 
 
14-5 TJie Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Justice of the Peace. For the purpose of executing a war- 
 rant or of arresting on suspicion of felony they are authorised 
 to break open doors, and even to kill the suspected felon if 
 he cannot be otherwise taken. " If the constable or his 
 assistants be killed in attempting such arrest, it is murder 
 in all concerned." Persons refusing to help a policeman in 
 making an arrest or in keeping order are punishable. A con- 
 stable cannot be sued for anything he does in execution 
 of a Justice's warrant; nor, after six months have elapsed, 
 for anything he does during the performance of his duty. 
 
 II. A large number of duties have been laid upon the 
 Police by different Acts of Parliament, among which are the 
 following: (i) to take care that houses for the sale of 
 liquors are shut at the legal hours ; (2) similarly to report 
 gambling houses ; (3) to keep order in the London streets 
 where there is a great concourse of vehicles, and generally 
 to assist in regulating the traffic of London streets ; (4) to 
 keep order in the streets of towns on the occasion of pro- 
 cessions or great public ceremonials; (5) to enforce bye- 
 laws for regulating the use of public parks and pleasure- 
 grounds. 
 
 Special Constables have, during their time of office, 
 exactly the same powers, duties, and privileges as ordinary 
 policemen, unless it is otherwise expressly stated when they 
 are appointed. 
 
 In all the large centres of population a certain number 
 of constables, chosen for their superior ability and education, 
 are set apart for the purposes of tracking suspected persons, 
 and endeavouring to find the unknown perpetrators of 
 crimes. They are dressed in plain clothes (not uniform), 
 are more highly paid, and are named Detectives. 
 
 The whole Police Forces of the Country may be distri- 
 buted into the following classes : 
 I. Borough Constables. 
 II. County Constables. 
 
 III. Metropolitan Police Constables. 
 
Organisation of the Police. 147 
 
 IV. Constables for the City of London. 
 V. Parish Constables. 
 VI. Special Constables. 
 
 I. The Borough Constables are in the proportion of I 
 to 800 of the population of Boroughs. 
 
 II. The County Constables are in the proportion of 
 one to 1,348 of the population of Counties, exclusive of 
 Boroughs. 
 
 III. The Metropolitan Police (deducting 614 who are 
 employed in the Dockyards) are in the proportion of one 
 for every 420 of the population of the Metropolitan Police 
 District 
 
 IV. Constables for the City of London are in the pro- 
 portion of one to 349 of population during the day in the 
 City. (N.B. So large a proportion of the day population 
 of the City sleep beyond its bounds that the proportion 
 of the City Police to the population in the night is one 
 to 1 06.) 
 
 The cost of maintaining the forces in the year averages : 
 
 
 I. Borough Police . . . 540,000 
 
 II. County Constabulary . . 770,000 
 
 III. Metropolitan Police . . . 880,000 
 
 IV. City of London Police . . 65,000 
 
 Total . ^2,255,000 
 
 These expenses include clothing and accoutrements, 
 salaries and pay, superannuation allowances, station-house 
 charges, and all incidental expenses. 
 
 I. The Borough Police in each Borough consist of 
 
 1. A Head Constable. "] (Appointed by the "Watch" 
 
 2. Serjeants. / Committee of the Town 
 3 Constables. J Council.) 
 
 4, Inspectors. (Appointed by Government.) 
 
 L 2 
 
The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 The expenses are paid partly by a Borough Rate and 
 partly by Government. 
 
 This payment by Government amounts to one-fourth of 
 the expenses of constabulary certified as efficient, and serv- 
 ing a population of not less than 5,000-- 
 
 II. The County Constabulary in each County or 
 Parliamentary Division of a County consists of 
 
 1. A Chief Constable (appointed by the Justices in 
 Quarter Sessions) ; or two Chief Constables, if the County 
 has been so divided as to send Members to Parliament for 
 each Division. 
 
 2. Superintendents.") 
 
 * Serjeants I (Appointed by the Chief Con- 
 
 J Constables. J stable '> 
 5. Inspectors. (Appointed by Government.) 
 The expenses are paid partly out of a Special County 
 Rate and partly by Government. 
 
 The Borough and County Police may be consolidated 
 on agreement, and then the Chief Constable for the County 
 takes supreme control, and can dismiss men belonging to 
 the Borough Police Force, though vacancies must be filled 
 up by the Watch Committee. 
 
 If no such agreement be come to, under certain circum- 
 stances application may be made to the Secretary of State 
 to compel consolidation. 
 
 Superannuation allowances, gratuities, and grants to 
 widows are provided, after different lengths of service, in 
 favour of members of the Police Forces. The fund out of 
 which they are paid is composed of a proportion of the 
 salaries and wages, stopped for this purpose, and of certain 
 judicial fines. 
 
 III. The Metropolitan Police consists of 
 
 1. The Chief Commissioner. 
 
 2. Two Assistant Commissioners. 
 
 3. Four District Superintendents. 
 
Taxation. 149 
 
 4. Superintendents. 
 
 5. Inspectors. 
 
 6. Serjeants. 
 
 7. Constables. 
 
 (Appointed by the Home Secretary or > by his subor- 
 dinates.) 
 
 It is not necessary to give further illustrations of the 
 mode of Police Organisation. 
 
 TAXATION AND THE REVENUE. 
 
 The taxes of the United Kingdom may be thus classi- 
 fied : 
 
 I. DIRECT TAXES, that is, taxes paid personally by 
 those on whom the real burden falls, as, for instance, by 
 occupiers of houses of a certain value, or having a certain 
 amount of income from other sources, or owning certain 
 articles of luxury. Such taxes are 
 
 ( T ) The Income Tax, bringing in a varying sum according 
 to its amount. A penny on every pound of income brings 
 in more than a million pounds revenue. All incomes under 
 i5o/. a year are at present exempted from taxation, and, for 
 incomes under 4oo/. a year, some relief from the duty may 
 be claimed. This tax varies from about twopence to about 
 sixpence in the pound. 
 
 (2) House Duty ana j^and Tax. 
 
 (3) Assessed Taxes , that is, taxes assessed or computed 
 according to the classes of luxuries possessed by the persons 
 paying them. These luxuries are carriages, men-servants, 
 armorial bearings, and the like. 
 
 II. INDIRECT TAXES, that is. taxes computed on the 
 value of certain things manufactured, sold, or imported ; or 
 by way of payment to the Crown on performing certain 
 transactions. Such are 
 
 (i) Customs, that is, taxes upon imported commodities, 
 
150 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 varying with their quality and quantity, paid by the importer. 
 Such commodities are tea, coffee, wine, spirits, and tobacco. 
 
 (2) Excise, that is, taxes upon the manufacture or sale 
 in this country of certain commodities. Such commodities 
 are malt, beer, wine, spirits, tobacco, silver plate, and 
 playing-cards. 
 
 With respect to both these, though the tax is paid by the 
 maker, importer, or seller, it falls mostly upon the buyer of 
 the commodities, as he has to pay a higher price, and there- 
 fore this is called Indirect Taxation. 
 
 (3) Stamps, that is, payments to the Crown upon per- 
 forming certain transactions. A stamp, or adhesive label 
 properly marked, has to be fixed to the document which is 
 the evidence of the transaction, and this stamp has to be 
 purchased from officers of the Government. The price 
 varies with the character of the transaction, and generally 
 with the amount of the money involved. Taxes are payable 
 on succeeding to property under a Will, or when a person 
 dies without a Will, or upon leave being obtained to carry a 
 person's Will into effect. " Legacy Duty, Succession Duty, 
 and Probate Duty," are reckoned under this head. The 
 rules are detailed, and constantly varying. A legal docu- 
 ment unstamped when it ought to be stamped can only be 
 used in a Court of Justice by the payment of a heavy fine, 
 
 III. Besides the products of Taxes, the Revenue is 
 raised from 
 
 (i) The Postal and Telegraph Service. 
 
 (a) The Crown Lands. 
 
 (3) Certain Miscellaneous Sources. 
 
 The following is about the average anticipated receipts 
 from these different sources : 
 
 Direct Taxes. 
 
 Income Tax at id. 3,000,000 
 
 Land and Assessed Taxes and House Duty 3,500,000 
 
Taxation and Revenue. 1 5 1 
 
 Indirect Taxes. / 
 
 Customs ...... 21,000,000 
 
 Excise ....... 28,000,000 
 
 Stamps ....... 9,500,000 
 
 Post Office and Telegraph Service . . 8,500,000 
 Crown Lands ...... 500,000 
 
 Miscellaneous ..... 4,000,000 
 
 The total is a little over 77,500,0007. 
 
 The cost of collection of the Revenue is about 5,000, ooo/., 
 and appears below under the head of Expenditure. 
 
 The ordinary Expenditure of the country is distributed 
 under the following chief items : 
 
 The Interest and Management of the 
 National Debt (amounting to a little 
 over 7oo,ooo,ooo/.) and Terminable An- 
 nuities ...... 26,000,000 
 
 Consolidated Fund charges (including ex- 
 penses of the Royal Household [Civil 
 List]; Annuities and Pensions; expenses 
 of Courts of Justice) . 1,500,000 
 
 Army ....... 14,500,000 
 
 Navy ....... 10.500,000 
 
 Civil Service ...... 11,000,000 
 
 Collection of Revenue .... 5,000,000 
 
 Post Office ...... 4,500,000 
 
 Telegraph Service ..... 1,000,000 
 
 The whole amounts to about 74,ooo,ooo/. 
 
 The general mode in which the Direct Taxes are col- 
 lected is as follows : At certain times in the year (now 
 generally the beginning of the year) a printed paper is left, 
 by a subordinate officer for collecting the Revenue, with 
 everyone who is liable to pay any direct taxes. The person 
 so charged is requested to "make a return," that is, to give 
 a written statement of all the objects of taxation for which 
 
1 5 2 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 he deems himselfliable to be taxed. This paper has to be 
 sent back to the officer from whom it issued by a given day ; 
 and within a short time a fresh paper is left with the person 
 so charged, stating the exact sum of money which he is 
 liable to pay, and mentioning when and where it is to be paid. 
 If the person charged has any complaint to make on account 
 of the amount of taxes imposed, or of the principle of their 
 " assessment," he may appeal to the Justices of the Peace 
 for the District, sitting for the purpose, at a " Special Ses- 
 sion." If the person charged makes no return, or is proved 
 to have made a false return, he is liable to pay a heavy fine. 
 
 In the case of all incomes paid by Government, as in 
 the case of all Dividends paid by way of interest on the 
 National Debt, a proportionate part is deducted, or 
 " stopped," as Income Tax. 
 
 ] n the case of Indirect Taxes, besides the method of 
 purchaseable " Stamps," two kinds of machinery for their 
 collection, or for the prevention of frauds, are employed. 
 One is that of licenses by which only those persons who 
 have bought a permission or "license" from Government are 
 allowed to sell or to use the things the sale or use of which 
 is taxed. The other method is that of inspection ; by which 
 a vast number of Government officials are appointed for the 
 sole purpose of watching and testing processes of manufac- 
 ture, and also of estimating the value of things imported. 
 
 It is obvious that the latter method of indirect taxation 
 involves the use of very severe laws for preventing evasion 
 of the Revenue Laws, and also very complicated machinery 
 for detecting illicit traffic and smuggling. 
 
 GOVERNMENT STATISTICS. 
 
 An important function of the Government in its Adminis- 
 trative aspect is concerned with the collection of accurate 
 and exhaustive statistics on all the subjects with which 
 
Government Statistics. 153 
 
 Government is conversant. The subjects of these statistics 
 and the most characteristic modes of collecting them are 
 here given. 
 
 The principal subjects of statistics collected by Govern- 
 ment are : 
 
 I. Population. 
 II. Army and Navy. 
 
 III. Police. 
 
 IV. Inquests. 
 V. Civil Law. 
 
 VI. Prisons. 
 
 VII. Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 
 VIII. Education. 
 IX. Revenue. 
 X. Religion. 
 
 XL Medical and Sanitary Matters. 
 XII. Emigration. 
 XIII. Poor Law. 
 XIV. Trades. 
 XV. Currency. 
 XVI. Post Office. 
 
 XVII. Diplomatic, Colonial, and Indian Affairs. 
 XVIII. Exports. 
 
 In respect of each of these subjects, the statistics sought 
 fall under a variety of heads, as 
 I. i. Number of population. 
 
 2. Proportion of the sexes. 
 
 3. Area of each county. 
 
 4. Inhabited houses in each county. 
 
 5. Occupation of each person. 
 
 6. Age of each person. 
 
 7. Condition of each person. 
 
 8. Distribution of population in towns and country 
 
 districts. 
 
 9. Number of army, navy, and merchant seamen 
 
 abroad. 
 
154 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 TO Number of population in proportion to the area 
 
 of each county. 
 (By the Census. For details of process of collection 
 
 seepage 163.) 
 
 II. Army and Navy abroad. 
 
 Classes from which they are drawn. 
 
 Numbers of, abroad and at home. 
 
 Cost of. 
 
 Classification of. 
 
 Distribution of. 
 
 Rate of disease and death in. 
 
 Educational and other establishments for. 
 
 Cost of administration of military law in respect of. 
 
 Religious classification of. 
 
 Numbers of Volunteers. 
 
 Classification of Volunteers. 
 
 Distribution of Volunteers. 
 
 Rate of disease and death among Volunteers. 
 
 Cost of Volunteers. 
 
 Numbers of Militia. 
 
 Classification of Militia. 
 
 Distribution of Militia. 
 
 Cost of Militia. 
 
 Number of ships, dockyards, and victualling and trans- 
 port stations. 
 
 Classification of ships, dockyards, and victualling and 
 transport stations. 
 
 Cost of ships, dockyards, and victualling and transport 
 stations. 
 
 Distribution of ships, dockyards, and victualling and 
 transport stations. 
 
 (From the War Office and Admiralty.) 
 
 III. Population, police establishments, and total cost, 
 in each Police District, with the proportion paid by the 
 Treasury. 
 

 Government Statistics 155 
 
 Number of known offenders and suspected persons at 
 large in each Police District, and of the houses they frequent. 
 
 Number of crimes committed in each Police District (as 
 far as is ascertainable), number cf persons apprehended, and 
 modes in which the charges against them were severally 
 disposed of. 
 
 Nature of the crimes committed. 
 
 Number of persons whose cases were determined ' sum- 
 marily " by Justices. 
 
 Result of the proceedings in " summary " cases. 
 
 Classes of persons in each district who were proceeded 
 against. 
 
 Number of appeals from Justices' convictions. 
 
 Number of persons bailed. 
 
 Proportion of males and females apprehended. 
 
 Age of persons apprehended. 
 
 Objects of theft. 
 
 Number of each class of verdicts. 
 
 Nature of punishments. 
 
 Number of appeals, and of consequent reversals of sen- 
 tence. 
 
 Proportion of criminal classes to population. 
 
 Proportion of crimes to town and country districts, and 
 to different classes of towns and districts. 
 
 Increase or decrease of crime in town or country. 
 'By the Police Returns.) 
 
 TV. Inquests. Number of. 
 Verdicts of. 
 
 Age and sex of subject of. 
 
 Expenses of. 
 
 (By Coroners' Returns.) 
 
 V. Civil Law Proceedings. 
 In Court of Queen's Bench. 
 Common Pleas. 
 ,, Exchequer. 
 
156 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 On Circuit. 
 
 In Court of Exchequer Chamber. 
 
 County Courts. 
 
 Borough, Hundred, and Manorial Courts. 
 
 Stannaries Court.* 
 
 Lord Mayor's London Court. 
 
 Court of Bankruptcy. 
 
 Court of Chancery, with its subdivisions. 
 
 Divorce Court. 
 
 Probate Court. 
 
 High Court of Admiralty. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Court. 
 
 Appeals to the Privy Council. 
 
 Judicial Proceedings in House of Lords. 
 
 (Returns by Superior Officers of each Court.) 
 
 In the case of each of these Courts returns are made as 
 to the 
 
 Number of causes tried or otherwise disposed of. 
 Nature and result of causes tried or otherwise disposed 
 
 of. 
 
 State of business at the end of each quarter. 
 Notices of appeal from or appeals to, according to the 
 
 Court. 
 
 Classification of objects of actions. 
 Amount of Fees paid into Court. 
 Classes of amounts sued for, and of amounts recovered. 
 
 VI. Prisons. 
 
 Number and classification of officers. 
 
 Number of persons committed. 
 
 their previous commitments. 
 
 * This is a special court in the tin districts of Devonshire and 
 Cornwall for the determination of civil suits among workers in the 
 mines. The privileges implied in exemption from the jurisdiction of the 
 ordinary courts were confirmed by a charter of Edward Land explained 
 by statutes of Edward III. and Charles I. 
 
Statistics. 157 
 
 Age, sex, and birthplace of persons committed. 
 
 Instruction and occupation of , 
 
 Number of persons in each prison. 
 
 State and condition of prisons with regard to capacity, 
 health, punishments, and number of prisoners sentenced to 
 hard labour. 
 
 Details of expenses and total cost of each prison. 
 
 Convict Prisons. 
 
 Number of convicts in each prison. 
 Classification of convicts 
 Officers of each prison. 
 Expenses of each prison. 
 
 (From the Governors' Returns.) 
 
 Reformatory and Industrial Schools. 
 
 Number 
 Age 
 
 Sex 
 
 \ of the offenders committed to 
 Instruction them> 
 
 Occupation 
 
 Social condition 
 
 Offences committed by such offenders. 
 
 Number of officers. 
 
 Cost of establishments. 
 
 (Returns by the Governors or Managers.) 
 
 Criminal Lunatic Asylums. 
 Number, age, sex, of persons confined. 
 Offences committed by 
 
 Officers and cost of establishment. 
 
 (Returns by Governors.) 
 
 VII. Births, Deaths, and Marriages. 
 Number of in each Registration District. 
 Proportion of births to population. 
 Proportion of males and females born. 
 
1 58 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Ages at which persons marry. 
 
 Ages at which persons die. 
 
 Number of persons able to sign the marriage register. 
 
 Proportion of male and female deaths in infancy, and 
 throughout the term of average life. 
 
 Proportion of legitimate and illegitimate births. 
 
 Numbers, and proportion between the sexes, of deaths 
 from different diseases, dangerous occupations, and accidents. 
 (From the Registrar-General's Returns.) 
 
 VIII. Education. 
 
 As there is no complete national system of education, no 
 trustworthy statistics can be obtained. The best sources at 
 present accessible are the Registrar-General's Marriage 
 Returns, which supply the number, and proportion as be- 
 tween the sexes, of persons able to write at the age of mar- 
 riage ; the Returns of the Education, Science, and Art 
 Department of the Privy Council, obtained from the masters, 
 mistresses, and inspectors of such schools as receive Govern- 
 ment aid for their support, and from the various Govern- 
 ment institutions for scientific and artistic instruction ; the 
 statistics published by the " Schools Inquiry Commission," 
 which had a temporary existence a few years ago. 
 
 If ever the whole country is reduced into School Board 
 Districts, much more complete returns will be obtainable ; 
 but, even then, there will remain a large amount of unre- 
 ported education in private families, private schools, the 
 " Public Schools," schools started by bodies of private per- 
 sons, as " Proprietary Schools," or " Limited Liability Com- 
 pany Schools," " Tneological Institutions," and " Training 
 Colleges," under the management and for the supply of 
 various religious sects, and the Universities. 
 
 IX. Revenue. 
 
 Expenses attending collection of revenue. 
 
 Accounts received from different classes of taxes, as 
 
Government Statistics. 159 
 
 those on land, houses, income, and commodities of different 
 kinds, varying from time to time. 
 
 Amounts of receipts of all persons paying Income-tax. 
 
 Amount of landed property possessed by all persons 
 paying Land-tax. 
 
 Rents of houses occupied by persons paying House-tax. 
 
 Amounts and nature of the transactions entered into by 
 all persons paying Stamp-duty. 
 
 Amount of taxed commodities sold and bought in the 
 country. 
 
 Number of persons following such occupations as require 
 licenses. 
 
 Number of certain sorts of servants employed. 
 
 Number and nature of certain sorts of vehicles employed. 
 
 Number and nature of certain animals kept. 
 
 Number and nature of patents taken. 
 
 Value of landed property succeeded to. 
 
 Number of Wills proved. 
 
 Amount of " personal property " willed in them. 
 
 Number of fire insurances. 
 
 Value of property insured from fire. 
 
 (Returns of Board of Inland Revenue.) 
 
 Value, nature, bulk, and measure of taxable articles im- 
 ported. 
 
 Proportion of these entering the country at each port. 
 
 List of places where customs are collected. 
 
 Expenses and staff of each Customs office. 
 
 Number and expense of Coast Guard, and of revenue 
 cruisers. 
 
 (Returns of Boara of Customs.) 
 
 X. Religion. 
 
 There are no available statistics. A certain amount of 
 popular knowledge has grown up, founded on publications 
 issued by different sects, on reports by Royal Commissions 
 
1 60 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 appointed from time to time to investigate particular points, 
 on inquiries made by private persons, and on a very im- 
 perfect return made in the census for the year 1851. 
 
 XI. Medical and Sanitary Matters. 
 
 The statistics on these heads are very incomplete. Such 
 as they are they include 
 
 Sorts of diseases prevalent. 
 
 Number of cases of each sort (as far as ascertainable). 
 
 Number of deaths from each sort 
 
 Age, sex, locality, of persons affected. 
 
 Results of legislative measures on death-rate and general 
 health of localities and occupations. 
 
 (Collected from private and public sources by the Board 
 of Trade, and by officers under the Privy Council Medical 
 Department.) 
 
 State of towns as to 
 
 Drainage. 
 
 Water supply. 
 
 Lighting. 
 
 Inspection of markets and shops for sale of food. 
 
 Offensive trades. 
 
 Burial grounds, &c. 
 
 Regulation and locality of shambles and bakehouses. 
 
 Removal of Sewerage. 
 
 (Board of Health.) 
 
 XII. Emigration. 
 
 Age, sex, destination ot emigrants. 
 
 (From Emigration Board.) 
 
 XIII. Poor Law. 
 Number of Parishes. 
 Number of " Unions." 
 
 Number, and proportion to population, of inmates of 
 Parish or Union Workhouses. 
 Age and sex of inmates. 
 
Government Statistics. 161 
 
 Number of Boards of Guardians, and of Guardians in 
 each Board. 
 
 Number of Overseers of the Poor. 
 
 Expenses of establishments, and salaries of officers, con- 
 cerned in the relief of the poor, and in the collection of 
 poor-rates. 
 
 Number, age, condition of persons relieved. 
 
 Number, age, sex, of persons who are helped by the 
 poor-rates to emigrate. 
 
 Numbers, age, sex, condition of lunatics in Pauper 
 Lunatic Asylums. 
 
 Numbers, age, sex, of children educated in pauper 
 schools. 
 
 Number, age, sex, occupation of children apprenticed 
 or put to service out of workhouses. 
 
 Numbers and relative proportions of legitimate and ille 
 gitimate births in workhouses. 
 
 Number, proportion to number of inmates, and causes 
 of deaths in workhouses. 
 
 (Returns of Poor Law Board.) 
 
 XIV. Trades. 
 
 Numbers of persons employed in the principal in- 
 dustries. 
 
 Numbers of factories, workshops, warehouses, used for 
 principal industries. 
 
 Nature and amount of "power" used in principal in- 
 dustries. 
 
 Numbers and nature of mines, and bulk of their pro- 
 ducts. 
 
 Amount of raw material used for home consumption, 
 amount of raw material exported ; amount of manufactures 
 used at home, amount of manufactures exported. 
 
 Value of each of the last-named four amounts. 
 
 Agricultural statistics. 
 
 M 
 
l6z The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Number, condition, class of ships not belonging to the 
 Royal Navy. 
 
 Number of merchant seamen. 
 Dockyards for merchant shipping. 
 Lighthouses, their number, position, and class. 
 Numbers and causes of wrecks. 
 Numbers, limits, c., of railways. 
 
 (Returns of Board of Trade.) 
 
 XV. Currency. 
 
 Amount of bullion imported. 
 
 (Board of Trade Returns.) 
 
 Amount of each metal coined. 
 
 Nature of coinage. 
 
 Number and value of notes, tc., issued. 
 
 Number and value of notes returned to Bank. 
 
 (Governors and Directors of Bank of England.) 
 
 XVI. Post Office. 
 
 Number of letters transmitted. 
 
 Number of telegrams transmitted. 
 
 Number of books and other parcels transmitted. 
 
 Amount of money- orders issued. 
 
 Number of depositors in Post Office Savings Banks. 
 
 Percentage of letters, telegrams, parcels, and deposits to 
 the population. 
 
 Number and cost of establishments for letter post, tele- 
 graphs, and Post Office Savings Banks. 
 
 (Postmaster-General's Returns.) 
 
 XV 11. Diplomatic, Colonial, Indian Affairs. 
 
 These are collected under heads similar to those of Great 
 Britain and Ireland, by the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, 
 a.nd India Office respectively, through their subordinates in 
 
Government Statistics. 163 
 
 each department of government abroad. Further details 
 would be unnecessary. 
 
 XVIII. Exports. 
 
 Amount, nature, and value of articles exported, either 
 raw or manufactured. 
 
 Value of such exports to each place of destination. 
 
 Proportion of exports to imports of all the principal sorts 
 of commodities. 
 
 (Board of Trade Returns.) 
 
 SPECIMEN OF MODE OF COLLECTING DETAILS. 
 I. Population. 
 
 The Census is taken on one night in every ten years, 
 when the persons specially appointed for the purpose require 
 an account of the persons in each house or building between 
 certain hours, the ships in harbours being also included. 
 There is no permanent staff of subordinate officers. The 
 Census in England and Wales in 1871, April 3, gave such 
 results as the following: (See page 153 for explanation of 
 figures.) 
 
 1. 22,704,108 inhabitants. 
 
 2. 11,663,705 women; 11,040,403 men. 
 f Bedford, 295,582 statute acres. 
 
 3.J Berks, 45 1 * 210 
 I &c. 
 
 r Bedford, 30,508 inhabited houses. 
 4.^ Berks, 39,612 
 
 I &c. 
 
 5, 6, & 7. " John Smith, tailor, 43, married. 
 Jane Smith, no occupation, 41, married. 
 Thomas Smith, tailor's apprentice, 1 6, single. 
 Mary Jones, servant, 21, single." 
 r Towns, population in, 12,900,297. 
 [Country districts, population in, 9,803,811 
 
164 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 II. (i) Army. 
 
 The Secretary of State for War receives statistics from 
 the Commander-in- Chief, and he from the Generals of 
 Division, and so downward, to the lowest rank of military 
 and medical officers. 
 
 The following is a specimen of the statistics under this 
 head : 
 
 The whole Army is classified under the two general 
 heads of 
 
 Officers on the General and Departmental Staff. 
 
 Namely: General Staff 87 
 
 Chaplain's Department ... 77 
 
 Medical Department ... 613 
 
 Control Department ... 476 
 
 Total 1,253 
 
 Regiments. 
 
 Non-commis- Rank and 
 Officers, sioned Officers. file. 
 
 Royal Horse Artillery ... 120 ... 219 ... 2,498 
 Life Guards and Horse 
 
 Guards, &c 81 ... 192 ... 2,498 
 
 (2) Navy. 
 
 The Board of Admiralty (consisting of the First Lord 
 and four others) obtains statistics, similar to those of the 
 Army, from their Financial and Permanent Secretaries, and 
 they from the heads of different departments, and so down 
 to the subordinate officers, naval, medical, in dockyards, and 
 in the victualling and transport departments. 
 
Organisation of the Army. 165 
 
 THE ARMY AND NAVY. 
 
 THE English land forces consist of the regular troops, and 
 of reserve troops made up of several distinct elements. The 
 whole management of the army is in the hands of the Cro\vn , 
 but it is illegal, as declared by the Bill of Rights, to kev Q p 
 up a standing army in time of peace without consent of Par- 
 liament. Therefore an Act of Parliament (called "The 
 Arrny Discipline and Regulation Act," embodying the 
 *' Mutiny Act ") is passed every year, by which the number 
 of men (usually between 125,000 and 135,000, exclusive of 
 the troops serving in India) to constitute the regular army 
 is fixed for the year, and the Crown empowered to make 
 regulations called " Articles of War," for the discipline and 
 government of the army. 
 
 The reserve forces consist of (i) the Militia, (2) the 
 Yeomanry Cavalry, (3) the Volunteer Corps, (4) the enrolled 
 Pensioners and Army Reserve force. These several forces 
 are regulated, and the modes of their enrolment determined, 
 by law. They are recruited and drilled by local officials, 
 scattered throughout the country, who receive their com- 
 mission from the Crown. In the case of the number of the 
 Militia being insufficient, the corps can be completed by a 
 compulsory ballot. The regular and the reserve forces are, 
 for purposes of discipline and management, placed under 
 the command of the same higher officers. For this purpose 
 Great Britain and Ireland are partitioned into ten military 
 districts, subject to the command of ten general officers ; and 
 each district is divided into eighty sub- districts, sixty-six of 
 which are apportioned to infantry, twelve to artillery, and 
 two to cavalry. In each sub- district the regular and the 
 reserve forces of the several departments of the army are 
 grouped side by side, and subject to a common colonel, who 
 is responsible for the discipline and recruiting of all the forces 
 under his command 
 
1 66 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 By special statutes the provisions of the Army Disci- 
 pline and Regulation Act are applied to the reserve forces 
 as well as to the regular troops. 
 
 This Act provides for the constitution, by commission 
 from the Queen, of Courts-Martial for the trial of offences 
 against the Articles of War. These courts may be " General 
 Courts- Martial," convened within the United Kingdom or 
 the British Isles, and consisting of not less than nine com- 
 missioned officers, of which two-thirds must agree in passing 
 sentence of death ; "District or Garrison Courts-Martial," 
 consisting of not less than seven commissioned officers, who 
 are incapable of passing a sentence of death or of tr ine a 
 commissioned officer ; " Regimental or Detached Court^- 
 Martial," consisting of not less than five commissioned officers, 
 unless it is impracticable to assemble that number, when three 
 will suffice ; but their power is limited to sentencing soldiers 
 to corporal punishment, imprisonment, and forfeiture of pay. 
 
 A substitute for a General Court- Martial with all its powers 
 is provided in what is called "A Detachment General Court- 
 Martial." This court maybe organised in any place beyond 
 the seas, for the trial of offences committed against the pro- 
 perty or person of any inhabitant or resident in the country 
 in which such troops are serving. It consists of not less than 
 three commissioned officers, and no sentence of death passed 
 by it can be executed without the concurrence of the General 
 commanding the army of which the detachment forms a part. 
 
 A considerable number of offences, tending to mutiny, 
 sedition, or insubordination, are punishable with death, penal 
 servitude, or such other alternative punishment as may by a 
 court-martial be awarded, the limits of these punishments 
 being fixed by the Articles of War. No court-martial can 
 sentence a soldier to corporal punishment in time of peace. 
 For the legal assistance of the Commander-in-chief in 
 cases coming before General Courts-Martial, there is an 
 officer appointed by the Crown entitled the Judge Advo- 
 cate General. All preliminary questions as to the form 
 
Martial Law The Navy. 167 
 
 of the charge, the value and nature of the evidence, and the 
 modes of proceeding, are submitted to him for his opinion 
 at the outset. He is represented at the trial by a Deputy, 
 who acts as a legal assessor, and is called the Judge- Advo- 
 cate. The Judge-Advocate General further advises the 
 officer whose function it is to confirm the sentences of 
 General Courts- Martial, and he is the custodian of the 
 Records of General and District Courts. 
 
 The law administered in courts-martial is sometimes 
 called " Martial Law," and sometimes (more properly) " Mili- 
 tary Law." It is often confounded with the rules of disci- 
 pline which a military commander is occasionally compelled, 
 in the absence or violent suspension of all law properly so 
 called, to impose on the inhabitants of a district, in order to 
 repress an actual or apprehended insurrection. This arbi- 
 trary mode of superseding the procedure of the ordinary 
 courts of justice by military force has always been looked 
 upon in England with the utmost disfavour and suspicion. 
 It can only be justified by necessity, and no further than the 
 necessity exists, nor longer than it lasts. The expression 
 " Martial Law" for the signification of these rules is extremely 
 misleading, as it gives rise to a notion that law still subsists in 
 force, whereas the sole justification of the arrogated authority 
 is to be found in the fact that law has lost or is losing its 
 proper authority, and is in danger of surviving no longer. 
 Of course these remarks apply only to the case of territory 
 of the State occupied by its own armies, and not to that of 
 foreign territory occupied by a hostile army. This last sub- 
 ject belongs to " International" and not to " Constitutional" 
 law. It must be treated with reference to an entirely different 
 class of considerations. 
 
 The Navy is not re-created every year by an annual Act, 
 as the army is. Provision, indeed, has to be made for its 
 maintenance by an annual grant of money, as in the case of 
 the army ; but the discipline of the navy at present is sup- 
 ported by the " Naval Discipline Act," passed in the twenty- 
 
i(5S TJie Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 fourth year of the present reign. This Act provides for 
 Articles of War and Courts-Martial, similar to those pro- 
 vided for by the Mutiny Act. A distinct Mutiny Act is 
 passed annually for the control of the Marines, a branch of 
 the service consisting of soldiers employed on board ships 
 of war. 
 
 MERCHANT SHIPPING. 
 
 INASMUCH as the High Court of Admiralty has a special 
 jurisdiction in respect of a variety of matters connected with 
 Merchant Shipping, and the Government is often involved 
 in complications with foreign Governments through the same 
 medium, it is important to examine what constitutes a 
 " British ship," and what are the general rules with which the 
 owner and master of a British ship are expected to comply. 
 
 In order for a ship to be a British ship, it must belong 
 wholly either to natural-born British subjects or to "denizens" 
 that is, persons to whom a partial citizenship has been con- 
 ceded by letters-patent from the Crown or to bodies cor- 
 porate, established under, subject to the laws of, or having 
 their principal place of business in, a British possession. 
 
 Unless the ship be a small one, or used for mere river 
 or coasting navigation, it must be duly registered. The 
 " certificate of registry" states the name of the ship and of 
 the port to which she belongs, her tonnage and build, the 
 name of her master, and the name and description of her 
 registered owner. 
 
 In case of any doubt arising as in time of war about the 
 true nationality of a ship, and the good faith of those on board, 
 it is of great importance that what are called the " ship's 
 papers " should all be in order. These papers are : (i) The 
 certificate of registry as above described ; (2) the " charter- 
 party," or documentary evidence of the contract of affreight* 
 
The Bank of England. 169 
 
 ment, by which the ship is engaged to undertake a voyage to 
 one or more places, and which stipulates the voyage, freight, 
 burthen of ship, and allowance payable for delay in loading 
 or unloading beyond the specified time ("demurrage"); (3) the 
 " bills of lading," or copy of receipts for goods received on 
 board, and of which the consignor and consignee have other 
 copies, these bills representing the goods, and, when en- 
 dorsed, transferring the ownership of them ; (4) the account 
 of the crew; (5) the agreement with the seamen to be put 
 up (by English laws) in a place accessible to all of them ; 
 (6) the official log-book, in which are entered all the events 
 of the voyage; and (7) the "manifest," or accurate account 
 of all goods shipped, and by whom and to whom consigned. 
 The owner of a British ship is liable to a fine of ^500 if it 
 wears the Union Jack flag otherwise than with a white border, 
 or wears any colours usually worn by the Queen's 
 ships. 
 
 It is to be noticed that regulations are made for the in- 
 spection of ships, and for their being provided with all that 
 is thought needed to ensure the safety of the crew ; though a 
 great movement is now taking place to make the require- 
 ments in this matter far stricter and more searching. Special 
 facilities are accorded to sailors for obtaining the ready pay- 
 ment of their wages, and for being brought home if taken on 
 an outward voyage. 
 
 THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 
 
 THE BANK OF ENGLAND is, strictly speaking, a private body 
 of traders, with whom the Government has made a special 
 arrangement, and who enjoy certain privileges in considera- 
 tion of the services which, in pursuance of that arrangement, 
 they perform. In some aspects, however, the Bank of Eng- 
 land is a public institution, and must be treated as belonging 
 
170 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 to the mechanism of the administrative side of Government 
 The Bank is a creditor of the Government for a considerable 
 sum, and it also acts as a sort of agent for the payment of 
 the interest or dividends due in respect of the National Debt. 
 The Bank was founded in 1694, an d owes its origin to a loan to 
 Government of the sum of ^ 1,200,000. The subscribers 
 to the loan received 8 per cent, on the sum advanced 
 and ^4,000 per year for the expenses of management, and 
 were incorporated into a society denominated " The Governor 
 and Company of the Bank of England." The capital was 
 constantly increased in succeeding years, and exclusive 
 privileges of banking were, first, conceded for eleven years, 
 and then continued by successive renewals of the charter, 
 till the year 1855, after which it was provided that the privi- 
 leges might be cancelled on a year's notice. 
 
 The most important event in the history of the Bank of 
 England is the passing of the Bank Charter Act of 1841. 
 The purpose of this Act is to secure, in all circumstances, 
 the certain and immediate convertibility into coin of bank 
 notes. This was effected as was believed by restricting 
 the issue of notes to a number representing ^14,000,000 
 (and a little in addition in the case of certain other banks 
 ceasing to issue notes), unless bullion representing any ex- 
 cess of notes beyond that amount should actually be in the 
 coffers of the Bank. Another object effected by this Act 
 was the entire separation of the " issuing department " of 
 the Bank (that is, the department which is concerned with 
 manufacturing, distributing, and securing the convertibility 
 of bank notes) from the banking department, which re- 
 ceives money deposited or advanced by customers, advances 
 money on loan to them, invests money which is in its hands, 
 and pays money to its customers' orders. 
 
 The Bank Charter Act has more than once, in times of 
 commercial distress, had to be suspended in order to enable 
 the Bank of England to meet (should need arise) a sudden 
 demand for notes beyond the number which could be issued 
 
The Railway System. 171 
 
 otherwise. The policy of the Act has been severely criti- 
 cised, both on the ground of the mechanical pressure which 
 it puts upon trade, so preventing an easy and natural self-ad- 
 justment, and also because the separation of the two depart- 
 ments prevents the Bank availing itself of much of the bullion 
 actually in its hands. The function which the Bank discharges 
 in reference to the National Debt will be gathered from what 
 has been said under the head of the " National Debt Office." l 
 
 THE RAIL WAY S YSTEM. 
 
 RAILWAYS are constructed by private companies under a 
 certain special control of the State. 
 
 (i) This control is exercised by restricting the number of 
 railways, and determining in given cases whether a railway 
 shall be made or not. When it is proposed to make a rail- 
 way through a certain district, the persons who wish to form 
 themselves into a company for the purpose propose that a 
 Bill shall be presented in the House of Commons, in order 
 to carry out their ends. The House, (after being satisfied 
 that certain rules of the House called " standing orders " 2 
 have been complied with) refer the Bill to a Select Com- 
 mittee of the House, which sits from day to day to exa- 
 mine witnesses as to the need and desirability of the railway, 
 and to hear persons who oppose the railway on various 
 grounds such as there being other railways in the same 
 vlistrict, the small number of passengers or quantity of goods 
 likely to require the use of the railway, or the injury it would 
 cause to property lying in the direction in which it would run. 
 The Committee, after thus hearing both sides, decide whether 
 they shall recommend the passing of the Bill or not. If they 
 recommend that it should pass, it generally is passed. The 
 nature and effect of the Bill is to form the persons asking 
 for it into a " Joint Stock Company," capable of holding pro- 
 perty, making contracts, and suing or being sued at law; to 
 
 1 See p. 72, and also Appendix D. 2 See p. 44. 
 
172 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 give the company power to buy the necessary land, even 
 against the will of the owners ; and to enable them to 
 borrow money up to a certain amount from persons ready to 
 lend money, on condition either of receiving a fixed rate of 
 interest (" debentures"), or a proportion of interest according 
 to the success of the undertaking (" shares"). 
 
 (2) The restriction exercised by the State has reference 
 also to the control of companies while the railway is being 
 worked : as with respect to the amount of payment by pas- 
 sengers for travelling, and the conduct of inquiries as to the 
 cause of accidents, in which inquiries a State-inspector always 
 takes part. This latter department belongs especially to the 
 "Board of Trade." It is a matter of some controversy in 
 this country whether it is expedient that the railways should 
 all belong as they do to private companies, no more con- 
 trolled by the State than in the above respects or whether 
 it would be better, as is the case in most other European 
 countries, for the railways to belong to the State, and either 
 be managed by State officials, or be leased out to private 
 companies to be managed by them. It is said, in favour of 
 the existing system of management by private companies, 
 that the stimulus of profit and the concern that persons 
 always have in matters directly affecting themselves, as 
 well as the fact of free competition, produce a better system 
 of management than Government could supply ; and that if 
 the railways were in the hands of Government, the officials 
 charged with the management would be badly appointed, or 
 chosen in view of the private or political interest of tne 
 superior Government officials choosing them. 
 
 On the other hand, in favour of Government assuming 
 the ownership, and, possibly, the direct management of the 
 railways, it is urged that the Post-office and the Telegraphic 
 system have been better and more cheaply managed since 
 they were taken out of private hands ; that the Government 
 alone could afford to make travelling immensely cheaper, as 
 t need not seek to make the highest possible profit, and 
 would not expend so much money in making the railways 
 
The Establisncd Church. 173 
 
 or in making more railways than are wanted. In all the 
 Railway Acts passed after a certain date, Government has 
 reserved the power of buying up the lines if at any time it 
 should wish to do so. 
 
 THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 
 
 IN England and Wales there is what is called an Established 
 Church : that is to say, a particular form of religious worship 
 is favoured by the State, and to a certain extent regulated 
 and conducted by officers appointed or remunerated by the 
 State. At one time the form of religion which is now " esta- 
 blished " in England was the religion of the whole people. 
 This is so no longer, and in fact a large proportion of the 
 people, though it is not accurately known what proportion, 
 do not profess the same form of religion as that of the 
 Established Church. The effects of the Church being es- 
 tablished are the following : 
 
 1. The Queen (or King) must be a member of the 
 Church of England. She is crowned with a solemn religious 
 ceremonial, which the ministers of the Established Church 
 conduct, and it is these ministers who administer to her 
 what is cal ed the " Coronation Oath." 
 
 2. The Archbishops and the English and Welsh Bishops, 
 or chief ministers of the Established Church, are ex qfficio 
 members of the House of Lords, with a few exceptions, 
 not including the Bishops of London, Durham, and Win- 
 chester. 
 
 3. The forms of public worship in the Established 
 Church are fixed by Act of Parliament. 
 
 4. A large proportion of the buildings, that is, the 
 churches and cathedrals, used for public worship belong, 
 in some sense (though not a legal one), to the whole nation, 
 and can only be used by the ministers of the Church, ap- 
 pointed from time to time as trustees for the nation. 
 
 5. All the appointments to archbishoprics, bishoprics, 
 and deaneries (that is, the piesidency of bodies of ministers 
 
1/4 The Constitution and Government of EngLind. 
 
 attached to a cathedral church, and called " chapters "), and 
 a large number of appointments to minor positions, or 
 " livings." are in the gift of the Crown. 
 
 6. All irregularities, or church offences, committed by 
 the clergy are cognisable in special Church Courts, and, in 
 the last resort, in the court of the Judicial Committee of the 
 Privy Council, or by a special process under the Public 
 Worship Regulation Act. An account of the Courts is 
 given on p. 175. 
 
 7. The partially representative bodies (Convocations of 
 the provinces of Canterbury and York) by which the internal 
 affairs of the Church so far as they are not regulated by 
 statute are managed, can meet only when summoned by 
 the Crown, and can proceed to business only by licence 
 from the Crown. 
 
 8. For some purposes all persons are treated, or may be 
 treated if they choose, as members of the Established Church. 
 They are entitled by law to the services of the minister of 
 the parish to which they belong for the baptism of their 
 children, for the solemnisation of marriage in the parish 
 church, and for the burial of the dead according to the 
 ceremonies of the Church. 
 
 It is to be noticed that though in England one form of 
 religious worship is " established " by law, yet the utmost 
 toleration is shown to all other forms, of which there are a 
 great many. Any breach of contract or wrong done, through 
 which injury is sustained by members of religious bodies, 
 is cognisable in the ordinary courts of justice. Any place of 
 worship can, by compliance with certain forms, be registered 
 so that marriages can take place in it, and its religious 
 services be protected against disturbance. Clergymen of the 
 Established Church are subject to many civil disabilities, 
 especially that of not being eligible to sit in the House of 
 Commons. A clergyman can now rid himself of his clerical 
 character and of its attendant disabilities by executing a deed 
 to that effect, and enrolling it in the Court of Chancery. 
 
 The division of the country into parishes has been largely 
 
The Established Church. 1/5 
 
 used both for civil and for ecclesiastical purposes, and a 
 number of civil functions have in course of time been cast 
 upon persons and bodies such as churchwardens, "over- 
 seers," and " vestries," which were at first, and are essentially, 
 of an ecclesiastical character. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. 
 
 FOR determining legal questions of ecclesiastical order and 
 ritual, the following Courts are provided, each of which above 
 the lowest serves as a Court of Appeal from the Court 
 below it : i. The Court of the Archdeacon, who for some 
 purposes represents the Bishop in the part of the diocese 
 apportioned to him. 2. The Court of the Bishop, called the 
 Diocesan Court. 3. The Courts of the Archbishop, called 
 the Provincial Courts. In the Province of Canterbury the 
 chief court is the " Court of Arches," so called from the 
 arched form of the church in which the Court at one time 
 sate. The Archbishop nominates a lay-judge to preside in 
 this Court. In the Province of York the chief court is the 
 " Chancery Court." 
 
 An Appeal from all these Courts lies to the Judicial 
 Committee of the Privy Council. 
 
 For determining breaches of order by the clergy in re- 
 spect of strict conformity " to the requirements of the Book 
 of Common Prayer" in the matter of Public Worship a 
 special Court was established by the Public Worship Regu- 
 lation Act of 1874. The Judge must be a barrister of 10 
 years' standing, or a person who has been a Judge of the 
 High Courr of Appeal. He is appointed by the Archbishops 
 of Canterbury and York. Proceedings are commenced by 
 an Archdeacon or Churchwarden, or any three parishioners 
 " male persons of full age " who solemnly declare they a r e 
 men.bers of the Church of England "as bylaw established." 
 The Bishop's consent is necessary to the proceedings. On con- 
 viction the offender is liable to suspension for three months 
 or longer, and, if obstinate for three years, to lose his living. 
 
The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 IN order to ascertain the limits of the State, it is necessary 
 to have some decisive mark by which citizens can be distin- 
 guished from those who are not citizens. A citizen is a 
 member of the State; and, in accordance with the old feudal 
 doctrine that the king was the sovereign lord of all his sub- 
 jects, who stood to him in the relation of vassals, every 
 citizen is said to owe allegiance to the person of the monarch, 
 and not merely to his office. The consequence of this was 
 illustrated when James I. succeeded to the throne, and it was 
 held that all those who were born in Scotland after this event 
 (the post-nati] were English citizens, there being then only 
 one kingly person, though the offices of King of Scotland and 
 of King of England for some time afterwards continued dis- 
 tinct. By a statute of Henry VI I. 's reign, no person can be 
 adjudged a traitor who shows allegiance to a king actually 
 exercising kingly functions, though his claim to the throne 
 be ever so bad, and though he be ultimately superseded by 
 a king with a better claim. 
 
 Allegiance involves the duty of general loyalty to the 
 State, and the liability both to contribute to its support and 
 to render active service (if needed) for its defence against 
 foreign or domestic enemies. The duty of allegiance is 
 generally said to be correlative with the right of every 
 citizen to protection at the hands of the State against 
 violence at home and abroad. A citizen has not, however, 
 a right to interference by his own Government on his behalf 
 in all cases ; as, for instance, where, through his own rash- 
 ness or negligence, he has voluntarily put himself in the 
 way of ill-treatment. 
 
 Up to the time of the passing of the Naturalisation Act of 
 1870, great inconvenience was caused through the nature of 
 the various tests of British citizenship coupled with the opera- 
 tion of the maxim that British citizenship once acquired could 
 
The British Islands. 177 
 
 never be lost. The tests of British citizenship were, and still 
 are : (i) birth on British territory; (2) the fact of a. person's 
 father or grandfather being a British citizen ; (3) naturalisa- 
 tion by Act of Parliament, or in accordance with formalities 
 prescribed by such an Act. 
 
 By the operation of the Act of 1870 the position of 
 " aliens," that is, foreigners, is greatly improved, so that the 
 practical distinction between them and citizens is very insig- 
 nificant. Aliens are now able to own and to convey pro- 
 perty with exactly the same facility that British citizens can, 
 the only exception being property in British shipping. A 
 British citizen becoming voluntarily naturalised in a foreign 
 State ceases to be a British subject, unless, within two years, 
 lie makes such a declaration of his wish to remain a British 
 citizen as is required by the Act. Provision is made for the 
 resumption of British nationality by performance of the same 
 conditions as are required for the naturalisation of aliens. 
 
 THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF TEE 
 BRITISH EMPIRE. 
 
 THE British Empire may be distributed geographically and 
 politically into the following parts : 
 
 1. The British Islands, including Great Britain (that is, 
 England, Wales, and Scotland) and Ireland. 
 
 2. The British Colonies. 
 
 3. The British dominions in India. 
 
 4. Other dependencies not falling under either of the 
 two last heads. 
 
 I. THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 
 
 ENGLAND and WALES have been indissolubly united together 
 from the time of Henry VIII. From the time of the final 
 conquest of Wales till the twenty-seventh year of the reign of 
 
The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 Henry VIII., Wales retained many characteristic laws ana 
 institutions different from those of England, though a process 
 of assimilation was constantly going on. It was declared 
 by a statute of the reign of Henry VIII. (27 Henry VIII. , 
 c. 26) that the " dominions of Wales were for ever united 
 to the kingdom of England ; that all Welshmen born 
 should have the same liberties as other king's subjects ; that 
 lands in Wales should be inheritable according to the English 
 tenures and rules of descent ; that the laws of England and 
 no other should be used in Wales." 
 
 SCOTLAND was united to England through having a com- 
 mon Sovereign in 1603, but it was not till the Treaty of 
 Union between England and Scotland in 1707 that the two 
 nations were politically incorporated into one. The result 
 of that treaty was that the Scotch Parliament was abolished, 
 and, in its place, sixteen peers were to be elected by the 
 general body of peers at the summoning of every Parliament, 
 to represent the rest at Westminster for that Parliament; and 
 45 (now 60) members were to be returned by Scotland to the 
 House of Commons. The Scotch Presbyterian Church was 
 not to be interfered with, and Scotland was to retain the use 
 of its peculiar laws and judicial institutions, subject to a 
 provision for Appeal in certain oases to the House of Lords 
 at Westminster, and to the chances of future alterations here- 
 after to be introduced by the representative legislature. 
 
 Ireland has been subject to the English Crown from 
 the time of Henry IF., but it was not till the Treaty of Union 
 in 1 80 r that it was for all purposes incorporated into the 
 Empire, and shared in the government of it. The result of the 
 Treaty and of the Act based upon it (the latter of which has 
 since been amended), was that twenty-eight " representative 
 peers " were to be elected by the whole body of peers, to sit for 
 life in the House of Lords at Westminster, and 100 (now 105) 
 members were to be elected to the British House of Com- 
 mons. The laws of Ireland and the Established Church in 
 
The British Colonies 179 
 
 Ireland were to remain as they were, that is, identical with 
 those of England. By a recent Act passed in consequence 
 of the glaring inequality in number between the members 
 of the Catholic and Protestant population in Ireland, the 
 " Church of England and Ireland " has no longer any legal 
 advantage over any other religious body in Ireland, and a 
 large amount of the funds previously available for its sup- 
 port have been diverted to other and secular uses. 
 
 2. THE BRITISH COLONIES. 
 
 THE British Colonies may be divided into different classes, 
 according to the modes in which they have been established 
 or the degree of self-government which they enjoy. One 
 mode in which they have been established is (i) Settlement. 
 This applies to most of the Australian colonies, to some of 
 the North American and W^st Indian colonies, and to a 
 few African colonies, witb some others. Another mode is 
 ( 2 ) Treaty following upon a war. A third mode is ( 3) a Treaty 
 not following upon a war, but forming part of a series of 
 negotiations in times of peace. Such colonies as those of 
 the Cape of Good Hope, Jamaica, British Guiana, Canada, 
 and Mauritius were established in one or other of the last 
 two modes. 
 
 These differences in the modes of establishing colonies 
 have affected the character of their several governments. In 
 respect of government, colonies are said to be divided into 
 those which are and those which are not Crown Colonies. 
 This means that in the case of a colony acquired by treaty, 
 whether upon conquest or peaceful cession, the Crown (that 
 is, the home executive government) is entitled to prescribe for 
 its regulation what system of law and government it pleases, 
 withoutconsulting Parliament, though if once it concedes local 
 representative institutions it cannot withdraw them. With 
 respect to colonies founded by settlement or occupation, the 
 persons who constitute them carry the ordinary English law 
 with them, so far as it is applicable; and no new constitution 
 
 N 2 
 
I So The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 can be given them, nor can they frame one for themselves, 
 without the assent of the Imperial Parliament. Many of the 
 most important colonies, especially those in Australia and 
 North America, have thus had conceded to them represen- 
 tative institutions fashioned after the general type of the 
 British Parliament ; that is, comprising a Governor (appointed 
 by the Executive Government at home) and two Houses, 
 one elected on principles by which greater influence is given 
 through it to the richer members of the community. The 
 assent of the Governor is needed for the enactment of a law, 
 and also the assent of the English Sovereign, though m some 
 cases the law comes into force before the assent of the 
 Sovereign is actually notified. 
 
 In " Crown Colonies " the usual form of government is that 
 which is carried on by a governor and small executive and 
 legislative councils, generally comprising the principal offi- 
 cials in the colony. 
 
 There is a great movement in the present day for the 
 consolidation of a number of adjoining colonies into what 
 is called a Dominion. Such a step has already been carried 
 out by help of an Act of Parliament in the case of most of 
 the North American colonies, forming the " Dominion of 
 Canada," and it is probable that the movement will extend 
 elsewhere. 
 
 It is sometimes of importance to ascertain the liability 
 in this country of a colonial governor for acts done in the 
 colony. This is the more important as the laws of a colony 
 are not generally the same as those of England. 
 
 A governor of a colony is liable in this country for a civil 
 wrong done by him during his government, unless a colonial 
 Act of Indemnity has been passed before the action hns 
 been brought in this country. 
 
 A governor is, however, always liable to be tried in this 
 country for a felony or murder committed by him in the 
 colony ; but in the case of misdemeanors, the trial must 
 take place before the Court of Queen's Bench or before 
 Special Commissioners. 
 
The British Dominions in India. 181 
 
 3. THE BRITISH DOMINIONS IN INDIA. 
 
 THE British dominions in India have been acquired in a 
 variety of ways, including commercial settlement by leave of 
 the territorial sovereign, special grants or cession by the 
 territorial sovereign, and treaty arrangements following upon 
 a war. Up to 1858 the British dominions were practi- 
 cally governed by the Board of Directors of the East India 
 Company, which had been originally incorporated purely 
 for purposes of trade. The authority of the Company was 
 in 1853 specially preserved to it until Parliament should 
 otherwise provide. In consequence of the Mutiny of 1857, 
 a new Government, in direct dependence on the British 
 Parliament, was substituted in 1858 for the mixed Govern- 
 ment of the Crown and the Company previously subsisting. 
 This new government is conducted partly at home through 
 the medium of a Secretary of State for India (who is a mem- 
 ber of one of the Houses of Parliament, and usually of the 
 Cabinet) assisted by a council of fifteen persons, whose 
 advice the Secretary is required to invite, but not obliged to 
 follow ; and partly, in India, through the medium of a 
 Governor-General or Viceroy of India, and local Governors 
 for each of the provinces into which British India is, for 
 administrative purposes, distributed. Two of these local 
 Governors are styled " Governors," three " Lieutenant- 
 Governors," and the others " Chief Commissioners " or " a 
 Commission." There are a number of " protected States," 
 more or less under the control of the British Government. 
 The area of British India is 938,366 square miles, and it 
 includes 487,061 "villages." The whole country is divided 
 for governmental purposes into 53 divisions, into 231 revenue 
 and judicial districts, and into 1,114 executive subdivisions. 
 The present population of British India amounts to about 
 191,307,000. 
 
182 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 4. OTHER DEPENDENCIES. 
 
 BESIDES her Colonies properly so called, and British India, 
 England comprises within her dominions certain small and 
 outlying settlements, which have been acquired either by 
 war or by voluntary cession in peace, and which serve chiefly 
 as military or naval stations, some being in this respect of 
 considerable importance. Such are Jersey and Guernsey 
 (relics of the old Norman dominions), Malta, Gibraltar, 
 Heligoland, St. Helena, and the Fiji Islands. 
 
 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. 
 
 A LARGE part of the functions of English government is 
 concerned with regulating the political intercourse of England 
 with foreign States and with those partially civilised popula- 
 tions which have not yet acquired the compactness and sta- 
 bility of a true State. These last may be called aboriginal 
 tribes. 
 
 The foreign States with which England has intercourse 
 may be distributed into those which make part of the Euro- 
 pean system of States, and into those which make no part 
 of that system. With the former are also included a few 
 neighbouring States, as Turkey, Egypt, and Persia, and, pre- 
 eminently, the United States of North America. 
 
 This mode of distribution arises out of the intimate 
 political and religious relations in the past, based upon a 
 community of progress in civilisation, existing between all 
 the States which enter into the European System. The 
 political relations of England with all these States, as well 
 as the relations of each one of the States with all the rest, 
 are most characteristically marked by the existence of a vast 
 body of legal rules, called " International Law," or " The Law 
 of Nations," to which all the States belonging to the system 
 
International Relations. 183 
 
 profess to make their public acts conform. This body of 
 rules has been slowly and gradually evolved out of (i) the 
 maritime customs to which the necessities of the intercourse 
 of maritime States spontaneously gave birth ; (2) the legis- 
 lation of monarchs for the guidance of their own subjects ; 
 (3) the private conventions of particular States; (4) the 
 carefully composed despatches of diplomatists ; and (5) the 
 application to a fresh region of the most liberal doctrines of 
 Roman law, as expanded and embellished by large-minded 
 commentators, such as Grotius and his successors. The 
 cherished traditions of the Roman Empire, and the preva- 
 lence of a common religion no less than the general institu 
 tions of Feudalism and the dictates of commercial policy, all 
 favoured the gradual recognition of some such standard of 
 common action as that which is supplied by the prevailing 
 system of International Law. The absence, indeed, of any 
 one authority competent to revise or to enforce the rules of 
 this law might well seem sufficient to arrest its progress, or to 
 impair its imperative character. But the intrinsic value of 
 most" of the rules is so transparent that, in spite of all their 
 incessant rivalries and antipathies, the States of Europe 
 have practically combined to accord the utmost amount of 
 moral, and often physical, support to the integrity of these 
 rules. 
 
 The subject matter of these rules extends to most of the 
 topics with which tht national laws of any particular State 
 are conversant. They determine what constitutes a State, 
 and by what tests its existence and independence are ascer- 
 tained ; what are the modes of conducting the intercourse 
 between the governments of States, and what are the titles, 
 rights, and duties of the public emissaries despatched by 
 these governments to one another ; what are the rights of 
 States generally in respect of territory, of security for their 
 citizens, of the use of the ocean and of other things not 
 susceptible of appropriation, and in respect of general 
 " comity " and friendly consideration at the hands of other 
 
184 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 States ; what are the modes of making conventional engage- 
 ments or treaties ; what are the various resources for sup- 
 porting rights, if these are either invaded or menaced ; and in 
 what cases alone, if ever, war is held to be justifiable. In the 
 event of war these rules determine what are the signs of its 
 having commenced, and who are the parties to it ; what are 
 the consequences to the liberty and property of the citizens 
 of either belligerent State found in the territory of the other 
 at the opening of the war ; what are the rights and duties 
 of belligerents in the treatment of each other, and what are 
 the rights and duties of the so-called " Neutral States " which 
 take no part in the war. Lastly, these rules determine the 
 procedure by which the utmost practicable amount of regularity 
 is insured, even in the very heat of the war, in transferring 
 property acquired by capture, and in punishing alleged 
 breaches of the rules themselves. 
 
 These rules are sometimes said to be part of the law of 
 England. It would be more correct to say that it is the 
 moral duty of England as a State, as it is obviously her 
 political interest, to make English law conformable to -Inter- 
 national law, in such a way that any English citizen who 
 commits (so far as a private citizen can) a breach of Inter- 
 national law will be readily amenable to English law. It is 
 only of late that England has been roused to an adequate 
 consciousness of her duty in this respect. 
 
 An Act has been recently (1870) passed, enforcing upon 
 English citizens (with a strictness never attempted before, 
 and with precautions wholly novel) the duty of db-operating 
 with the Government in maintaining an honest neutrality in 
 any war to which England is not a party. This Act, indeed, 
 which is based on an earlier one of George III.'s reign, 
 only deals with the offences of building or equipping ships 
 for a belligerent, and of assisting him to enlist soldiers in 
 this country. But in the present days of free trade it 
 seems scarcely possible to take satisfactory legal precautions 
 against breaches of neutrality committed in less ostensible 
 
A m hissadors. 185 
 
 forms. How far English law may still go in this direction 
 remains yet to be seen. 
 
 The Ministers which England has resident at foreign 
 courts belong to the following classes, the respective titles, 
 functions, and precedence of the several classes having 
 been fixed by recent European treaties, as those of Vienna 
 in 1815, and of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. 
 
 1. Ambassadors. 
 
 2. Envoys and Ministers Plenipotentiary. 
 
 3. Ministers Resident. 
 
 4. Charge's d'Affaires. 
 
 The first two classes are said to represent the person as 
 well as the affairs of the Sovereign sending them ; the third, 
 to represent the affairs, but not \hzperson ; the fourth, to be 
 accredited, not to a foreign Sovereign, but to the minister of 
 a foreign Sovereign. 
 
 England, at present, sends Ambassadors to the govern- 
 ments of five States, that is, of France, Austria, Prussia, 
 Russia, and Turkey. 
 
 Besides the above more important classes of political 
 representatives, it is customary for States to establish com- 
 mercial representatives, called " Consuls," in the most impor- 
 tant foreign towns. These officials can enter on their func- 
 tions only by permission of the foreign Sovereign, conveyed in 
 what is called an "exequatur" Their functions generally are 
 to supervise or witness those civil acts, such as registrations, 
 conveyances of property, and contracts, in which their fellow- 
 citizens are concerned, and in which their co-operation is 
 required by law. In some cases, as in the Ottoman Empire, 
 China, and Japan, the English consuls have, by treaty, 
 powers of a much more extended character, and even 
 exercise most responsible judicial functions. 
 
 The persons and property of foreign ambassadors resi- 
 dent in England are exempt from seizure under any kind 
 of criminal and of civil process. The privilege extends to 
 
1 86 The Constitution and Government of England. 
 
 their family and suite, though in the case of the suite 
 special provisions are taken to secure that this privilege is 
 not usurped by those who have no claim to it. 
 
 It is to be noticed that the relations of England with 
 foreign States and populations are of a threefold description, 
 tha'; is, legal (as above described), political, and moral. 
 
 It is a matter of purely legal consideration to determ!n2 
 whether or not England may or may not do a proposed 
 act without subjecting herself to general reprobation on the 
 part of all other States as a law-breaker, or incurring on this 
 ground the risk of war. 
 
 It is a matter of purely political consideration to deter- 
 mine whether in the interest of England, as widely esti- 
 mated, it be expedient to make or to revise a treaty, to 
 recognise a new form of government in a foreign State, to 
 take part in a war, or to exchange or sell a portion of the 
 national soil. 
 
 It is, lastly, a matter of purely moral consideration 
 (though this cannot always be distinguished from the last) 
 to determine what England ought or ought not to do in 
 view of the claims of other States, and of the whole world 
 (especially in the future), quite independently of any separate 
 interest of her own. 
 
 This last class of considerations has happily been brought 
 out into increased relief of late years. It is justly urged that 
 England's moral responsibilities ought more and more de- 
 cisively to determine her political conduct ; that, for in- 
 stance, she should gradually prepare the way for the native 
 self-government of her Indian Empire ; that she should take 
 steps which may enable her in time to abandon all those 
 outlying possessions which mainly serve to keep up the 
 memory and instinct of national rivalries, while they ob- 
 struct the progress and wound the just pride of the States to 
 which they geographically belong; that she should make 
 war (if at all), not to carry out direct or indirect ends of 
 
Relations with Foreign States. 187 
 
 national aggrandisement, but solely to maintain and pro- 
 mote the permanent peace of the world ; that, in reference 
 to the aboriginal populations, she should set, her face sted- 
 fastly against slavery, at the hands of her own citizens or of 
 others, and should do her utmost in all ways to secure that 
 those populations are justly and humanely treated, instead 
 of being first corrupted by the vices, and then sacrificed to 
 the greed, of those who call themselves a superior and 
 civilised race. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 (i) MAGNA CARTA, 1 
 
 OR 
 
 THE GREAT CHARTER OF KING JOHN, GRANTED JUNE 15, 
 A.D. 1215. 
 
 JOHN, by the Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, 
 Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Count of Anjcu, to his Arch- 
 bishops, Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Barons, Justiciaries, Foresters, 
 Sheriffs, Governors, Officers, and to all Bailiffs, and his faithful 
 subjects, greeting. Know ye, that we, in the presence of God, 
 and for the salvation of our soul, and the souls of all our 
 ancestors and heirs, and unto the honour of God and the ad- 
 
 1 The translation given by Sir E. Creasy has been chiefly followed, but 
 it has been collated with another accurate translation by Mr. Richard 
 Thompson, accompanying his Historical Essay on Magna Charta, pub- 
 lished in 1829, and also with the Latin text. 
 
 The explanation of the whole Charter must be sought chiefly in detailed 
 accounts of the Feudal system in England, as explained in such works 
 as those of Stubbs, Hallam, and Blackstone. The scattered notes here 
 introduced have only for their purpose to elucidate the most unusual 
 and perplexing expressions. The Charter printed in the Statute Book is 
 that issued in the ninth year of Henry III., which is also the one specially 
 confirmed by the Charter of Edward I. The Charter of Henry 111. 
 differs in some (generally) insignificant points from that of John. The 
 most important difference is the omission in the later Charter of the i4th 
 and 15111 Articles of John's Charter, by which the King is restricted from 
 levying aids beyond the three ordinary ones, without the assent of the 
 " Common Council of the Kingdom," and provision is made for sum- 
 moning it. This passage is restored by Edward I. Magna Charta has 
 been bolemnly confirmed upwards of thirty times. 
 
190 Appendix A 
 
 vancement of Holv Church, and amendment of our Realm, by 
 advice ot our venerable Fathers, Stephen, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, Primate of all England and Cardinal of the Holy 
 Roman Church ; Henry, Archbishop of Dublin ; William, of 
 London ; Peter, of Winchester ; Jocelin, of Bath and Glaston- 
 bury ; Hugh, of Lincoln; W T alter, of Worcester; William, of 
 Coventry ; Benedict, of Rochester Bishops : of Master Pan- 
 dulph, Sub-Deaccn and Familiar of our Lord the Pope ; Brother 
 Aymeric, Master of the Knights-Templars in England; and 
 of the noble Persons, William Marescall, Earl of Pembroke ; 
 William, Earl of Salisbury ; William, Earl of Warren ; William, 
 Earl of Arundel ; Alan de Galloway, Constable of Scotland ; 
 Warin FitzGerald, Peter FitzHerbert, and Hubert de Burgh, 
 Seneschal of Poitou ; Hugh de Neville, Matthew FitzHerbert, 
 Thomas Basset, Alan Basset, Philip of Albiney, Robert de 
 Roppell, John Mareschal, John FitzHugh, and others, our 
 liegemen, have, in the first place, granted to God, and by this 
 our present Charter confirmed, for us and our heirs for ever : 
 
 1. That the Church of England shall be free, and have her 
 whole rights, and her liberties inviolable ; and we will have 
 them so observed, that it may appear thence that the freedom 
 of elections, which is reckoned chief and indispensable to the 
 English Church, and which we granted and confirmed by our 
 Charter, and obtained the confirmation of the same from our 
 Lord the Pope Innocent III., before the discord between us and 
 our barons, was granted of mere free will ; which Charter we 
 shall observe, and we do will it to be faithfully observed by our 
 heirs for ever. 
 
 2. We also have granted to all the freemen of our kingdom, 
 for us and for our heirs for ever, all the underwritten liberties, 
 to be had and holden by them and their heirs, of us and our 
 heirs for ever : If any of our earls, or barons, or others, who 
 hold of us in chief by military service, shall die, and at the time 
 of his death his heir shall be of full age, and owe a relief, he 
 shall have his inheritance by the ancient relief that is to say, 
 the heir or heirs of an earl, for a whole earldom, by a hundred 
 pounds ; the heir or heirs of a baron, for a whole barony, by a 
 hundred pounds ; the heir or heirs of a knight, for a whole 
 knight's fee, by a hundred shillings at most ; and whoever 
 oweth less shall give less, according to the ancient custom of 
 fees. 
 
 3. But if the heir of any such, shall l;e under age. and shall be 
 
Magna CJiarta. 191 
 
 in ward, when he comes ot age he shall have his inheritance 
 without relief and without fine. 
 
 4. The keeper of the land of such an heir being under age, 
 shall take of the land of the heir none but reasonable issues, 
 reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without 
 destruction and waste of his men and his goods; and if we 
 commit the custody of any such lands to the sheriff, or any 
 other who is answerable to us for the issues of the land, and he 
 shall make destruction and waste of the lands which he hath in 
 custody, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be 
 committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who 
 shall answer for the issues to us, or to him to whom we shall 
 assign them ; and if we sell or give to anyone the custody of any 
 such lands, and he therein make destruction or waste, he shall 
 lose the same custody, which shall be committed to two lawful 
 and discreet men of that fee, who shall in like manner answer to 
 us as aforesaid. 
 
 5. But the keeper, so long as he shall have the custody of 
 the land, shall keep up the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills, 
 and other things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of the 
 same land ; and shall deliver to the heir, when he comes of full 
 age, his whole land, stocked with ploughs and carriages, ac- 
 cording as the time ot wainage shall require, and the issues ot 
 the land can reasonably bear. 
 
 6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and so 
 that before matrimony shall be contracted, those who are near 
 in blood to the heir shall have notice. 
 
 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and 
 without difficulty have her marriage and inheritance ; nor shall 
 she give anything for her dower, or her marriage, or her in- 
 heritance, which her husband and she held at the day of his 
 death ; and she may remain in the mansion house ot her hus- 
 band forty days after his death, within which time her dower 
 shall be assigned. 
 
 8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself, so long as 
 she has a mind to live without a husband ; but yet she shall 
 give security that she will not marry without our assent, if she 
 hold of us ; or without the consent of the lord of whom she 
 holds, if she hold of another. 
 
 9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent 
 for any < ebt so long as the chattels ot the debtor are sufficient 
 to pay the debt ; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be dis- 
 
192 Appendix A. 
 
 trained so long as the principal debtor has sufficient to pav the 
 debt ; and if the principal debtor shall fail in the payment of 
 the debt, not having wherewithal to pay it, then the sureties 
 shall answer the debt ; and if they will they shall have the lands 
 and rents of the debtor, until they shall be satisfied for the debt 
 which they paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show 
 himself acquitted thereof against the said sureties. 
 
 10. If any one have borrowed anything of the Jews, more or 
 less, and die before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no 
 interest paid for that debt, so long as the heir is under age, of 
 whomsoever he may hold ; and if the debt falls into our hands, 
 we will only take the chattel mentioned in the deed. 
 
 11. And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife 
 shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt ; and if 
 the deceased left children under age, they shall have neces- 
 saries provided for them, according to the tenement of the 
 deceased ; and out of the residue the debt shall be paid, saving, 
 however, the service due to the lords ; and in like manner 
 shall it be done touching debts due to others than the Jews. 
 
 12. NO SCUTAGE OR AID SHALL BE IMPOSED IN OUR KING- 
 DOM, UNLESS BY THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF OUR KINGDOM ; 
 except for ransoming our person, making our eldest son a knight, 
 and once for marrying our eldest daughter ; and for these there 
 shall be paid no more than a reasonable aid. In like manner 
 it shall be concerning the aids of the City of London. 
 
 13. And the City of London shall have all its ancient liber- 
 ties and free customs, as well by land as by water : furthermore, 
 we will and grant that ail other cities and boroughs, and towns 
 and ports, shall have all their liberties and free customs. 
 
 14. AND FOR HOLDING THE GENERAL COUNCIL OF THE 
 KINGDOM CONCERNING THE ASSESSMENT OF AIDS, EXCLPT 
 IN THE THREE CASES AFORESAID, AND FOR THE ASSESSING 
 OF SCUTAGES, WE SHALL CAUSE TO BE SUMMONED THE 
 ARCHBISHOPS, BISHOPS, ABBOTS, EARLS, AND GREATER 
 BARONS OF THE REALM, SINGLY BY OUR LETTERS. AND 
 FURTHERMORE, WE SHALL CAUSE TO BE SUMMONED GENE- 
 RALLY, BY OUR SHERIFFS AND BAILIFFS, ALL OTHERS WHO 
 HOLD OF US IN CHIEF, FOR A CERTAIN DAY, THAT I? 
 TO SAY, FORTY DAYS BEFORE THEIR MEETING AT LEAST, 
 AND TO A CERTAIN PLACE ; AND IN ALL LETTERS OF SUCH 
 SUMMONS WE WILL DECLARE THE CAUSE OF SUCH SUM- 
 MONS. AND SUMMONS BEING THUS MADE, THE BUSINESS 
 
Magna Charta. 193 
 
 SHALL PROCEED ON THE DAY APPOINTED, ACCORDING TO 
 THE ADVICE OF SUCH AS SHALL BE PRESENT, ALTHOUGH 
 ALL THAT WERE SUMMONED COME NOT. 
 
 15. We will not for the future grant to any one that he may 
 take aid of his own free tenants, unless to ransom his body, 
 and to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his 
 eldest daughter ; and for this there shall be only paid a reason- 
 able aid. 
 
 1 6. No man shall be distrained to perform more service for 
 a knight's fee, or other free tenement, than is due from thence. 
 
 17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be 
 holden in some place certain. p 
 
 1 8. Trials upon the Writs of Novel Disseisin, 1 and of Mort \J V 
 d'ancestor, 2 and of Darrein Presentment, 3 shall not be taken 
 but in their proper counties, and after this manner : We, or if 
 
 we should be out of the realm, our chief justiciary, will send 
 two justiciaries through every county four times a year, who, 
 with four knights of each county, chosen by the county, shall 
 hold the said assizes 4 in the county, on the day, and at the place 
 appointed. 
 
 19. And if any matters cannot be determined on the day 
 appointed for holding the assizes in each county, so many of 
 the knights and freeholders as have been at the assizes afore- 
 said shall stay to decide them as is necessary, according as 
 there is more or less business. 
 
 20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a small offence, but 
 only according to the degree of the offence ; and for a great 
 crime according to the heinousness of it, saving to him his 
 contenement ; 5 and after the same manner a merchant, saving to 
 him his merchandise. And a villein shall be amerced after the 
 same manner, saving to him his wainage, if he falls under our 
 mercy ; and none of the aforesaid amerciaments shall be as- 
 sessed but by the oath of honest men in the neighbourhood. 
 
 1 Dispossession. 
 
 2 Death of the ancestor ; that is, in cases of disputed succession to land. 
 5 Last presentation to a benefice. 
 
 4 The word Assize here means "an assembly of knights or other su** 
 stantial persons, held at a certain time and place where they sit with the 
 Justice. ' Assisa ' or ' Assize ' is also taken for the court, place, or time 
 at which the writs of Assize are taken." Thompson's Notes. 
 
 5 ' ' That by which a person subsists and which is essential to his rank 
 in life." 
 
194 Appendix A. 
 
 21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by their 
 peers, and after the degree of the offence. 
 
 22. No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced for his lay 
 tenement, but according to the proportion of the others afore- 
 said, and not according to the value of his ecclesiastical 
 benefice. 
 
 23. Neither a town nor any tenant shall be distrained to 
 make bridges or embankments, unless that anciently and of 
 right they are bound to do it. 
 
 24. No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bailiffs, shall 
 hold " Pleas of the Crown." l 
 
 25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trethings, shall 
 stand at the old rents, without any increase, except in our 
 demesne manors. 
 
 26. If any one holding of us a lay fee die, and the sheriff, 
 or our bailiffs, show our letters patent of summons for debt 
 which the dead man did owe to us, it shall be lawful for the 
 sheriff or our bailiff to attach and register the chattels of the 
 dead, found upon his lay fee, to the amount of the debt, by the 
 view of lawful men, so as nothing be removed until our whole 
 clear debt be paid ; and the rest shall be left to the executors 
 to fulfil the testament of the dead ; and if there be nothing due 
 from him to us, all the chattels shall go to the use of the dead, 
 saving to his wife and children their reasonable shares. 2 
 
 27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be 
 distributed by the hands of his nearest relations and friends, by 
 view of the Church, saving to every one his debts which the 
 deceased owed to him. 
 
 28. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn or other 
 chattels of any man unless he presently give him money for it, 
 or hath respite of payment by the good-will of the seller. 
 
 29. No constable shall distrain any knight to give money for 
 castle-guard, if he himself will do it in his person, or by another 
 able man, in case he cannot do it through any reasonable cause. 
 
 1 These are suits conducted in the name of the Crown against criminal 
 offenders. 
 
 2 A person's goods were divided into three parts, of which one went to 
 his wife, another to his heirs, and a third he was at liberty to dispose of. 
 If he had no child, his widow had half ; and if he had children, but no wife, 
 half was divided amongst them. These seveiai sums were called "reasonable 
 shares." Through the testamentary jurisdiction they gradually acquired 
 the clergy often contrived to get into their own hands all the residue of the 
 estate without paying the debts of the estate. 
 
Magna Charta. 195 
 
 And if we have carried or sent him into the army, he shall be 
 free from such guard for the time he shall be in the army by 
 our command. 
 
 30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take 
 horses or carts of any freeman for carriage, without the assent 
 of the said freeman. 
 
 31. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take any man's timber 
 for our castles or other uses, unless by the consent of the owner 
 of the timber. 
 
 32. We will retain the lands of those convicted of felony 
 only one year and a day, and then they shall be delivered to the 
 lord of the fee. 1 
 
 33. All ky dells 2 (wears) for the time to come shall be put 
 down in the rivers of Thames and Medway, and throughout all 
 England, except upon the sea-coast. 
 
 34. The writ which is called prcecipe, for the future, shall not 
 be made out to any one, of any tenement, whereby a freeman 
 may lose his court. 
 
 35. There shall be one measure of wine and one of ale 
 through our whole realm ; and one measure of corn, that is to 
 say, the London quarter ; and one breadth of dyed cloth, and 
 russets, and haberjeets, that is to say, two ells within the lists ; 
 and it shall be of weights as it is of measures. 
 
 36. NOTHING FROM HENCEFORTH SHALL BE GIVEN OR 
 TAKEN FOR A WRIT OF INQUISITION OF LIFE OR LIMB, BUT 
 
 IT SHALL BE GRANTED FREELY, AND NOT DENIED. 3 
 
 37. If any do hold of us by fee-farm, or by socage, or by 
 burgage, and he hold also lands of any other by knight's service, 
 we will not have the custody of the heir or land, which is holden 
 of another man's fee by reason of that fee-farm, socage, 4 or bur- 
 gage ; neither will we have the custody of the fee-farm, or socage, 
 or burgage, unless knight's service was due to us out of the same 
 
 1 All forfeiture for felony has been abolished by the 33 and 34 Vic., 
 c. 23. It seems to have originated in the destruction of the felon's pro- 
 perty being part of the sentence, and this " waste " being commuted for 
 temporary possession by the Crown. 
 
 2 The purport of this was to prevent enclosures of common property, or 
 committing a " Purpresture." These wears are now called "kettles" or 
 "kettle-nets" in Kent and Cornwall. 
 
 3 This important writ, or "writ concerning hatred and malice," may 
 have been the prototype of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and was granted for 
 a similar purpose. 
 
 4 " Socage" signifies lands held by tenure of performing certain inferior 
 offices in husbandry, probably from the old French word soc, a plough- share. 
 
 O 2 
 
196 Appendix A. 
 
 fee-farm. We will not have the custody of an heir, nor of any land 
 which he holds of another by knight's service, by reason of any 
 petty serjeanty x by which he holds of us, by the service of pay- 
 ing a knife, an arrow, or the like. 
 
 38. No bailiff from henceforth shall put any man to his law 2 
 upon his own bare saying, without credible witnesses to prove it. 
 
 39. NO FREEMAN SHALL BE TAKEN OR IMPRISONED, OR 
 DISSEISED, OR OUTLAWED, OR BANISHED, OR ANY WAYS 
 DESTROYED, NOR WILL WE PASS UPON HI 31, NOR WILL WE 
 SEND UPON HIM, UNLESS BY THE LAWFUL JUDGMENT OF 
 HIS PEERS, OR BY THE LAW OF THE LAND. 
 
 40. WE WILL SELL TO NO MAN, WE WILL NOT DENY TO 
 ANY MAN, EITHER JUSTICE OR RIGHT. 
 
 41. All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct, to go 
 out of, and to come into England, and to stay there and to pass 
 as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient 
 and allowed customs, without any unjust tolls ; except in time of 
 war, or when they are of any nation at war with us. And if 
 there be found any such in our land, in the beginning of the 
 war, they shall be attached, without damage to their bodies or 
 goods, until it be known unto us, or our chief justiciary, how 
 our merchants be treated in the nation at war with us ; and if 
 ours be safe there, the others shall be safe in our dominions. 
 
 42. It shall be lawful, for the time to come, for any one to go 
 out of our kingdom, and return safely and securely by land or 
 by water, saving his allegiance to us ; unless in time of war, by 
 some short space, for the common benefit of the realm, except 
 prisoners and outlaws, according to the law of the land, and 
 people in war with us, and merchants who shall be treated as 
 is above mentioned. 3 
 
 43. If any man hold of any escheat, 4 as of the honour of 
 
 1 The tenure of giving the king some small weapon of war in acknow- 
 ledgment of lands held. 
 
 ~ Equivalent to putting him to his oath. This alludes to the Wager of Law, 
 by which a defendant and his eleven supporters or " compurgators " could 
 swear to his non-liability, and this amounted to a verdict in his favour. 
 
 3 The Crown has still technically the power of confining subjects within 
 the kingdom by the writ " ne exeat regno," though the use of the writ 
 is rarely resorted to. 
 
 4 The word escheat is derived from the French eschcoir, to return or 
 happen, and signifies the return of an estate to a lord, either on failure of 
 tenant's issue or on his committing felony. The abolition of Feudal 
 tenures by the Act of Charles II. (12 Charles II. c. 24) rendered obsolete 
 this part and many other parts of the Charter. 
 
Magna Charta. 197 
 
 Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other 
 escheats which be in our hands, and are baronies, and die, 
 his heir shall give no other relief, and perform no other service 
 to us than he would to the baron, if it were in the baron's hand; 
 and we will hold it after the same manner as the baron held it. 
 
 44. Those men who dwell without the forest from hence- 
 forth shall not come before our justiciaries of the forest, upon 
 common summons, but such as are impleaded, or are sureties 
 for any that are attached for something concerning the forest. 1 
 
 45. We will not make any justices, constables, sheriffs, or 
 bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the realm and mean 
 duly to observe it. 
 
 46. All barons who have founded abbeys, which they hold 
 by charter from the kings of England, or by ancient tenure, 
 shall have the keeping of them, when vacant, as they ought to 
 have. 
 
 47. All forests that have been made forests in our time 
 shall forthwith be disforested ; and the same shall be done with 
 the water-banks that have been fenced in by us in our time. 
 
 48. All evil customs concerning forests, warrens, foresters, 
 and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, water-banks and their 
 keepers, shall forthwith be inquired into in each county, by 
 twelve sworn knights of the same county, chosen by creditable 
 persons of the same county ; and within forty days after the 
 said inquest be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored : 
 so as we are first acquainted therewith, or our justiciary, if we 
 should not be in England. 
 
 49. We will immediately give up all hostages and charters 
 delivered unto us by our English subjects, as securities for their 
 keeping the peace, and yielding us faithful service. 
 
 50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks the rela- 
 tions of Gerard de Atheyes, so th.it for the future they shall 
 have no bailiwick in England ; we will also remove Engelarcl 
 de Cygony, Andrew, Peter, and Gyon, from the Chancery; 
 Gyon de Cygony, Geoffrey de Martyn, and his brothers; Philip 
 Mark, and his brothers, and his nephew, Geoffrey, and their 
 whole retinue. 
 
 51. As soon as peace is restored, we will send out of the 
 kingdom all foreign knights, cross-bowmen, and stipendiaries, 
 
 1 The laws for regulating the Royal forests, and administering jus- 
 tice in respect of offences committed in their precincts, formed a large part 
 of the law. 
 
198 Appendix A. 
 
 who are come with horses and arms to the moiestation of our 
 people. 
 
 52. If any one has been dispossessed or deprived by us, 
 without the lawful judgment of his peers, of his lands, castles, 
 liberties, or right, we will forthwith restore them to him ; and if 
 any dispuce arise upon this head, let the matter be decided by 
 the five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned, for the preser- 
 vation of the peace. And for all those things of which any 
 person has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been dis- 
 possessed or deprived, either by our father King Henry, or our 
 brother King Richard, and which we have in our hands, or are 
 possessed by others, and we are bound to warrant and make 
 good, we shall have a respite till the term usually allowed the 
 crusaders ; excepting those things about which there is a plea 
 depending, or whereof an inquest hath been made, by our order 
 before we undertook the crusade ; but as soon as we return from 
 our expedition, or if perchance we tarry at home and do not 
 make our expedition, we will immediately cause full justice to 
 be administered therein. 
 
 53. The same respite we shall have, and in the same manner, 
 about administering justice, disafforesting or letting continue 
 the forests, which Henry our father, and our brother Richard, 
 have afforested ; and the same concerning the wardship of the 
 lands which are in another's fee, but the wardship of which we 
 have hitherto had, by reason of a fee held of us by knight's 
 service ; and for the abbeys founded in any other fee than our 
 own, in which the lord of the fee says he has a right ; and when 
 we return from our expedition, or if we tarry at home, and do 
 not make our expedition, we will immediately do full justice to 
 all the complainants in this behalf. 
 
 54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the appeal 1 
 of a woman, for the death of any other than her husband. 
 
 55. All unjust and illegal fines made by us, and all amercia- 
 ments imposed unjustly a'nd contrary to the law of the land, 
 shall be entirely given up, or else be left to the decision of the 
 fi\ e-anc-twenty barons hereafter mentioned for the preservation 
 of the peace, or of the major part of them, together with the afore- 
 
 1 An Appeal here means an "accusation." The Appeal here mentioned 
 was a suit for a penalty in which the plaintiff was a relation who had 
 suffered through a murder or manslaughter. One of the incidents of this 
 "Appeal of Death " was the Trial by Battle. These Appeals and Trial by 
 Battle were not abolished before the passing of the Act 59 Geo. III., c. 46. 
 
Magna Chart a. 199 
 
 said Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and 
 others whom he shall think fit to invite ; and if he cannot be pre- 
 sent, the business shall notwithstanding go on without him ; but 
 so that if one or more of the aforesaid five-and-twenty barons be 
 plaintiffs in the same cause, they shall be set aside as to what con- 
 cerns this particular affair, and others be chosen in their room, 
 out of the said five-and-twenty, and sworn by the rest to decide 
 the matter. 
 
 56. If we have disseised or dispossessed the Welsh of any 
 lands, liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of y 
 their peers, either in England or in Wales, they shall be imme- 
 diately restored to them ; and if any- dispute arise upon this S * ^ 
 head, the matter shall be determined in the Marches by the 
 judgment of their peers ; for tenements in England according 
 
 to the law of England, for tenements in W T ales according to the 
 law of Wales, for tenements of the Marches according to the law 
 of the Marches : the same shall the Welsh do to us and our 
 subjects. 
 
 57. As for all those things of which a Welshman hath, 
 without the lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or 
 deprived of by King Henry our Father, or our brother King 
 Richard, and which we either have in our hands or others are 
 possessed of, and we are obliged to warrant it, we shall have a 
 respite till the time generally allowed the crusaders ; excepting 
 those things about which a suit is depending, or whereof an 
 inquest has been made by our order, before we undertook the 
 crusade : but when we return, or if we stay at home without 
 performing our expedition, we will immediately do them full 
 justice, according to the laws of the Welsh and of the parts 
 before mentioned. 
 
 58. We will without delay dismiss the son of Llewellin, and 
 all the Welsh hostages, and release them from the engagements 
 they have entered into with us for the preservation of the peace. 
 
 59. We will treat with Alexander, King of Scots, concerning 
 the restoring his sisters and hostages, and his right and liberties, 
 in the same form and manner as we shall do to the rest of our 
 barons of England ; unless by the charters which we have from 
 his father, William, late King of Scots, it ought to be otherwise ; 
 and this shall be left to the determination of his peers in our court. 
 
 60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties, which we have 
 granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs 
 to us, all people of our kingdom, as well clergy as laity, 
 
200 Appendix A. 
 
 shall observe, as far as they are concerned, towards their 
 dependents. 
 
 61. And whereas, for the honour of God and the amendment 
 of our kingdom, and for the better quieting the discord that has 
 arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these 
 things aforesaid; willing to render them firm and lasting, we do 
 give and grant our subjects the underwritten security, namely 
 that the barons may choose five-and-twenty barons of the king- 
 dom, whom they think convenient ; who shall take care, with 
 all their might, to hold and observe, and cause to be observed, 
 the peace and liberties we have granted them, and by this our 
 present Charter confirmed in this manner ; that is to say, that 
 if we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our officers, shall in 
 any circumstance have failed in the performance of them 
 towards any person, or shall have broken through any of these 
 articles of peace and security, and the offence be notified to 
 four barons chosen out of the five-and-twenty before mentioned, 
 the said four barons shall repair to us, or our justiciary, if we 
 are out of the realm, and, laying open the grievance, shall 
 petition to have it redressed without delay : and if it be not 
 redressed by us, or if we should chance to be out of the realm, 
 if it should not be redressed by our justiciary within forty days,- 
 reckoning from the time it has been notified to us, or to our 
 justiciary (if we should be out of the realm), the four barons 
 aforesaid shall lay the cause before the rest of the five-and- 
 twenty barons ; and the said five-and-twenty barons, together 
 with the community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and 
 distress us in all the ways in which they sjiall be able, by 
 seizing our castles, lands, possessions, and in any other manner 
 they can, till the grievance is redressed, according to their 
 pleasure ; saving harmless our own person, and the persons of 
 our Queen and children ; and when it is redressed, they shall 
 behave to us as before. .And any person whatsoever in the 
 kingdom may swear that he will obey the orders of the five-and- 
 twenty barons aforesaid in the execution of the premises, and will 
 distress us, jointly with them, to the utmost of his power ; and 
 we give public and free liberty to any one that shall please to 
 swear to this, and never will hinder any person from taking the 
 same oath. 
 
 62. As for all those of our subjects who will not, of their 
 own accord, swear to join the five-and-twenty barons in distrain- 
 ing and distressing us, we will issue orders to make them take 
 the same oath as aforesaid. And if any one of the five-and- 
 
Magna Chart a. 201 
 
 twenty barons dies, or goes out of the kingdom, or is hindered 
 any other way from carrying the things aforesaid into execution, 
 the rest of the said five-and-twenty barons may choose another 
 in his room, at their discretion, who shall be sworn in like man- 
 ner as the rest. In all things that are committed to the execution 
 of these five-and-twenty barons, if, when they are all assembled, 
 together, they should happen to disagree about any matter, and 
 some of them, when summoned, will not or cannot come, what- 
 ever is agreed upon, or enjoined, by the major part of those 
 that are present shall be reputed as firm and valid as if all 
 the five-and twenty had given their consent ; and the afore- 
 said five-and-twenty shall swear that all the premises they 
 shall faithfully observe, and cause with all their power to be ob- 
 served. And we will procure nothing from any one, by ourselves 
 nor by another, whereby any of these concessions and liberties 
 may be revoked or lessened ; and if any such thing shall have 
 been obtained, let it be null and void ; neither will we ever make 
 use of it either by ourselves or any other. And all the ill-will, 
 indignations, and rancours that have arisen between us and our 
 subjects, of the clergy and laity, from the first breaking out of 
 the dissensions between us, we do fully remit and forgive : 
 moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said dissensions, 
 from Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restora- 
 tion of peace and tranquillity, we hereby entirely remit to all, 
 both clergy and laity, and as far as in us lies do fully forgive. 
 We have, moreover, caused to be made for them the letters 
 patent testimonial of Stephen, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Henry, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and the bishops aforesaid, 
 as also of Master Pandulph, for the security and concessions 
 aforesaid. 
 
 63. Wherefore we will and firmly enjoin, that the Church of 
 England be free, and that all men in our kingdom have and 
 hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, truly and 
 peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly to themselves 
 and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and places, for 
 ever, as is aforesaid. It is also sworn, as well on our part as on 
 the part of the barons, that all the things aforesaid shall be ob- 
 served in good faith, and without evil subtilty. Given under 
 our hand, in the presence of the witnesses above named, and 
 many others, in the meadow called Runingmede, between Wind- 
 sor and Staines, the I5th day of June, in the I7th year of our 
 reign. 
 
2O2 Appendix A. 
 
 (2) ^ CONFIRM ATIO CARTARUM"^ OF EDWARD I. 
 1297. 
 
 I. Edward, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of 
 Ireland, and Duke Guyan, to all those that these present letters 
 shall hear or see, greeting. Know ye that we, to the honour of 
 God and of holy Church, and to the profit of our realm, have 
 granted for us and our heirs, that the Charter of Liberties and 
 the Charter of the Forest, which were made by common assent 
 of all the realm in the time of King Henry our father, shall be 
 kept in every point without breach. And we will that the same 
 Charters shall be sent under our seal as well to our justices of 
 the forest as to others, and to all sheriffs of shires, and to all our 
 other officers, and to all our cities throughout the realm, together 
 with our writs in the which it shall be contained that they cause 
 the foresaid Charters to be published, and to declare to the 
 people that we have confirmed them in all points ; and that our 
 justices, sheriffs, mayors, and ether ministers, which under us 
 have the laws of our land to guide, shall allow the said Charters 
 pleaded before them in judgment in all their points ; that is to wit, 
 the Great Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the 
 Forest according to the assize of the Forest, for the wealth of 
 our realm. 
 
 II. And we will that if any judgment be given from hence- 
 forth, contrary to the points of the Charters aforesaid, by the 
 justices or by any other our ministers that hold plea before them 
 against the points of the Charters, it shall be undone and holden 
 for nought. 
 
 III. And we will that the same Charters shall be sent under 
 our seal to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to 
 remain, and shall be read before the people two times by the 
 year. 
 
 IV. And that all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce 
 the sentence of great excommunication against all those that by 
 word, deed, or counsel do contrary to the foresaid Charters, or 
 that in any point break or undo them. And that the said 
 curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates 
 
 1 The words of this important document, from Professor Stubbs's trans- 
 lation, are given as the best explanation of the constitutional position and 
 importance of the Charters of John and Henry III. 
 
" Confirmatio Cartarum " of Edward I 203 
 
 aforesaid. And if the prelates or any of them be remiss in the 
 denunciation of the said sentences, the Archbishops of Canter- 
 bury and York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel and 
 distrein them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid. 
 
 V. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear 
 that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime 
 towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and 
 goodwill, howsoever they were made, might turn to a bondage 
 to them and their heirs, because they might be at another time 
 found in the rolls, and so likewise the prises taken throughout 
 the realm by our ministers ; we have granted for us and our 
 heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises into a 
 custom, for anything that hath been done heretofore, or that 
 may be found by roll or in any other manner. 
 
 VI. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs, as well 
 to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy 
 Church, as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the 
 land, that for no business from henceforth will we take such 
 manner of aids, tasks, nor prises but by the common consent 
 of the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the 
 ancient aids and prises due and accustomed. 
 
 VII. And for so much as the more part of the commonalty 
 of the realm find themselves sore grieved with the matelote of 
 wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of 
 wool, and have made petition to us to release the same ; we, at 
 their requests, have clearly released it, and have granted for us 
 and our heirs that we shall not take such thing nor any other 
 without their common assent and good will ; saving to us and our 
 heirs the custom of wools, skins, and leather, granted before by 
 the commonalty aforesaid. In witness of which things we have 
 caused these our letters to be made patents. Witness Edward 
 our son, at London, the loth day of October, the five-and- 
 twentieth of our reign. 
 
 And be it remembered that this same Charter, in the same 
 terms, word for word, was sealed in Flanders under the King's 
 Great Seal, that is to say, at Ghent, the 5th day of November, 
 in the 25th year of the reign of our aforesaid Lord the King, and 
 sent into England. 
 
204 Appendix A. 
 
 v '3) A.D. 1628. PETITION OF RIGHT. 
 3 CAR. I. c. i. 
 
 To THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, 
 
 HUMBLY show unto our Sovereign Lord the King, the Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons in Parliament assembled, 
 that whereas it is declared and enacted by a statute made in the 
 time of the reign of King Edward I., commonly called Statutum 
 de Tallagio non Concedendo, that no tallage or aid shall be laid 
 or levied by the King or his heirs in this realm without the good- 
 will and assent of the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, knights, 
 burgesses, and other the freemen of the commonalty of this 
 realm ; and by authority of Parliament holden in the five-and- 
 twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III. it is declared 
 and enacted, that from thenceforth no person should be com- 
 pelled to make any loans to the King against his will, because 
 such loans were against reason and the franchise of the land ; 
 and by other laws of this realm it is provided, that none should 
 be charged by any charge or imposition called a benevolence, 
 nor by such like charge ; by which statutes before mentioned, 
 and other the good laws and statutes of this realm, your subjects 
 have inherited this freedom, that they should not be compelled 
 to contribute to any tax, tallage, aid, or other like charge not 
 set by common consent, in Parliament. 
 
 II. Yet nevertheless of late divers commissions directed to 
 sundry commissioners in several counties, with instructions, 
 have issued, by means whereof your people have been in divers 
 places assembled, and required to lend certain sums of money 
 unto your Majesty, and many of them, upon their refusal so to 
 do, have had an oath administered unto them not warrantable 
 by the laws or statutes of this realm, and have been constrained 
 to become bound to make appearance and give utterance before 
 your .Privy Council and in other places, and others of them have 
 been therefore imprisoned, confined, and sundry other ways 
 molested and disquieted ; and divers other charges have been 
 laid and levied upon your people in several counties by lord- 
 lieutenants, deputy-lieutenants, commissioners for musters, 
 justices of peace, and others, by command or direction from 
 your Majesty, or your Privy Council, against the laws and free 
 customs of the realm. 
 
Petition of Right. 205 
 
 III. And whereas also by the statute called "The Great 
 Charter of the Liberties of England," it is declared and enacted 
 that no freeman may be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of 
 his freehold or liberties, or his free customs, or be outlawed or 
 exiled, or in any manner destroyed, but by the lawful judgment 
 of his peers, or by the law of the land. 
 
 IV. And in the eight- and-twentieth year of the reign of King 
 Edward III. it was declared and enacted by authority of Parlia- 
 ment, that no man, of what estate or condition that he bCj/j 
 should be put out of his land or tenements, nor taken, nor im- X 
 prisoned, nor disherited, nor put to death, without being brought 
 
 to answer by due process of law. 
 
 V. Nevertheless, against the tenor of the said statutes, and 
 other the good laws and statutes of your realm to that end pro- 
 vided, divers of your subjects have of late been imprisoned with- 
 out any cause shewed ; and when for their deliverance they 
 were brought before your justices by your Majesty's writs of 
 habeas corpus, there to undergo and receive as the court should 
 order, and their keepers commanded to certify the causes of 
 their detainer, no cause was certified, but that they were de- 
 tained by your Majesty's special commahd, signified by the 
 Lords of your Privy Council, and yet were returned back to 
 several prisons, without being charged with anything to which 
 they might make answer according to the law. 
 
 VI. And whereas of late great companies of soldiers and 
 mariners have been dispersed into divers counties of the realm, 
 and the inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to 
 receive them into their houses, and there to suffer them to 
 sojourn, against the laws and customs of this realm, and to 
 the great grievance and vexation of the people. 
 
 VII. And whereas also by authority of Parliament, in the 
 five-and-twentieth year of the reign of King Edward III., it is 
 declared and enacted, that no man shall be forejudged of life 
 or limb against the form of the Great Charter and the law of 
 the land ; and by the said Great Charter and other the laws 
 and statutes of this your realm, no man ought to be adjudged to 
 death but by the laws established in this your realm, either by 
 the customs of the same realm or by Acts of Parliament : and 
 whereas no offender of what kind soever is exempted from the 
 proceedings to be used, and punishments to be inflicted by the 
 laws and statutes of this your realm : nevertheless of late times 
 divers commissions under your Majesty's great seal have issued 
 
200 Appendix A. 
 
 y forth, by which certain persons have been assigned and ap- 
 pointed commissioners with power and authority to proceed, 
 ./within the land, according to the justice of martial law, against 
 ,Jj such soldiers or mariners, or other dissolute persons joining with 
 them, as should commit any murder, robbeiy, felony, mu- 
 tiny, or other outrage or misdemeanour whatsoever, and by 
 such summary course and order as is agreeable to martial 
 law, and as is used in armies in time of war, to proceed to 
 the trial and condemnation of such offenders, and them to 
 cause to be executed and put to death according to the martial 
 law. 
 
 VIII. By pretext whereof some of your Majesty's subjects 
 have been by some of the said commissioners put to death, 
 when and where, if by the laws and statutes of the land they 
 had deserved death, by the same laws and statutes also they 
 might and by no other ought to have been judged and 
 executed. 
 
 IX. And also sundry grievous offenders, by colour thereof 
 claiming an exemption, have escaped the punishments due to 
 them by the laws and statutes of this your realm, by reason that 
 divers of your officers and ministers of justice have unjustly 
 refused or forborne to proceed against such offenders according 
 to the same laws and statutes, upon pretence that the said 
 offenders were punishable only by martial law, and by authority 
 of such commissions as aforesaid ; which commissions, and 
 all other of like nature, are wholly and directly contrary to the 
 said laws and statutes of this your realm. 
 
 X. They do therefore humbly pray your Most Excellent 
 Majesty, that no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield 
 any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without com- 
 mon consent by Act of Parliament ; and that none be called to 
 make answer, or to take such oath, or to give attendance, or be 
 confined, or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same 
 or for refusal thereof; and that no freeman, in any such manner 
 as is before mentioned, be imprisoned or detained ; and that 
 your Majesty would be pleased to remove the said soldiers and 
 mariners, and that your people may not be so burthen ed in 
 time to come ; and that the aforesaid commissions, for pro- 
 ceeding by martial law, maybe revoked and annulled ; and that 
 hereafter no commissions of like nature may issue forth to 
 any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid, 
 lest by colour of them any of your Majesty's subjects be 
 
Habeas Corpus Act. 207 
 
 destroyed or put to death contrary to the laws and franchises of 
 the land. 
 
 XI. All which they most humbly pray of your Most Excellent 
 Majesty as their rights and liberties, according to the laws and( 
 statutes of this realm ; and that your Majesty would also vouch- \ 
 safe to declare, that the awards, doings, and proceedings, to the / 
 prejudice of your people in any of the premises, shall not be 
 drawn hereafter into consequence or example ; and that your 
 Majesty would be also graciously pleased, for the further com- 
 fort and safety of your people, to declare your royal will and 
 pleasure, that in the things aforesaid all your officers and 
 ministers shall serve you according to the laws and statutes of 
 this realm, as they tender the honour of your Majesty, and the 
 prosperity of this kingdom. 
 
 (4) "A.D. 1679. HABEAS CORPUS ACT. 
 31 CAR. II. c. 2. 
 
 [Some of the purely technical verbiage and clauses are omitted.] 
 
 1. That on complaint and request in writing by or on behalf 
 of any person committed and charged with any crime (unless 
 committed for treason or felony expressed in the warrant ; or as 
 accessory or on suspicion of being accessory before the fact to 
 any petit treason or felony plainly expressed in the warrant ; or 
 unless he is convicted or charged in execution by legal process), 
 the Lord Chancellor or any of the judges in vacation, upon 
 viewing a copy of the warrant, or affidavit that a copy is denied, 
 shall (unless the party has neglected for two terms to apply to 
 any court for his enlargement) award a habeas corpus for such 
 prisoner, returnable immediately before himself or any otherof the 
 judges; and upon the return made shall discharge the party, if 
 bailable, upon giving security to appear and answer to the ac- 
 cusation in the proper court of judicature. 
 
 2. That such writs shall be indorsed as granted in pursuance 
 of this Act, and signed by the person awarding them. 
 
 3. That the writ shall be returned, and the prisoner brought 
 up within a limited time, according to the distance, not exceed- 
 ing in any case twenty days. 
 
2C8 Appendix A. 
 
 4. That officers and keepers neglecting to make due returns, 
 or not delivering to the prisoner or his agent within six hours 
 after demand a copy of the warrant of commitment, or shift- 
 ing the custody of the prisoner from one to another without 
 sufficient reason or authority (specified in the Act), shall for the 
 first offence forfeit ioo/., and for the second offence 2OO/. to the 
 party grieved, and be disabled to hold his office. 
 
 5. That no person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be 
 re-committed for the same offence, on penalty of 5oo/ 
 
 6. That every person committed for treason or felony shall, 
 if he requires it, the first week of the next term, or the first day 
 of the next session of oyer and terminer^ be indicted in that 
 term or session, or else admitted to bail, unless the witnesses for 
 the Crown cannot be produced at that time ; and if acquitted, or 
 not indicted and tried in the second term or session, he shall be 
 discharged from his imprisonment for such imputed offence ; 
 but that no person, after the assizes shall be open for the county 
 in which he is detained, shall be removed by habeas corpus till 
 after the assizes are ended, but shall be left to the justice of the 
 judges of assize. 
 
 7. That any such prisoner may move for and obtain his 
 habeas corpus as well out of the Chancery or Exchequer as out 
 of the King's Bench or Common Pleas, and the Lord Chancellor 
 or judge denying the same on sight of the warrant or oath that 
 the same is refused forfeits severally to the party grieved the 
 sum of 5oo/. 
 
 8. That this writ of habeas corpus shall run into the counties 
 palatine, cinque ports, and other privileged placss, and the 
 Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. 
 
 9. That no inhabitant of England (except persons contract- 
 ing or convicts praying to be transported, or having committed 
 some capital offence in the place to which they are sent) shall be 
 sent prisoner to Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, or any 
 places beyond the seas within or without the British dominions, 
 on pain that the party committing, his advisers, aiders, and as- 
 sistants, shall forfeit to the party aggrieved a sum not less than 
 5oo/., to be recovered with treble costs ; shall be disabled to 
 bear any office of trust or profit ; shall incur the penalties of 
 
 nd shall be incapable of the Royal pardon. 1 
 
 1 See also 56 Geo. III., c. ioo. 
 
Bill of Rights. 209 
 
 (5) i WILL. & MAR. c. 2. 
 
 AN ACT for Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, 
 and Settling the Succession of the Crown. 
 
 Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, 
 assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely represent- 
 ing all the estates of the people of this realm, did upon the 
 Thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One 
 Thousand Six Hundred Eighty-eight, present unto their Majes- 
 ties, then called and known by the names and style of William 
 and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, being present in 
 their proper persons, a certain Declaration in writing, made by 
 the said Lords and Commons, in the words following, viz. : 
 
 Whereas the late King James II., by the assistance of divers 
 evil counsellors, judges, and ministers employed by him, did 
 endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and 
 the laws and liberties of this kingdom : 
 
 1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with 
 and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without 
 consent of Parliament. 
 
 2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates for 
 humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said 
 assumed power. 
 
 3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission 
 under the Great Seal for erecting a court, called the Court of 
 Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes. 
 
 4. By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by 
 pretence of prerogative, for other time and in other manner 
 than the same was granted by Parliament. 
 
 5. By raising and keeping a standing army within this king- 
 dom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, and 
 quartering soldiers contrary to law. 
 
 6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to 
 be disarmed, at the same time when Papists were both armed 
 and employed contrary to law. 
 
 7. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve 
 in Parliament. 
 
 8. By prosecutions in the Court of King's Bench for mat- 
 ters and causes cognisable only in Parliament, and by divers 
 other arbitrary and illegal causes. 
 
 p 
 
2 TO Appendix A. 
 
 9. And whereas of late years, partial, corrupt, and unquali- 
 fied persons have been returned, and served on juries in trials, 
 and particularly divers jurors in trials for high treason, which 
 were not freeholders. 
 
 10. And excessive bail hath been required of persons com- 
 mitted in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made 
 for the liberty of the subjects. 
 
 11. And excessive fines have been imposed ; and illegal and 
 cruel punishments inflicted. 
 
 12. And several grants and promises made of fines and for- 
 feitures before any conviction or judgment against the persons 
 upon whom the same were to be levied. 
 
 All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known 
 laws and statutes, and freedom of this realm. 
 
 And whereas the said late King James II. having abdicated 
 the government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his High- 
 ness the Prince or Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty 
 God to make the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom 
 from Popery and arbitrary power) did (by the advice of the 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and divers principal persons 
 of the Commons) cause letters to be written to the Lo-ds 
 Spiritual and Temporal, being Protestants, and other letters 
 to the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs, and cinque 
 ports, for the choosing of such persons to represent them as 
 were of right to be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at 
 Westminster upon the two-and-tvventieth day of January, in this 
 year One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty and Eight, in order 
 to such an establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liber- 
 ties might not again be in danger of being subverted ; upon 
 which letters elections have been accordingly made. 
 
 And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and 
 Commons, pursuant to their respective letters and elections, 
 being now assembled in a full and free representation of this 
 nation, taking into their most serious consideration the best 
 means for attaining the ends aforesaid, do in the first place (as 
 their ancestors in like case have usually done) for the vindicating 
 and asserting their ancient rights and liberties, declare : 
 
 1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the 
 execution of laws, by regal authority, without consent of Parlia- 
 ment, is illegal. 
 
 2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the 
 execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed 
 and exercised of late, is illegal. 
 
Bill of Rights. 211 
 
 3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Com- 
 missioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions 
 und courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious. 
 
 4. That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by 
 pretence and prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer 
 time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, 
 
 is illegal. f 
 
 5. That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, y 
 and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are 
 illegal. 
 
 6. That the raising or keeping a standing army within the 
 kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parlia- 
 ment, is against law. 
 
 7. That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms ^ 
 for their defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by ' 
 law. 
 
 8. That election of members of Parliament ought to be free. 
 
 9. That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings 
 in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any 
 court or place out of Parliament 
 
 10. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor exces- 
 sive fines imposed ; nor cruel and unusual punishments in- 
 flicted. 
 
 11. That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, > 
 and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought < 
 to be freeholders. 
 
 1 2. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of 
 particular persons before conviction are illegal and void. 
 
 13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amend- 
 ing, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, Parliament ought 
 to be held frequently. 
 
 And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular 
 the premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties ; and that 
 no declarations, judgments, doings or proceedings, to the pre- 
 judice of the people in any of the said premises, ought in any 
 wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example. 
 
 To which demand of their rights they are particularly en- 
 couraged by the declaration of his Highness the Prince of 
 Orange, as being the only means for obtaining a full redress 
 and remedy therein. 
 
 Having therefore an entire confidence that his said High- 
 ness the Prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far 
 
 p 2 
 
212 Appendix A. 
 
 advanced by him, and will still preserve them from the violation 
 of their rights, which they have here asserted, and from all other 
 attempts upon their religion, rights, and liberties : 
 
 II. The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, 
 assembled at Westminster, do resolve, that William and Mary, 
 Prince and Princess of Orange, be, and be declared, King and 
 Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions there- 
 unto belonging, to hold the crown and royal dignity of the said 
 kingdoms and dominions to them the said Prince and Princess 
 during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them ; and that the 
 sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in, and executed 
 by, the said Prince of Orange, in the names of the said Prince 
 and Princess, during their joint lives ; and after their deceases, 
 the said crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and 
 dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the said Prin- 
 cess; and for default of such issue to the Princess Anne of 
 Denmark, and the heirs of her body ; and for default of such 
 issue to the heirs of the body of the said Prince of Orange. And 
 the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do pray the 
 said Prince and Princess to accept the same accordingly. 
 
 III. And that the oaths hereafter mentioned be taken by all 
 persons of whom the oaths of allegiance and supremacy might 
 be required by law instead of them ; and that the said oaths of 
 allegiance and supremacy be abrogated. 
 
 " I, A. B., do sincerely promise and swear, That I will be 
 faithful and bear true allegiance to their Majesties King William 
 and Queen Mary : 
 
 " So help me God." 
 
 " I, A. B., do swear, That I do from my heart abhor, detest, 
 and abjure as impious and heretical that damnable doctrine and 
 position, that princes excommunicated or deprived by the Pope, 
 or any authority of the See of Rome, may be deposed or mur^ 
 dered by their subjects, or any other whatsoever. And I do 
 declare, that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate 
 hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre- 
 eminence, or aythority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this 
 realm : 
 
 " So help me God." 
 
 IV. Upon which their said Majesties did accept the crown and 
 royal dignity of the kingdoms of England, France, and Ireland, 
 and the duminions thereunto belonging, according to the resolu- 
 
Bill of Rights. 21$ 
 
 tion and desire of the said Lords and Commons contained in 
 the said declaration. 
 
 V. And thereupon their Majesties were pleased, that the 
 said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, being the 
 two Houses of Parliament, should continue to sit, and with their 
 Majesties' royal concurrence make effectual provision for the 
 settlement of the religion, laws and liberties of this kingdom, 
 so th^t the same for the future might not be in danger again 
 of" being subverted ; to which the said Lords Spiritual and 
 Temporal, and Commons, did agree and proceed to act ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 VI. Now in pursuance of the premises, the said Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assem- 
 bled, for the ratifying, confirming, and establishing the said 
 declaration, and the articles, clauses, matters, and things therein 
 contained, by the force of a law made in due form by authority 
 of Parliament, do pray that it may be declared and enacted, 
 That all and singular the rights and liberties asserted and 
 claimed in the said declaration are the true, ancient, and indu- 
 bitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom, and 
 so shall be esteemed, allowed, adjudged, deemed, and taken to 
 be, and that all and every the particulars aforesaid shall be 
 firmly and strictly holden and observed, as they are expressed 
 in the said declaration ; and all officers and ministers what- 
 soever shall serve their Majesties and their successors according 
 to the same in all times to come. 
 
 VII. And the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Com- 
 mons, seriously considering how it hath pleased Almighty God, 
 in his marvellous providence, and merciful goodness to this 
 nation, to provide and preserve the'r said Majesties' royal per- 
 sons most happily to reign over us upon the throne of their- 
 ancestors, for which they render unto Him from the bottom of 
 their hearts their humblest thanks and praises, do truly, firmly, 
 assuredly, and in the sincerity of their hearts, think, and do 
 hereby recognise, acknowledge, and declare, that King James 
 II. having abdicated the Government, and their Majesties 
 having accepted the Crown and royal dignity as aforesaid, their 
 said Majesties did become, were, are, and of fight ought to be, 
 by the laws of this realm, our sovereign liege Lord and Lady, 
 King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the 
 dominions thereunto belonging, in and to whose princely per- 
 sons the royal state, crown, and dignity of the said realms, with 
 
214 Appendix A. 
 
 ail honours, styles, titles, regalities, prerogatives, powers, juris- 
 dictions, and authorities to the same belonging and appertain- 
 ing, are most fully, rightfully, and entirely invested and incor- 
 porated, united, and annexed. 
 
 VIII. And for preventing all questions and divisions in this 
 realm, by reason of any pretended titles to the Crown, and 
 for preserving a certainty in the succession thereof, in and 
 upon which the unity, peace, tranquillity, and safety of this 
 nation doth, under God, wholly consist and depend, the said 
 Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do beseech their 
 Majesties that it may be enacted, established, and declared, 
 that the Crown and regal government of the said kingdoms 
 and dominions, with all and singular the premises thereunto 
 belonging and appertaining, shall be and continue to their said 
 Majesties, and the survivor of them, during their lives, and 
 the life of the survivor of them. And that the entire, per- 
 fect, and full exercise of the regal power and government be 
 only in, and executed by, his Majesty, in the names of both 
 their Majesties, during their joint lives ; and after their deceases 
 the said Crown and premises shall be and remain to the heirs of 
 the body of her Majesty ; and for default of such issue, to her 
 Royal Highness the Princess Anne of Denmark, and the heirs 
 of her body ; and for default of such issue, to the heirs of the 
 body of his said Majesty : And thereunto the said Lords Spiritual 
 and Temporal, and Commons, do, in the name of all the people 
 aforesaid, most humbly and faithfully submit themselves, their 
 heirs and posterities, for ever : and do faithfully promise, that 
 they will stand to, maintain, and defend their said Majesties, 
 and also the limitation and succession of the Crown herein 
 specified and contained, to the utmost of their powers, with 
 their lives and estates, against all persons whatsoever that shall 
 attempt anything to the contrary. 
 
 IX. And whereas it hath been found by experience, that it 
 is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this Protestant 
 kingdom to be governed by a Popish prince, or by any king 
 or queen marrying a Papist, the said Lords Spiritual and Tem- 
 poral, and Commons, do further pray that it may be enacted, That 
 all and every person and persons that is, are, or shall be recon- 
 ciled to, or shall hold communion with, the See or Church of 
 Rome, or shall profess the Popish religion, or shall marry a 
 Papist, shall be excluded, and be for ever incapable to inherit, 
 possess, or enjoy the Crown and Government of this realm, and 
 
Bill of Rig Jits. 215 
 
 Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, or any part of 
 the same, or to have, use, or exercise, any regal power, authority, 
 or jurisdiction within the same ; and in all and every such case 
 or cases the people of these realms shall be and are hereby- 
 absolved of their allegiance, and the said Crown and govern- 
 ment shall from time to time descend to, and be enjoyed by. 
 such person or persons, being Protestants, as should have in- 
 herited and enjoyed the same, in case the said person or per- 
 sons so reconciled, holding communion, or professing, or marry- 
 ing, as aforesaid, were naturally dead. 
 
 X. And that every King and Queen of this realm, who at 
 dny time hereafter shall come to and succeed in the Imperial 
 Crown of this kingdom, shall, on the first day of the meeting of 
 the first Parliament, next after his or her coming to the Crown, 
 sitting in his or her throne in the House of Peers, in the pre- 
 sence of the Lords and Commons there'n assembled, or at his 
 or her coronation, before such person or persons who shall 
 administer the coronation oath to him or her, at the time of 
 his or her taking the said oath (which shall first happen), make, 
 subscribe, and audibly repeat the declaration mentioned in the 
 statute made in the thirteenth year of the reign of King Charles 
 II., intituled "An Act for the more effectual preserving the 
 King's person and Government, by disabling Papists from sitting 
 in either House of Parliament." But if it shall happen that such 
 King or Queen, upon his or her succession to the Crown of 
 this realm, shall be under the age of twelve years, then every 
 such King or Queen shall make, subscribe, and audibly repeat 
 the said declaration at his or her coronation, or the first day of 
 meeting of the first Parliament as aforesaid, which shall first 
 happen after such King or Queen shall have attained the said 
 age of twelve years. 
 
 XI. All which their Majesties are contented and pleased 
 shall be declared, enacted, and established by authority of this 
 present Parliament, and shall stand, remain, and be the law of 
 this realm for ever ; and the same are by their said Majesties, 
 by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and 
 Temporal, and Commons, in Parliament assembled, and by the 
 authority of the same, declared, enacted, or established accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 XII. And be it further declared and enacted by the authority 
 aforesaid, That from and after this present session of Parliament, 
 no dispensation by non ubstaiitc of or to any statute, or any part 
 
216 Appendix A. 
 
 thereof, shall be allowed, but that the same shall be held void 
 and of no effect, except a dispensation be allowed of in such 
 statute, and except in such cases as shall be specially provided 
 for by one or more bill or bills to be passed during this present 
 session 01" Parliament. 
 
 XIII. Provided that no charter, or grant, or pardon granted 
 before the three-and-twentieth day of October, in the year of 
 o;.r Lord One thousand six hundred eighty-nine, shall be any 
 ways impeached or invalidated by this Act. but that the same 
 shall be and remain of the same force and effect in law, and no 
 other, than as if this Act had never been made. 
 
 (6) A.D. 1700. ACT OF SETTLEMENT. 
 12 & 13 WILL. III. c. 2. 
 
 1. That whosoever shall hereafter come to the possession 
 of this Crown shall join in communion with the Church of 
 England as by law established. 
 
 2. That in case the Crown and Imperial dignity of this realm 
 shall hereafter come to any person not being a native of .this 
 kingdom of England, this nation be not obliged to engage in 
 any war for the defence of any dominions or territories which 
 do not belong to the Crown of England, without the consent of 
 Parliament. 
 
 3. That no person who shall hereafter come to the posse sion 
 of this Crown shall go out of the dominions of England, Scot- 
 land, or Ireland, without consent of Parliament. 1 
 
 4. That from and after the time that the further limitation 
 by this Act shall take effect, all matters and things relating to 
 the well governing of this kingdom, which are properly cognis- 
 able in the Privy Council by the laws and customs of this realm, 
 shall be transacted there, and all resolutions taken thereupon 
 shall be signed by such of the Privy Council as shall advise and 
 consent to the same.- 
 
 5. That, after the said limitation shall take effect as afore- 
 said, no person born out of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, 
 or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging (although to 
 be naturalised or made a denizen except such as are born of 
 
 1 Repealed in the frst year of George I.'s reign. ^ 
 
 2 Repealed by 4 Anne,' c. 8., 6 Annt, c. 7. 
 
The A udit Department. 2 \ 7 
 
 English parents), shall be capable to be of the Privy Council, 
 or a member of either House of Parliament, or to enjoy any 
 office or place of trust, either ciVil or military, or to have any 
 grant of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, from the Crown, 
 to himself, or to any other or others in trust for him. 
 
 6. That no person who has an office or place of profit under 
 the King, or receives a pension from the Crown, shall be capable 
 of serving as a member of the House of Commons. 1 
 
 7. That, after the said limitation shall take effect as afore- 
 said, judges' commissions be made quamdiu se bene gesserint, 
 and their salaries ascertained and established ; but upon the 
 address of both Houses of Parliament, it may be lawful to 
 remove them. 
 
 8. That no pardon under the Great Seal of England be 
 pleadable to an impeachnient by the Commons in Parliament. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 THE AUDIT DEPARTMENT AND THE PROCESS 
 OF MAKING PAYMENTS BY THE TREASURY. 
 
 [Extract from an article in the Daily News on the "Treasury 
 and the Exchequer," forming one of the series on " English 
 Politics and Parties."] 
 
 u The office of Comptroller of the Exchequer, at the retire- 
 ment of its last occupant, Lord Monteagle, was consolidated 
 with that of Auditor-General, who now bears the title of Con- 
 troller and Auditor-General, and whose department, in Somerset 
 House is known as the Exchequer and Audit Office. The 
 duties of the Exchequer, which takes its name from the 
 chequered tables on which, in the pre-arithmetical period, cal- 
 culations were made, are the custody of the public money and 
 watchfulness over its proper application. It receives the gross 
 revenues of the country, which, after the deduction of certain 
 charges, are paid to the account of her Majesty's Exchequer at 
 the Banks of England and of Ireland. When votes of supply 
 have been taken in the House of Commons, the Exchequer 
 
 1 Repealed in the lourth year of Anne's reign. 
 
2x8 Appendix B. 
 
 department is authorised to make advances to the Treasury fof 
 the sums of money required, which it does by granting it credits 
 on the Exchequer accounts at the Bank, which credits must not, 
 however, exceed the ways and means voted by the House of 
 Commons. If this condition is not complied with, it is the duty 
 of the Exchequer to suspend or refuse the grant. These grants 
 need to be confirmed at the close of the Session by the Appro- 
 priation Act. In the event of that measure not passing in the 
 same Session the votes of the Commons are void, and require 
 to be renewed in the next Session of Parliament, in order that 
 legal appropriation may take place. When these credits have 
 been issued, the Treasury makes transfers to the Paymaster- 
 General's account in the Bank, in order that he may make the 
 proper payments to the several branches of the public service. 
 At this point the Audit Department of the associated Exchequer 
 and Audit Offices steps on the field. The money has been 
 granted for specific objects ; in the person of the Paymaster- 
 General it reaches the person who is the instrument of distribu- 
 tion for those objects. It is necessary to provide a check upon 
 its improper application. It is needful to see not only that the 
 money voted for public purposes shall be applied to public 
 purposes, or, in other words, to guard against fraud and em- 
 bezzlement, but to take care that the money voted by Parliament 
 for one public purpose shall not, under any supposed pressure 
 of necessity or expediency, as interpreted by an official who 
 thinks he knows better than the House of Commons, be applied 
 to another, and, in his view, more urgent public purpose. It is 
 the duty of the Bank, on receiving from the Treasury orders to 
 transfer money to the Paymaster-General, to communicate with 
 the Auditor-General, in order that he may have the information 
 necessary for properly checking the accounts. The Paymaster- 
 General is at liberty to use all the money which comes into his 
 hands as one fund, without reference to the origin and appro- 
 priation of particular portions ; but this is simply as a matter of 
 account, and to avoid the accumulation of useless balances. 
 Every month, however, the Pay Office is required to adjust its 
 accounts, and to submit to the Treasury a statement of them, 
 showing the credit standing to each vote ; to the purposes of 
 which the sum specifically voted will finally be appropriated. 
 The process is simply that which is adopted in banking houses, 
 where it ^s not the habit to keep each investor's money in a heap 
 by itself, and to add deposits or to make payments from it, but 
 
The Foreign Office. 219 
 
 to treat the deposits collectively as a fund, and make the sepa- 
 ration a matter of book-keeping and of balances. The duty of 
 the Audit Commissioners is to examine the accounts of the 
 several civil services for the Army and Navy are still impro- 
 perly excluded from this independent investigation of their ex- 
 penditure and to see whether the expenditure alleged has 
 actually taken place, whether it has been sanctioned by the 
 proper departmental authority, and whether it was authorised 
 by precedent. The report of the Audit Office is submitted to 
 gentlemen who must rectify any irregularities, and who will 
 make such remarks as may seem desirable before the House 
 of Commons, by whom it is referred to a Standing Committee 
 of Public Accounts. Thus those questions of public expenditure 
 which originate in the House of Commons return to it again in 
 the last resort for revision." 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 THE FOREIGN OFFICE AND THE UNDERSECRE- 
 TARIES OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 
 
 [Extract from an article in the Daily News on the u Foreign 
 Office," forming one of the Series on " English Politics and 
 Parties."] 
 
 " The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, as the successor 
 of the Secretary for the Southern Department, has a certain 
 undefined precedency over his fellow Secretaries, with the 
 exception of him of the Home Office. Practically, although, as 
 in other cases, a great deal depends upon individual taste and 
 party convenience in the distribution of the seals, his place is the 
 most important and dignified of them all. The direct relations 
 in which it brings its occupant with the Sovereign and with foreign 
 Powers ; the fact that its tenure makes him for the time being 
 the representative of England to the world at large ; the amount 
 of important and confidential business which has to be trans- 
 acted, with only the conditional and retrospective control of the 
 House of Commons ; the momentous issues of peace and war, 
 
220 Appendix C. 
 
 or of easy or constrained relations with foreign powers; the 
 moral influence which may be wisely exerted in behalf of free- 
 dom or good government abroad, and which a hasty word or a 
 querulous despatch may throw away or convert to evil ; and 
 thebearing of all these things upon commerce, make the office one 
 of the most difficult that can be exercised. The Secretaryship for 
 Foreign Affairs is of greater moral responsibility, if degrees can 
 be admitted in matters of this sort, and of less direct and longei 
 deferred Parliamentary responsibility, than any other under the 
 Crown. From the nature of the case diplomatic correspondence 
 and negotiations have often to be kept secret until the business 
 is settled or the enterprise has failed. In the easily invoked 
 interests of the public service questions are left unanswered to 
 which the Minister, if he is to be believed, is burning to reply ; 
 papers are kept back which he is eager to lay before the House ; 
 discussions are deprecated which, if his duty allowed, he would 
 be the first to invite. If things prove in the end to have gone 
 wrong, Parliament has the consolation of passing a vote of cen- 
 sure, which will not set them right. In other words, it may cry 
 its eyes out if it chooses over spilled milk. As to do this would 
 be to present a somewhat undignified spectacle to the other 
 nations of the world, this luxury of woe, or of merely vindictive 
 punishment, is not usually indulged in; and a retrospective vote 
 of censure comes as little within the ordinary reckoning of a 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs as direct Parliamentary interference 
 during the course of a negotiation. What he has to fear is 
 adverse opinion, when the truth comes out. directed and 
 informed by searching and unsparing criticism. His personal 
 di c credit, and that of the Government to w r hich he belongs, in 
 the case of error or misconduct, are usually a sufficient induce- 
 ment to vigilance 
 
 " These peculiar conditions of the office render the character 
 of the person filling it a matter of more than ordinary moment ; 
 and since it came into separate existence it has been held pro- 
 bably by a greater number of men of high eminence than any 
 other political post save that of Prime Minister. Mr. Fox, Lord 
 Liverpool, Lord Wellesley, Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Canning, Lord 
 Dudley, Lord Aberdeen, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Russell, 
 Lord Clarendon, Lord Derby, and Lord Granville have been 
 among its occupants, all of them men of the first political 
 eminence, eight of them Prime Minister^, and the rest either 
 the actual leaders of their party in one or the other House, or 
 conspicuous and influential in it 
 
The Foreign Office. 221 
 
 " 1 1. the interior of the Foreign Office a distribution of work 
 prevails somewhat like that according to which, in former days, 
 llie Northern and Southern departments were distributed 
 between the two principal Secretaries of State, though the dis- 
 tribution is not in name or fact hemispherical. The Permanent 
 Under-Secretary and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary are 
 each charged with the correspondence and affairs of certain desig- 
 nated nations, under the direction and control of the Principal 
 Secretary. Each, however, has a certain cognizance of the 
 other's work the Permanent Secretary, in order that the threads 
 of business which he has to transmit to successive chiefs may 
 all be in his hands ; the Parliamentary Under-Secretary, that he 
 may be able to explain and defend in Parliament the action of 
 his department. To the Permanent Under-Secretary the most 
 important countries are assigned, and he ordinarily is the Foreign 
 Office, his Parliamentary colleague knowing usually as much as 
 he is told, which is as much as may be considered safe to allow 
 him the means of communicating to an inquisitive member. 
 Occasionally the spectacle has been witnessed of an unfortunate 
 Under-Secretary stumbling over a written memorandum handed 
 him a few minutes before and imperfectly decipherable. In a 
 paper drawn up by Mr. (now Lord) Hammond for the Commons' 
 Committee of 1861, on the Diplomatic Service, the mode ol 
 transacting business is minutely described. The despatches 
 are received by the clerks, and transmitted to one or other of 
 the Under-Secretaries, who sends them to the principal Secre- 
 tary of State. His instructions are written upon them, and with 
 this addition they are sent back to the proper Under-Secretary, 
 who forwards them to the senior clerk of the division entrusted 
 with the correspondence of the countries to which they refer. 
 The draft answers, if th-jy require answers, are submitted to the 
 Under-Secretary for his approval, and, on this being given, are 
 sent back to the proper division to be written out for the signa- 
 ture of the Principal or the Under-Secretary, as the case may 
 be. In mere matters of detail the senior clerk sometimes does 
 not trouble the Under-Secretary of State with a draft of a letter, 
 but submits the letter at once to him for signature. In matters 
 of more importance than those described, the Under-Secretary 
 would, we believe, himself write the despatch. In affairs of the 
 highest State policy, which involve the secrets of Cabinets, and 
 friendly or doubtful relations, or even peace and war with foreign 
 Powers, the Principal Secretary himself writes the draft of the 
 
222 Appendix D. 
 
 despatch, which is the subject of consultation between, and, if 
 need be, modification by, himself and the Prime Minister, and 
 one or two recognised members of that inner Cabinet within 
 the ostensible Cabinet, by which its policy is really shaped. 
 Thus agreed upon, it is submitted to the whole Cabinet for 
 approval, which it is pretty certain to receive, though it is said to 
 come out of this deliberation in a form strangely unlike that in 
 which it goes in. The draft thus settled is submitted to the 
 Sovereign, and if accepted, is reduced into form by the Principal 
 Secretary of State. In matters in which the turning of a phrase, 
 the spirit of an allusion, and the tone and temper of a despatch 
 may have consequences as serious as its substance, it would be 
 impossible to trust the preparation to a clerk or Under-Secre- 
 tary, even if the matter were allowed to go beyond the ciicle of 
 the Cabinet. Not only the statement of facts and the processes 
 of reasoning, but the sentiment of the Government, its desire to 
 conciliate and willingness to concede, or its feeling that the time 
 for conciliation has passed, and that concession is impossible, 
 require to be conveyed in language at once discriminating and 
 authoritative. The feeling to be made plain cannot be delegated 
 or dictated, it must be expressed or shadowed forth at first hand. 
 A judge of style and character could trace the passage of Lord 
 Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston, Lord Clarendon and Lord 
 Granville, Lord Russell and Lord Derby through the Foreign 
 Office, without regarding the signatures at the close of their 
 several despatches. They are signed all over." 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 THE NATIONAL DEBT. 
 
 As complementary to what is said in the text, the following 
 extracts from a valuable little book on " the Money Market," by 
 a City Man (Warne and Co.), are given : 
 
 "The National Debt presents itself to our view in the form 
 of various funds, bearing interest, and serving as investments 10 
 many thousands of persons. Taking them in something like 
 the order of their importance, we have : 
 

 The National Debt. 223 
 
 " First, THE FUNDED DEBT, for the payment of the Interest 
 on which a permanent charge is made on the National Revenue. 
 The chief portions of this are 
 
 " I. CONSOLS. This word is an abbreviation of Consolidated 
 the full title of the Stock is the Three per Cent. Consolidated 
 Bank Annuities. It forms by far the greater part of the public 
 debt. It had its origin in 1751, when an Act was passed con- 
 solidating several separate stocks bearing an interest of three per 
 cent. The present amount of this stock is about ^400,000,000. 
 
 " The interest upon it has never failed ; and as it forms the 
 favourite investment of the nation, it is supposed to be especially 
 affected by all that affects the national interest. 
 
 "II. REDUCED THREES. The full title of this Stock is 
 Reduced Three per Cent. Annuities. The stock dates from 
 1757. It consisted, as the name implies, of stocks which had 
 borne previously a higher rate of interest, and whose holders 
 had the option afforded them of being paid off or accepting the 
 lower rate. Most of them chose the latter alternative. It 
 amounts at present to about ,102,000,000. 
 
 "III. NEW THREES, which till October, 1854, paid 3^ per 
 cent., having previously undergone several conversions from 
 their original denomination as ' Navy Five per Cents.' . . . 
 
 "IV. NEW FIVES, comprising the residue of the Navy Five 
 per Cents., but amounting altogether to a comparatively insig- 
 nificant sum 
 
 "V. LIFE ANNUITIES, which may be obtained from the 
 Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, at their 
 office in the Old Jewry, in exchange for stock or money, on 
 single or joint lives, calculated according to age, at fixed rates. 
 
 "THE UNFUNDED DEBT is that which is not made a per- 
 manent charge on the Revenue : it consisted at one time 
 wholly of 
 
 "EXCHEQUER BILLS. 
 
 "These are bills of credit issued by authority of Parliament. 
 They are for various sums, and bear interest (generally from 
 \^d. to 2.\d. per diem per ,100) according to the usual rate at 
 the time. The advances of the Bank to Government are made 
 upon these Bills, and the daily transactions between the Bank 
 and Government are principally carried on through their inter- 
 vention. Notice of the time at which outstanding Exchequer 
 
224 Appendix D. 
 
 Bills are to be, paid off is given by public advertisement 
 Bankers invest in Exchequer Bills to a considerable extent, even 
 though the interest be for the most part comparatively low, 
 because the exact amount of capital advanced will be repaid by 
 the Treasury, the holders being exempted from any but ,t 
 trifling risk of fluctuation. Exchequer Bills were first issued in 
 1696, and have been annually issued ever since. 
 
 " EXCHEQUER BONDS are a similar description of securities 
 to the last mentioned, except that the Bonds are not payable 
 annually. They were introduced by Mr. Gladstone in 1853, as 
 part of a scheme for the conversion of some portion of the 
 permanent debt into a terminable one. In the course of the 
 negotiation, however, circumstances arose to defeat the success 
 of the measure, the result being that a very small amount of 
 Bonds was taken up. In the following year, the South Sea 
 Stock proprietors having claimed payment, and the prospect of 
 a war against Russia having created a heavy demand on the 
 Exchequer, the same Chancellor determined on renewing the 
 attempt to create Exchequer Bonds, instead of resorting at once 
 to a regular loan. Bonds were, therefore, advertised, bearing 
 interest at the rate of 3^ per cent, per annum, payable half- 
 yearly, in three sets of ,2,000,000 each the Bonds classed A, 
 B, and C, to be payable May 8th, 1858; May 8th, 1859; and 
 May 8th, 1860 ; the Bonds to be issued in amounts of ^100, 
 20*.), $oo, and ; J,ooo. Of these Bonds, however, only 
 Classes A and B were ever taken up to the amount, it is under- 
 stood, of nearly ,4,000,000. The dividends thereon are pay- 
 able in May and November. 
 
 " It will be seen that all these funds represent loans made at 
 various times, and for different purposes, by private parties to 
 the State. The practice of providing for State exigencies by 
 such loans was first adopted by the Government of Florence, 
 as far back as the year 1341. The sum borrowed was only 
 .60,000 ; but as the State had not the means of immediately 
 discharging the debt, it had recourse to a very ingenious and 
 then new device that of creating out of this liability a joint- 
 stock divided into shares. These were to bear interest at 5 
 per cent., and, for the sake of mercantile convenience, made 
 transferable. It is obvious that the absolute value of these 
 would vary with the actual power of the republic to pay the 
 debt, and their market value with the public opinion of the 
 State solvency. 
 
Tlie L cgal Profession. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 
 
 THE LEGAL PROFESSION in England has now for some hun- 
 dreds of years past been distributed into two distinct " branches," 
 of which one is usually held, by courtesy, to be higher than the 
 other. The members of the higher branch, that of Barristers, 
 have sole audience in the Superior Courts of Law. They can 
 only be directly employed by, and receive their instructions 
 from, the members of the lower branch of the profession that 
 is. Attorneys or Solicitors. They cannot sue for unpaid fees 
 by any legal process, and no action can be brought against them 
 for negligence or misconduct in the management of a case. On 
 the other hand, their action is guided and restricted by strict 
 rules of professional etiquette, and it is scarcely possible for a 
 Barrister (also called "Counsel") to disobey these rules without 
 subjecting himself to such an amount of professional, and even 
 judicial, disapprobation, as to render the conduct of business (if 
 he succeeds in retaining any) almost insuperably difficult. 
 
 A person becomes a barrister through what is named the 
 ' call " of one of the four Inns of Court. These Inns, the Inner 
 and Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn, and Gray's Inn, are ancient 
 Societies, which have had certain privileges granted them, and 
 property conferred upon them, by Kings of England, for the 
 benefit and education of the Legal Profession. It seems, by the 
 way, to have been merely due to historical accidents that one 
 part of the Profession gradually became excluded from all share 
 in these advantages. These Societies exercise, through their 
 self-elective Governing Bodies, the members of the Bench, or 
 Benchers, by delegation from the Judges of the Superior 
 Courts, the functions of u calling " to the Bar, of determining the 
 conditions upon which the call shall be made, and of dis-barring 
 (that is, revoking the call of) any Barrister who, in their opinion 
 formed after a quasi-judicial inquiry shall have miscon- 
 ducted himself, either in the discharge of his professional duties 
 or otherwise. In case of a sentence of disbarring being pro- 
 nounced, an appeal lies to the Judges. The existing conditions 
 
226 Appendix E. 
 
 for a call to the Bar are, first, entrance as a member of an 
 Inn of Court. No attorney can enter till he has ceased to be 
 on the roll of attorneys for a full year preceding his application. 
 Except in the case of exemptions granted to University students, 
 a preliminary examination of an elementary character must be 
 passed. The Student must, during twelve terms (of which there 
 are four in each year), attend in the Hall of his Inn during the 
 dinner hour, unless one or two terms are remitted in considera- 
 tion of the student's passing an exceptionally good examination. 
 Finally, every student must pass an examination in such, sub- 
 jects as Roman Law, and English Common Law, Equity, and 
 Real Property Law. 
 
 This compulsory examination can be passed at any time 
 after the student has kept four terms. Studentships of ,100, 
 for one or two years, are awarded for excellence in Roman 
 Law (Institutes, Digest, and History), Jurisprudence, and 
 International Law. Public lectures are delivered on all the 
 subjects of the examinations by Professors in the Halls of the 
 several Inns ; and instruction is given to private classes by 
 tutors or by the professors. Attendance at all these lectures, 
 public and private, is quite voluntary ; and the public lectures 
 are open to others than students, on payment of a moderate 
 fee. The conduct of the examinations, the selection of the 
 lectures, and the arrangement of the scheme of instruction, are 
 undertaken by a joint representative committee of the Inns of 
 Court, called the '' Council of Legal Education." 
 
 The functions of attorneys and solicitors (of which, strictly 
 speaking, attorneys are officers of Common-Law Courts, and 
 solicitors officers of Courts of Equity, though the terms are used 
 interchangeably), are (i) to inform such persons as mayapply to 
 them as to the nature of their rights and duties, and to obtain 
 for their clients from counsel such opinions on special points of 
 law as they do not feel competent to advise upon without such 
 help ; (2) to do a number of legal acts of the simpler sort, such 
 as preparing wills, leases, contracts of sale, mortgages, and the 
 like ; (3) to conduct litigation on behalf of their clients, to 
 appear for them in the Courts in which it is permitted, or (if 
 necessary) to employ and instruct counsel for this purpose ; (4) 
 to do a number of acts on behalf of their clients, in which the 
 presence and direct interposition of the clients are either onerous, 
 disagreeable, or impossible. 
 
 The mode of " admission" of attorneys is regulated by statute. 
 
Bank of England. 227 
 
 which gives power to the Judges to make the detailed arrange- 
 ments. The examinations (preliminary, intermediate, and final) 
 are conducted by the " Incorporated Law Society," an important 
 institution, arising out of a voluntary association of members of 
 this branch of the profession, for the protection of its interests, 
 and vested with the duties now under consideration, by order of 
 the Judges. Every applicant for admission must have served 
 articles of clerkship in an attorney's office for a prescribed time. 
 The leading statute on the subject is 6 and 7 Viet., c. 73, and 
 the last one is 23 and 24 Viet., c. 127. 
 
 Of the members of the Bar, some are from time to time 
 appointed to be k ' Queen's Counsel." This is an ancient and 
 honourable distinction, without important consequences to the 
 public. A Queen's Counsel cannot be employed in any cause 
 against the Crown without special licence. It is the custom 
 for Queen's Counsel always to "lead" in cases that is, never to 
 be a junior counsel in a case unless the senior is a Queen's 
 Counsel of higher standing, and to receive double the amount of 
 fees accorded to an ordinary barrister. The ancient class of 
 " Serjeants " is on the verge of disappearance, through the opera- 
 tion of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act. 
 
 There aie two movements now on foot which demand notice. 
 One is for providing a joint system of education for both 
 branches of the profession ; the other is for abolishing the 
 formal distinction itself between the two branches. These 
 movements are in themselves quite independent, though those 
 who favour the latter generally favour the former likewise. 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 BANK OF ENGLAND AND JOINT-STOCK BANKS. 
 
 THE reader is recommended to study Mr. Walter Bagehot's 
 " Lombard Street" in reference to the whole topic of the actual 
 relation of the Government to the Bank of England. Nothing 
 conld be at once more simple, lucid, and exhaustive than the 
 whole of this treatise. 
 
22 S Appendix F. 
 
 The description, in the text, of the meaning and policy of 
 the Bank Charter Act of 1844 maybe supplemented by the 
 following extract from Sir Robert Peel's speech on introduc- 
 ing the Bill. [The extract is given from the work on the 
 u Money Market" mentioned in Appendix D.] 
 
 " It is proposed that the Bank of England shall continue in 
 possession of its present privileges that it shall retain the ex- 
 clusive right of issue within a district of which sixty-five miles 
 from London as a centre is the radius. The private banks within 
 that district which now actually issue not^s will of course be per- 
 mitted to continue their issues to the amount of the average of 
 the last two years. 1 Two departments of the Bank will be 
 constituted one for the issue of notes, the other for the ordinary 
 business of banking. The bullion now in the possession of the 
 Bank will be transferred to the Issue Department. The issue 
 of notes will be restricted to an issue of ^14,000,000 upon secu- 
 rities, the remainder being issued upon bullion, and governed in 
 amount by the fluctuations in the stock of bullion. , 
 
 "If there be under certain defined Circumstances an increase 
 in the issue of securities, it can only take place with the know- 
 ledge and consent of the Government, and the profit derivable 
 from such issues will belong to the public. Bankers now 
 actually enjoying the privilege of issue will be allowed to con- 
 tinue their issues, provided the maximum in the case of each 
 bank does not exceed the average of a certain prescribed period. 
 A weekly publication of issue will be required from every bank 
 of issue; the names of shareholders and partners will be pub- 
 lished. No new bank of issue can be formed, and no joint- 
 stock company for banking purooses can be established, except 
 cifter application to the Government, and compliance with 
 various regulations which will be hereafter submitted to the con- 
 sideration of Parliament." 
 
 The following extracts from the " Money Market " are also 
 apposite, as showing the relations, past and present, of Govern- 
 ment to the Joint-Stock Banks : 
 
 "An Act of Parliament was passed in 1708 providing that, 
 during the continuance of the Bank Charter, no other corpora- 
 tion or partnership, consisting of more than six persons, should 
 ' borrow, owe, or take up any sum or sums of money on their 
 bills or notes, payable on demand, or at a less time than six 
 
 1 Afterwards altered to twelve weeks 
 
Bank of 'England. 22$ 
 
 months from the borrowing thereof;' and this monopoly con- 
 Jnued in England for more than a century. It may be here 
 mentioned that the Charter of the Bank of England had no 
 reference to Scotland, which at the time it was granted was a 
 separate kingdom : hence, as the wealth of Scotland increased, 
 joint-stock banks were formed, and now conduct the whole of 
 the banking business of that portion of the United Kingdom. 
 
 '" But the time at length came when this monopoly was to b'j 
 swept away. After the terrible commercial catastrophe of 1825, 
 when seventy banks, principally country banks, failed within 
 the short period of six weeks, it was found that the trade of the 
 country was suffering great inconvenience from the dearth of 
 banking facilities, and it became necessary for the Government 
 to press upon the Bank of England the propriety of establishing 
 branches of its own body in different parts of the country, and 
 of giving up its exclusive privilege as the sole joint-stock bank, 
 except within a certain distance (which was afterwards fixed at 
 65 miles) from the metropolis. The directors were at first un- 
 willing to establish branches, but they ultimately acceded to 
 both the propositions of the Government, and several Acts of 
 Parliament were passed carrying them into effect. 
 
 " It was in virtue of these Acts that the first joint-stock banks 
 were established in England, and, as there was no restriction to 
 the contrary, they issued notes of ^5 and upwards. 
 
 "In the year 1833, when an Act was passed renewing the 
 Charter of the Bank of England, provision was made permitting 
 joint-stock banks to be established in London and within 65 
 miles thereof, on condition that they did not issue notes payable 
 on demand. Under this Act the London and Westminster 
 Bank, the London Joint-Stock Bank, and the Union Bank oi 
 London were established ; and the present splendid position 
 and world-wide reputation of these three institutions, whose 
 united liabilities exceed ^68,000,000, or nearly four times the 
 amount of the private deposits of the Bank of England, afford a 
 standing proof, if one were required, of the folly and indeed crimi- 
 nality of such monopolies as that of the joint-stock banking 
 business formerly enjoyed by the Bank of England." 
 
230 Appendix G. 
 
 APPENDIX G. 
 
 PRIVILEGE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN 
 RESPECT OF JURISDICTION IN CASES OF DIS- 
 PUTED ELECTIONS. (Seep. 36.) 
 
 A DEBATE took place in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 
 February 9th, on the question of issuing a new writ for Stroud, 
 the sitting member for which was declared not duly elected, the 
 judge saying in the last paragraph of a long report : " I have no 
 reason to believe that corrupt practices have extensively pre- 
 vailed at the election to which the petition relates." Mr. 
 Disraeli's speech on the occasion, which seemed to express the 
 general mind of the House, may be cited to illustrate the extent 
 to which the House of Commons may, by assenting to the Act 
 for appointing Judges to try cases of disputed elections, be 
 held to have surrendered their traditional jurisdiction in this 
 respect. 
 
 " Mr. DISRAELI. My hon. friend who has just addressed 
 us stated that he would try to put the question before the House 
 in its true light. I will endeavour also to put the question before 
 the House in its true light, and the light in which I view it is 
 that if this motion is carried it amounts to an abrogation of the 
 Election Petition Act of 1868. In that Act there were certain 
 powers given to the Judges which the House of Commons waived, 
 after ample discussion, after great thought, and with a due sense 
 of the sacrifices they were making. If we were now to announce 
 that because the decision of a Judge acting under such authority 
 does not please us, we are to come to a decision contrary to that 
 which according to the provisions of the law has been made 
 public, I can only look upon it that if this motion were carried 
 the authority of that Act would be entirely superseded. I am 
 not prepared, however, to supersede or abrogate that Act. I 
 believe that it has worked well for the country and for the House 
 of Commons. It is possible that in some of its details it may 
 be improved and that is a point on which it is unnecessary to 
 enlarge but the general spirit ot that Act is good, and it will 
 be well for the House of Commons always to support it. The 
 hon. baronet, who always addresses us in a spirit of gay wisdom 
 (a laugh), has thought fit to denounce precedents. Precedents 
 
Privilege of House of Commons in Elections. 231 
 
 are often attacked and abused, and the learned baronet has been 
 profuse in his denunciations of them. But precedents gene- 
 rally, and I will say the Parliamentary precedents always, em- 
 balm principles (hear) ; and I am myself convinced that if we 
 remove far from the line which Parliamentary precedents indi- 
 cate to us for our guidance and the conduct of our business, we 
 shall soon repent our rashness. (Hear, hear.) The noble lord 
 the member for the county of Westmeath (Lord R. Montagu) 
 sent me a pamphlet the other day, which I have read 
 with much interest as I read everything that comes from 
 his animated pen. It was a vindication of Infallibility. (A 
 laugh.) In what quarter that infallibility is exercised it is 
 unnecessary for me to touch upon, but to-night my noble 
 friend is the champion of the infallibility of the House of 
 Commons. That is a principle which, to my mind, is cer- 
 tainly not orthodox. I have sat in this House as long 
 as most men now in it, and I am deeply interested in its 
 honour and reputation. But I have ever opposed any proposal 
 that this House should assert its authority independently of the 
 other estates of the realm. The proposal before us, however, 
 essentially aims at such a consequence. My hon. friend who 
 made this motion will do well to consider what course he will 
 adopt if he succeeds. If he carries it, he cannot terminate his 
 connection with the borough of Stroud. He will by the success 
 of his motion appoint himself the guardian of the honour and 
 interests of the borough. He must be perpetually bringing the 
 subject before the House. It will be for him when he has made 
 due inquiry to tell us when he thinks that the borough of Stroud 
 has returned to that order of mind at which we must entrust to 
 it the noblest franchise of Englishmen. He must keep us au 
 courant with the affairs of Stroud by issuing a series of bulletins. 
 (A laugh.) He has no ulterior object, and if his proposition 
 succeeds he holds out no promise or prospect of future arrange- 
 ment. My hon. friend will find great difficulty in the course he 
 has pursued if he wishes to punish the electors of Stroud. He 
 cannot, if he succeeds in his motion, call upon the other authori- 
 ties of the Legislature to combine with the House of Commons 
 in carrying any measure on the subject. He cuts himself off 
 from any constitutional course becoming the occasion by the 
 line he is pursuing. My hon. friend will do well to consider 
 these difficulties before he calls upon the House to come to a 
 vote upon this question. The times may come, and they have 
 
232 Appendix G. 
 
 been alluded to to-night, when the spirit of the House of Com- 
 mons may be very different from what it is at present. I can 
 remember myself some periods when I have been a member of 
 this House, and when the existence of the Government depended 
 upon a single vote when the country was inflamed on subjects 
 which were peculiarly adapted to excite the passions of a free 
 people, and when some things were done and some things were 
 certainly proposed which those who had any connexion with 
 them may look back upon with regret. What was it the House 
 of Commons did at that time ? Did it take a course which 
 might produce Parliamentary anarchy and inflict great injury 
 on the country generally ? Why, it was respectful to musty old 
 precedents, which the hon. baronet holds up to humorous scorn 
 to-night. Though he sneers at gentlemen of the long robe, 
 there were then in the House, on both sides, lawyers who never 
 were equalled, probably, at any period of our Parliamentary 
 history for their learning and their independence, ind experi- 
 enced statesmen on both sides who agreed that they would 
 adhere to precedent and would be guided by the experience of 
 their predecessors. I trust the House will not allow itself to 
 deviate into a path so dangerous and difficult as the one that 
 has been indicated and which we have been recommended to 
 pursue to-night. I am sure if we do we shall open up a scene 
 of confusion which will not easily end, and no question of a 
 contest will ever come before the House without some proposi- 
 tion being made so unconstitutional in its character that the 
 result must be the degradation of the authority of Parliament 
 and the reduction of all our powers to make ourselves useful to 
 the country. (Cheers.)" The Times. February loth, 1875. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A CCEPTOR of a Bill of Ex- 
 -*- change, Description of an, 117 
 Acts of Parliament as a Source of 
 
 English Law, 109 
 Act of Settlement, Purport of, 6 
 
 Text of the, 216 
 
 Act of Parliament, Form and Struc- 
 ture of an, 51-54 
 
 Time of Commencement of an, 
 12 
 
 Addresses of Houses of Parliament 
 to the Queen, Proceedings in pre- 
 senting, 13, 14 
 
 Administrative Authority, General 
 Description of, 5 
 
 Administrators, Meaning of, 114 
 
 Functions of, 114 
 Admiralty, First Lord of the, and 
 
 his Functions, 68 
 
 High Court of, Functions and 
 Constitution of, 80 
 
 Affinity. What it is, 119, 120 
 Affreightment, What is. a Contract 
 
 of, 168 
 Alderman, Mode of Appointment 
 
 and Functions of, 144 
 Ambassadors. How nominated, 66 
 
 Regulation respecting English, 
 185, 186 
 
 The Queen's Functions in rela- 
 tion to, 17 
 
 Appeal, Functions of House of 
 Lords as a Court of, 21 
 
 Judicial Committee of the Privy 
 Council as a Court of, 64 
 
 Meaning of, in old English Law, 
 198 
 
 Lords of, 82 
 
 Organisation of the new Court 
 of, 8 1 
 
 BAN 
 
 Archdeacon's Court, 175 
 Archbishop's Court, 175 
 Arches, Court of, 175 
 Army, Functions of Queen respect- 
 ing the, 18 
 
 Organisation of the, 164-167 
 
 Reserve Force, Organisation of 
 the, 165 
 
 Statistics. How obtained, 154, 
 164 
 
 Articles of Impeachment. What 
 they are, 50 
 
 of War. What they are, 166 
 Assent, Royal. How g'iven to Bills, 
 
 12 
 
 Assessed Taxes. What they are, 
 149 
 
 Assize Courts, Organisation and 
 Functions of, 83, 84 
 
 Assurance, Contract of. What it 
 is, 117 
 
 Attorneys, Functions of, and Regu- 
 lations respecting, 225, 226 
 
 Audit Department/Account of the, 
 217 
 
 TRACKING a Warrant. What it 
 
 -L* means, 88 
 
 Bail, Nature of, 89, 90 
 
 Bailiffs, Functions of, 105 
 
 Ballot, Policy and Method of voting 
 
 by. 35 
 Banco, Sittings in. What they are, 
 
 107 
 Bank Charter Act of 1844, Account 
 
 of the, 170, 228 
 Bank of England Account of the, 
 
234 
 
 Index. 
 
 Bank of England, Government Re- 
 lations to the, 169, 170 
 
 Bankruptcy, Description of Pro- 
 ceedings in, 118, 127 
 
 Bankrupts, Political Disabilities of, 
 
 Banns, Proceedings on Marriage 
 by, 1 20 
 
 Bar, Trial at. What it is, 107 
 
 Barristets, Functions of and Regu- 
 lations respecting, 225-227 
 
 Bill of Exchange. What it is, 116, 
 117 
 
 Bill of Rights, Clauses of the, for 
 Protection of Parliament, n 
 
 Text of the, 207, 214 
 
 Bill, Changes in a, in House of 
 
 Lords, 46 
 Reading a, ' this day six months ' 
 
 or ' this day three months,' 47 
 
 What is ignoring a, 90 
 
 r Bills, How the Royal Assent is 
 given to, 12 
 
 How they are introduced and 
 read, 12 
 
 Proceedings in various Sorts of, 
 12 
 
 " Proceedings in House of Com- 
 mons relating to, 43-47 
 
 *~- Proceedings in, respecting Taxa- 
 tion, 47 
 
 Proceedings respecting, in 
 House of Lords, 21 
 
 Private, Nature of, 59 
 
 Public, Nature of, 59 
 
 Bills of Lading. What they are, 
 
 169 
 Bishops, Customary Action of, in 
 
 Parliamentary Trials, 21, 51 
 Board of Trade, Functions of the, 
 
 64, 68 
 
 Functions of, in relation to 
 Railways, 172 
 
 Board of Works. What it is, 67 
 Borough and County Constituencies, 
 
 Opposition between, 25, 26 
 - and County Franchise, Account 
 
 of Movement for assimilating, 28 
 
 Police, Organisation of, 147 
 
 Qualifications for voting in a, 26 
 Bribery, Methods of preventing and 
 
 punishing, 36 
 British Empire, Constituent Parts 
 
 of, 177 sq. 
 
 CIV 
 
 British Ship, What is a, 168 
 Budget, The. What it is, 65 
 BURKE, His Sentiments on Party 
 Government, 56 
 
 CABINET Council. What it is, 
 ^ 60 
 
 Nature of the, 8 
 
 Members of the, 60 sq. 
 
 Call of the House, What is a, 48 
 
 Census of Population. How made, 
 163 
 
 Central Criminal. Court, Organisa- 
 tion and Functions of the, 83 
 
 Certificate of Registry of a Ship, 
 What it is, 168 
 
 Certiorari, What is the writ of, 
 106 
 
 Charge, Nature cf a Judge's, to 
 Grand Jury, 90 
 
 Challenge of a Jury. What is meant 
 by it, 93, 132 
 
 to the Array. What is meant by 
 
 it. 93 
 
 to the Poll. What is meant by 
 it, 94 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. His 
 Functions, 65 
 
 The Lord, Functions of, 63 
 Chancery, Court of, History and 
 
 Organisation of, 78, 79, no 
 Charitable Uses, Regulations as to 
 
 Gifts for, 115 
 Charity Commission, Officials and 
 
 Functions of the, 71. 72 
 Charter-Party, What is a, 168 
 Charters, Account of grant of, to 
 
 Towns, 143, 144 
 
 Account of grant of, to City of 
 London, 144 
 
 of Towns, Forfeiture of, by 
 Charles II., 106 
 
 Cheque, A, on a Bank. What it is, 
 116 
 
 Church, The Established, Constitu- 
 tional position of the, 173-175 
 
 Prerogatives of the Crown in 
 respect of the, 17 
 
 Circuit Courts, Organisation and 
 
 Functions of, 83, 84 
 Citizenship, Regulations respecting 
 
 British, 176, 177 
 Qvil Injuries, Law respecting, 127 
 
Index. 
 
 235 
 
 civ 
 
 Civil List, Meaning of the, 8 
 Service Commission, Officials 
 and Functions of the, 71 
 
 Trial, Description of Proceedings 
 in a, 99 sq. 
 
 Clergy, Political Disabilities of, 37 
 
 Clerk of the House of Commons, 
 Functions of, 40 
 
 Codicil, Meaning of, and Formali- 
 ties requisite for, 113 
 
 Colonies, Account of the British, 
 179 sq. 
 
 Crown. What they are, 180 
 
 Secretary for the, Functions of, 
 66, 67 
 
 Commission, Royal, Nature and 
 Functions of a, 48 
 
 Commissions under which Judges 
 of Assize sit, 84 
 
 Commitment, Power of, as Exer- 
 cised by the House of Commons, 
 
 39 
 Committal, What is a Warrant of, 
 
 89 
 Committals for Trial, Meaning of, 
 
 87 
 Committee of the whole House (of 
 
 Commons). What it is, 44 
 Committees, Select, of House of 
 
 Commons, Functions of, 47 
 Committing a Bill. What it is, 45 
 Common Juryman, Qualifications of 
 
 a, 94 
 
 Law, Distinction between, and 
 Equity, 78, 79 
 
 Commons, House of, Character of 
 places represented in, 24, 25 
 
 Constitution of, 23 
 
 Early History of, 20 
 
 Functions of in respect of dis- 
 puted Elections, 36, 230 
 
 ^Mode of Electing Members of, 
 30 sq. 
 
 When it sits, 43 
 Compositions with Creditors. What 
 
 they are, 119 
 Conference between the two Houses. 
 
 What it is, 47 
 Confessions, Admission of, as Evi- 
 
 <1"!K-0, IO2 
 
 Confidence, Vote of Want of, Pro- 
 ceedings on, 57, 58 
 
 Cj-ifirmatio carlarum of EDWARD 
 I., translated Text of, 202, 203 
 
 COU 
 
 Conservative Party. Meaning of 
 
 expression, 54 
 Constable, Parish, History of the 
 
 institution of, 144, 145 
 Constables for the City of London, 
 
 Organisation of, 147 
 
 Special, Functions of, 145, 146 
 Constabulary, County, Organisa- 
 tion of, 147, 148 
 
 Constituency, Meaning of a, 25 
 Constitution of England. What it 
 is, r 
 
 Classes of Authorities through 
 which it can be known, 3 
 
 Relation of Jury Trial to the, r 
 
 Relation of Habeas Corpus Acts 
 to the, i 
 
 Constructive Treason. Whatit 15,129 
 Consuls. How nominated, 66 
 
 What they are, 185, 186 
 Contract, Account of Law of, 11550]. 
 Contracts, Limitations on Modes 
 
 of making, 118 
 Contractors, Government, Political 
 
 Disabilities of, 37 
 
 Convicts, Provisions respecting, 98 
 Convictions, Summary, Meaning of, 
 
 87 
 
 Coroner, his functions, 89 
 Corporate Bodies. How affected 
 
 by Mortmain Laws, 115 
 
 Towns, Provisions for Local 
 Government of, 143, 144 
 
 Corporations, Nature of, in relation 
 to the Queen's Prerogative, 16 
 
 Costs in a Trial, Principles for regu- 
 lating, 104 
 
 Council, Cabinet. What it is, 60 
 
 King's, History of the, 20 
 
 The Lord President of the, 
 Functions of the, 63 
 
 The Privy, Relation of, to the 
 Cabinet, 8, 60, 61 
 
 Counsel. Regulations respecting 
 them, 225 
 
 Queen's, 227 
 County. What it is, 138 
 
 and Borough Constituencies, 
 opposition between, 25, 26 
 
 and Borough Franchise, Account 
 of Movement for assimilating the, 
 28 
 
 Constabulary, Organisation of, 
 147, 148 
 
Index. 
 
 Col 
 
 cou 
 
 County, Qualification for voting in 
 a, 25, 27 
 
 Rate. How assessed and col- 
 lected, 143 
 
 Course of Proceedings in a Criminal 
 
 Trial, 89 
 Court of Admiralty, 80 
 
 of Arches, 175 
 
 Central Criminal, Organisation 
 and Functions of, 83 
 
 of Chancery, Organisation and 
 Functions of, 78, 79 
 
 Circuit, or Assize, 83, 84 
 
 County, 85 
 
 Diocesan, 175 
 
 of Exchequer Chamber, 80 
 
 of Petty Sessions, 87, 88 
 
 Police, 87, 88 
 
 Provincial, 175 
 
 of Probate and Divorce, 80 
 
 of Quarter Sessions, 85, 86 
 
 of Special Sessions, What is a, 89 
 Courts, Ecclesiastical, 175 
 
 Inferior, 85 
 Courts-Martial, General, District, 
 
 Regimental, and Detachment 
 General. What they are, 166, 167 
 
 Functions and Powers of, 167 
 
 Superior, Organisation and 
 Functions of, 77 sq. 
 
 Crime, Description of a, 128 
 Crimes, Classification of, 128 
 
 Distinction between, and Torts, 
 128 
 
 Criminal Appeal, Constitution of 
 Court of, 83 
 
 Information. What it is, 107 
 
 Law, Account of, 128-131 
 Criminals, Provisions for Punish- 
 ment of, 97-99 
 
 Provisions for Reformation of, 
 
 97-99 
 
 Cross-examination. What it is, 
 88, 103 
 
 Crown Cases Reserved, Constitu- 
 tion of Court for consideration of, 
 
 Colonies. What they are, 179 
 
 Succession to the. How regu- 
 lated, 6 
 
 Cumulative Voting, Meaning of, 31 
 
 Curtesy of England, 122 
 
 Customs. How far they are a 
 Source of Law, 108, 109 
 
 ENA 
 
 Customs, offices connected witt 
 levying the, 76 
 
 What they are, 149 
 
 DAMAGES in a Civil Trial, Pro- 
 ceedings relating to, 104, 105 
 Death, Punishment of. When in- 
 flicted, 98 
 Debentures of Railway Companies, 
 
 172 
 Decisions of Courts as sources of 
 
 English Law, 109, no 
 Deed. What it is, 112 
 
 of Separation. What it is, 122 
 Definition of Terms in an Act. How 
 
 made, 53 
 
 Demurrage. Meaning of term, 169 
 Denizens. What they are, 168 
 Depositions, Nature of, 89 
 Deputations, Reception of, by 
 
 Members of the Government, 59 
 Detectives. What they are, 146 
 Direct Taxes. What they are, 149- 
 
 J 52 
 Discovery. Meaning of term in 
 
 Legal Proceedings, 101 
 Disfranchisement. In what cases 
 
 resorted to, 36 
 Divorce Court, The, Organisation 
 
 of, 80 
 
 How effected, 121 
 Dower. What it is, 122 
 
 Drawer of a Bill of Exchange, De- 
 scription of a, 117 
 
 pCCLESTASTICAL Commis- 
 *-' sion, Account of the, 72 
 
 Ecclesiastical Courts, 175 
 Edxication, Functions of Committee 
 of Council for, 64, 71 
 
 Provisions for National, 141, 142 
 
 Statistics. How far obtainable, 
 158 
 
 Election, A General. What it is, 33 
 
 Mode of, of a Member of the 
 House of Commons, 30 sq. 
 
 Elections, Disputed, Functions of 
 House of Commons in respect of, 
 36, 230 
 
 Electors, Qualifications of, 26 sq. 
 
 Movements for changing Quali- 
 fications of, 28 
 
 Enacting Clause of an Act. What 
 it is, 52 
 
Index. 
 
 237 
 
 Endorser of a Bill of Exchange, 117 
 Entail, Meaning of an, 112, 113 
 Equity, Distinction between, and 
 
 Common Law, 78, 79, no 
 Escheat, Meaning of term, 194 
 Established Church, Constitutional 
 
 Position of the, 173, 175 
 Estate, Fee-Sim pie, Meaning of a, 
 
 112, 113 
 
 - Tail, Meaning of an, 112 
 Evidence, Laws regulating admis- 
 
 sion of, 101-103 
 
 Exchequer Bills. What they are, 
 223 
 
 Bonds. What they are, 224 
 
 - The, The Chancellor of. His 
 functions, 65 
 
 Chamber, Court of, Functions 
 of the, 80 
 
 - The. Waht it is, 62 
 Excise. What it is, 150 
 Execution on a Judgment in a civil 
 
 case. What it is, 105 
 Executive Authority, General De- 
 
 scription of, 5 
 Executors, Functions of, 113, 114 
 
 Meaning of term, 113, 114 
 Exequatur, What is an, 185 
 Extradition, Provisions of Statute 
 
 of 1873 respecting, 1-36 
 
 Regulations respecting, 136 
 
 E ESTATE. What 
 it is, 112, 113 
 
 Felons, Political Disabilities of, 37 
 Felony, Regulations as to arresting 
 on suspicion of, 134, 146 
 
 What is a, 128, 129 
 Flogging, Principles regulating in- 
 
 fliction of, 99 
 
 Foreign Affairs, Secretary for, 66, 
 219 
 
 Law as a Source of English 
 Law, 109 
 
 - Office, Organisation of the, 219 
 Forty Members, Rule as to pre- 
 sence of, in House of Commons, 
 
 47 
 
 Fox, Mr., His Libel Act, 133 
 Franchise, Regulations as to the 
 
 Borough & County, 27 
 Fraud, Jurisdiction of Court o f 
 
 Chancery in, no, in 
 Freehold, What is a, 113 
 
 IMP 
 
 Freeholder, What is a, 26, 27, 113 . 
 Friendly Societies, Office of Regis- 
 trar of, 75 
 Funds, The. What they are, 73 
 
 GAOLS, Regulations for Im- 
 prisonment in, 98 
 
 General Election, A. What it is, 33 
 Warrant, What is a, 135 
 Government Bill, A. What it is, 44 
 
 Local, Organisation of, 137 sq. 
 
 Mode of Formation of the, 54 sq. 
 
 Offices, Nature of, 76 
 
 Statistics, Method of collecting, 
 152 sq. 
 
 Grand Jury, Constitution and Func- 
 tions of, 90 
 
 Juryman, Qualifications of, 94 
 Grant, Limitations on Queen's 
 
 power of making a, 16, 17 
 Guardians, Regulations respecting, 
 125, 126 
 
 of the Poor, Functions of, 159, 140 
 
 HABEAS CORPUS Act, The, 
 General account of, 95, 97, 
 
 134 
 
 Provisions of in relation to Royal 
 Pardon, 15 
 
 Text of, 207 
 
 Acts. Their relation to the 
 Constitution, i, 3, 134 
 
 Hearsay Evidence, Principles regu- 
 lating exclusion of, 102 
 High Steward, Functions of, 21 
 
 Treason, Procedure in Trials for, 
 94, 129 
 
 Home Secretary, The, Functions of, 
 65, 66 
 
 House of Commons, Functions of, 
 in relation to Election Petitions, 
 36, 230 
 
 Husband and Wife, Laws regulat- 
 ing relations of, 119 sq. 
 
 IGNORING aBill. What it is, 
 J- 90 
 
 Impeachment, Functions of House 
 of Lords in cases of, 21 
 
 Nature of, and proceedings in 
 an, 50 
 
 Imprisonment, Modes and Terms 
 of, 98 
 
238 
 
 Index. 
 
 IMP 
 
 Imprisonment, Safeguards against 
 
 illegal, 133 134 
 
 Income Tax, Nature of the, 149 
 Incorporated Law Society. What 
 
 it is, 227 
 
 Indictment, Nature of an, 90 
 Independent Members of the House 
 
 of Commons, 57 
 India, Account of British Dominions 
 
 in, 181 
 
 Secretary for, Functions of, 67 
 Indirect Taxes. What they are, 
 
 149-152 
 Inferior Courts, Organisation and 
 
 Functions of, 85 
 
 Informations, Meaning of, in Judi- 
 cial Proceedings, 106, 107 
 Inland Revenue, Offices connected 
 
 with collection of, 76 
 Inns of Court. What they are, 225 
 Insurance, Contract of. What it 
 
 is, 117 
 Interpretation Clause in an Act. 
 
 What it is, 53 
 Interrogatories. Meaning of them, 
 
 in Legal Proceedings, 101 
 Ireland, Account of its connection 
 
 with England, 178 
 
 Chief Secretary for, Functions 
 of, 70 
 
 International Relations of England. 
 
 What they are, 182 sq. 
 - Law. What it is, 183, 184 
 Issue Department of the Bank of 
 
 England. What it is, 170, 227 
 Issue, Meaning of tefm in Legal 
 
 Proceedings, 101 
 
 JOINT-STOCK BANKS, Regu- 
 J lations respecting, and History 
 of, 227 
 
 Company, What is a, 116,172 
 Judge Advocate-General, Functions 
 
 of the, 1 66 
 
 Judges, Functions of, in Election 
 cases, 36 
 
 Modes of appointing, 14 
 
 Provisions respecting the, in Act 
 of Settlement, 133 
 
 Their Political Disabilities, 37 
 judicial Committee of the Privy 
 
 Council, Functions of the, 64 
 
 LEG 
 
 Judicial Decisions, as a Source of 
 English Law, 109, no 
 
 Organisation, 77 
 
 Separation, 121, 122 
 
 Statistics, Mode of Collecting, 
 
 155. 158 
 Jury, Common, Nature of, 93, 94 
 
 Constitution and Functions of a, 
 90, 91, 103, 104, 132 
 
 Coroner's, Functions of, 89 
 
 Explanation cf Challenge of, gy, 
 132 
 
 Grand, Constitution and Func- 
 tions of a, 90 
 
 Juryman, Common, 94 
 Grand, Qualifications of, 94 
 
 Special, Qualifications of, 94 
 Jury, Special, Nature of, 93, 94 
 
 Trial. Its History, 92, 93 
 
 Trial. Its relation to the Con- 
 stitution, i 
 
 Trial, Mode of Trial by, as a 
 Constitutional Security, 132 
 
 Justice, How the Queen is the 
 Fountain of, 14 
 
 Organisation of the new High 
 Court of, 81, 82 
 
 Justices, Organisation and Func- 
 tions of, in respect of Taxation, 
 152 
 
 of the Peace, Mode of Appoint- 
 ment and Functions of, 86, 138 
 
 K 
 
 ING, History and Function 
 the, 6 
 
 T ANCASTER, Chancellor of the 
 -L-' Duchy of, Functions of, 68 
 Law, A source of. What it is, 108, 
 109 
 
 of Contract, Account of, 115 sq. 
 
 Foreign and Roman, as Sources 
 of English Law, 109 
 
 of Nations. What it is, 182, 
 184 
 
 of Real and Personal Property, 
 Distinction between, in sq. 
 
 Laws, Sources of English. What 
 they are, 108, 109 
 
 Legal Profession, Organisation s of 
 the, 225 
 
 Legislative Authority, General de- 
 scription of, 5 
 
Index. 
 
 2.59 
 
 LIB 
 
 Libd Act, Provisions of Mr. Fox's, 
 
 *33 
 
 Constitutional Securities in re- 
 spect of trial for, 133 
 
 Liberal Party, Meaning of expres- 
 sion, 54 
 
 Liberty of the Subject, Account of 
 the Securities for, 131 
 
 Licence, Proceedings on Marriage 
 by, 120 
 
 Licences, as a mode of collecting 
 Taxes, 152 
 
 Lien, What is a, 118 
 
 Local Authority, Nature and Pur- 
 poses of, 5 
 
 Boards, Character of the insti- 
 tution of, 69 
 
 Boards, How formed and Func- 
 tions of, 141 
 
 Government Board, Functions 
 of in respect of Poor-La\v Relief, 
 139 
 
 Government Board, President, 
 officials, and Functions of, 69 
 
 Government, Organisation of, 
 137 sq. 
 
 i'axation, Provisions respecting, 
 142, 144 
 
 London, Provisions for Looal 
 Government of City of, 144 
 
 Lord High Steward, Proceedings 
 in Trials before the, 21, 106 
 
 Lords, House of, Description and 
 Functions of, 19 
 
 Early History, 20 
 
 Review of current Objections to 
 
 Constitution of, 22, 23 
 Lunacy Commission, Functions of 
 the, 74 
 
 TV/1" AG1STRATES or Justices of 
 
 ***- the Peace, Mode of Appoint- ; 
 ent and Functions of, 85, 86 
 
 Magnet Charta, Translated text of, 
 189 sq. 
 
 Mandamus, Proceedings relating to 
 writ of, 1 06 
 
 Manifest, The. What it is in rela- 
 tion to Shipping, 169 
 
 Marriage. How far a Contract, 117, 
 118 
 
 Legal provisions respecting, 
 H9sq. 
 
 NEU 
 
 Marriage, Modes of entering upon 
 a, 1 20, 121 
 
 Settlements, Provisions respect- 
 ing, 123, 124 
 
 Married Women's Property, Laws 
 Respecting, 123, 124 
 Statutes respecting, 124 
 
 Martial Law. What it is, 166, 167 
 
 Master of the Rolls, History and 
 Functions of the, 78 
 
 Mayor, Mode of Appointment and 
 Functions of a, 144 
 
 Members of the House of Com- 
 mons, Qualifications of, 37 
 
 Merchant Shipping, Regulations 
 respecting, 167, 168 
 
 Metropolitan Police, Organisation 
 of, 147, 148 
 
 Militia, The, How organised, 16^ 
 
 Ministers, Position of the Queen's, 
 8 
 
 Minorities, Representation of, Sug- 
 gested Schemes for the, 30-33 
 
 Mint, The. What it is, 17, 73 
 
 Misdemeanour, What is a, 128, 129 
 
 Misprision of Treason. What it is, 
 130 
 
 Monarch, Position of the English, 7 
 
 Monopoly, Restrictions upon grant- 
 ing a, 17 
 
 Mortmain Laws, History and Policy 
 of, 114, 115, 126 
 
 Motion, Nature of a, in the House 
 of Commons, 41, 42 
 
 Murder, Punishment of Death for, 
 98 
 
 Mutiny Act, Account of the, 16=;, 
 166 ^ 
 
 Constitutional Uses of the, 10 
 
 VTATIONALDEBT. The Nature 
 * ' and Management, 73, 74 
 
 Relation of Bank of England to 
 the, 169 
 
 Nationality, Regulations respecting 
 British, 176 
 
 Naturalisation Act of 1870, Provi- 
 sions of the, 176 
 
 Navy, Organisation of the, 164-167 
 
 Statistics. How obtained, 154, 
 164 
 
 Neutrality, Laws for the Presena- 
 tion of English, 184 
 
240 
 
 Index. 
 
 NEW 
 
 New Trial, A, Principles upon which 
 it is granted, 105, 133 
 
 Nomination of Candidates. How 
 conducted, 34 
 
 Nonsuit. What it is, 105 
 
 Notice of Motion in the House of 
 Commons, Regulations respect- 
 ing a, 42, 43 
 
 OFFICES, Political Disabilities 
 of the holders of certain, 37 
 Opposition, The Meaning of the 
 
 expression, 57 
 
 Order of the House of Commons, 
 Nature of an, and Proceedings on 
 an, 41, 42 
 
 Overseers, Functions of, in assess- 
 ment of Rates, 143 
 
 for Poor-Law Purposes, 139, 140 
 
 in the registration of voters, 27 
 
 PAIRING of Members of either 
 * House of Parliament. What 
 
 it means, 49 
 Pardon, Prerogative of, 15, 16 
 
 Royal, in cases of Impeachment, 
 15 
 
 Parish Constable, History of insti- 
 tution of, 144, 145 
 
 Parishes, Division of Country into, 
 138 
 
 Organisation of, for Poor Relief, 
 
 Parliament, Forms of summoning 
 
 and opening, n 
 How Houses of, communicate j 
 
 with the Queen, 13 
 
 Prorogation and dissolution of, 
 10 
 
 Parties, Meaning and History of 
 
 Political, -54 sq. 
 Partnership, Contract of. What it ! 
 
 is, 116 
 
 Passports. How granted, 66 
 Patent, A. What it is, 74 
 
 Office, The, 74 
 
 Prisons, Principles of Regulation of, 
 
 98 
 Peers, Function of Queen in j 
 
 making, 19 
 
 Political Disabilities of, 37 
 
 Their privilege to vote by proxy, 
 49 
 
 PRI 
 
 Penal Servitude. Principles of its 
 
 infliction, 98 
 Personal Property, Distinction 
 
 between it and Real, in, 112 
 Petition of Right, Nature of remed) 
 
 by, 17 
 
 Text of the, 204-207 
 Petitions, Parliamentary, Regula- 
 tions respecting, 48 
 
 Petty Sessions, Functions of Coun 
 
 of, 87-89 
 Pleading, History and. Nature of, 
 
 100 
 
 Police Courts, Organisation and 
 Functions of, 87, 88 
 
 Provisions for organisation ^f 
 the, 144 sq. 
 
 Political Offences, Nature of, 15 
 Poor-Law, Regulations of the, 138- 
 140 
 
 Statistics. How collected, 160, 
 161 
 
 Poor-rates. What they are am. 
 how collected, 140 
 
 Poor, Relief of the, Principles re- 
 specting, 138, 140 
 
 Population, Mode of collecting 
 Statistics of, 153, 163 
 
 Postmaster- General, Inunctions of 
 the, 70 
 
 Post Office, Description of, 70 
 
 Statistics, 162 
 
 Pi'tzmnuire. What it is, 97 
 
 Preamble of an Act What it is, 
 
 5i 
 
 Preferential Voting, Meaning of, 32 
 Prerogative of Pardon, 15, 16 
 - Writ. What it is, 106 
 President, The Lord, of the Council, 
 
 Functions of the, 63 
 Prime Minister, Description of 
 
 Functions of, 58 
 
 Prince of Wales,. Succession of the, 7 
 Private Bills, Nature of, 59 
 Privileges of Members of the House 
 
 of Commons, Enumeration of, 38 
 Privy Council, Committees of the, 
 
 Functions of, 63, 64 
 
 Relation of the, to the Cabinet, 
 8, 60, 61 
 
 Vice-President of the, Functions 
 of, 71 
 
 Prize Court, A, Its relation to the 
 Court of Admiralty, 80 
 
Index. 
 
 241 
 
 PRO 
 
 Probate of a Will. What it is, 114 
 
 Court of. Its organisation, 80 
 Promissory Note. What it is, 116, 
 
 117 
 
 Property, Account of English Law 
 of, in sq 
 
 Married Women's, Laws res- 
 pecting, 123, 124 
 
 Real and Personal, Account of 
 distinction between, in, 112 
 
 Proportional Representation, Mean- 
 ing and Kinds of, 32 
 
 Prosecutions for Crimes, Functions 
 of Queen respecting, 14 
 
 Prosecutor, Functions of the, in a 
 Criminal Trial, 91, 92 
 
 Protest of Peers. What it is, 49 
 
 Proxy, Privilege of Peers to vote by, 
 
 49 
 Public Bills, Nature of, 59 
 
 Health, Function of Local Boards 
 respecting, 141 
 
 Record Office, The, 75 
 
 Worship, Provisions for regula- 
 ting, 174 
 
 Punishment of Criminals, Provi- 
 sions for, 97-99 
 
 C\ UALIFICATIONS of Electors, 
 S^ 26 sq. 
 
 of Members of the House of 
 Commons, 37 
 
 Quarter Sessions, Court of, Organi- 
 sation and Functions of, 85, 86 
 
 Queen, History and Functions of 
 the, 5 
 
 How she communicates with the 
 Houses of Parliament, 13 
 
 How she is the Fountain of 
 Justice, 14 
 
 Functions of the, 8 sq. 
 Queen's Counsel, Regulations re- 
 specting, 227 
 
 Speech, Nature of, and pro- 
 ceedings relating to, n, 60 
 
 Questions in the House of Com- 
 mons, Subjects of, 43 
 
 Quo Warrattto, Proceedings relat- 
 ing to Writ of, 106 
 
 "DADTCAL PARTY, Meaning of 
 *'* expression, 55 
 
 SEA 
 
 Railway System, Organisation qf 
 the, 171-173 
 
 Rate, County. How assessed and 
 collected, 143 
 
 Rates for the Relief of the Poor. 
 How collected, 140 
 
 Real Property, Distinction between, 
 arid Personal, in, 112 
 
 Recorder, A. His Functions, 87 
 
 Reformation of Criminals, Provi- 
 sions for, 97, 99 
 
 Regency Act, Purport of a, 7 
 
 Regent, Mode of nominating a, 7 
 
 Registration of Voters, Regulations 
 respecting, 27 
 
 Repealing Section in an Act. What 
 it is, 54 
 
 Reports of Parliamentary proceed- 
 ings, Regulations respecting, 49, 
 50 
 
 Resignation of the Government, 
 Proceedings upon, 57, 58 
 
 Resolution of the House of Com- 
 mons, Nature of a, 41, 42 
 
 Returning Officer. His Functions, 
 
 33- 34 
 
 Revenue, Inland, Offices connected 
 with collection of, 75 
 
 of the Crown. How provided, 8 
 
 Statistics. How collected, 158. 
 
 *59 
 
 Revising Barristers, Functions of, 27 
 
 Roman Law as a Source of Eng- 
 lish Law, 109 
 
 Royal Assent. How given to Bills, 
 12, 46 
 
 Royal Commission, Nature and 
 Functions of a, 47, 48, 77 
 
 Royal Warrant, What is a, 18 
 
 SANITARY Statistics, 160 
 Schedules of an Act. What 
 
 they are, 54 
 
 School Boards, How elected, and 
 Functions of, 141, 142 
 
 Method of Electing Members of, 
 
 3 1 
 
 Scotland. Account of its connec- 
 tion with England, 178 
 
 Seal, The Great, Process of affixing, 
 63 
 
 The Lord Privy, Functions of, 
 65 
 
 Search Warrant, A. What it is, 83 
 
242 
 
 Index. 
 
 SEC 
 
 Secretaries of State, Functions of 
 
 the several, 65 sq. 
 Select Committees of the House of 
 
 Commons, Functions of, 47 
 Sergeant-at-Arms, Functions of 
 
 the, 39 
 Sessions, Special, What is a Court 
 
 of, 89 
 Settlement, Purport of Act of, 6 
 
 What is a, for Poor-Law Pur- 
 poses, 139 
 
 Shares in a Joint-Stock Company. 
 What they are, 116 
 
 in Railway Stock. What they 
 are, 172 
 
 Sheriff, Functions of a, 105 
 Ship's Papers. What they are, 168 
 Ship, What is a British, 168 
 Shipping, Merchant, Regulations 
 
 respecting, 168 
 Signet Office, The. What it is, 
 
 60 
 
 The. What it is, 65 
 
 Silent System, The, Provisions re- 
 specting the use of, 99 
 
 Solicitors, Functions of, and regu- 
 lations respecting, 226, 227 
 
 Sources of English Law. What 
 they are, 108 
 
 Source of Law, A. What ii is, 108, 
 109 
 
 South Kensington Museum, 76 
 
 Sovereign, Constitutional position of 
 the, 6 sq. 
 
 Speaker, The Functions of, 40 
 
 His Warrant for issue of Writ 
 to elect Members, 34 
 
 Special Constables Regulations re- 
 specting, 143, 146 
 
 Jury, Nature of, 92, 93 
 
 Juryman, Qualifications of, 93- 
 
 Sessions, what is a Court of, 89 ; 
 Functions of in respect of Taxa- 
 tion, 152 
 
 Speech, Queen's, Nature of and 
 
 Proceedings relating to, n 
 Speeches by Members of House of 
 
 Commons, Rules as to, 44, 45 
 Stamp Duties, Nature of, 76 
 -- What they are, 150 
 Standing Orders of the House of 
 
 Commons as to Introduction of 
 
 Bill?, 44 
 
 TRA 
 
 Statistics, Method of Collecting 
 
 Government, 152 sq. 
 Statutes, as Sources of English Law, 
 
 109, no 
 
 Stocks, The. What they are, 73 
 Strangers, Admission of, to either 
 
 House of Parliament, 49 
 Succession, Principles of, in default 
 
 of a Will, in, 112 
 Suffrage, Universal, Account of 
 
 Movement in favour of, 28 
 
 Women's, Account of Movement 
 in favour of, 28, 29 
 
 Summary Convictions, Meaning of, 
 87 
 
 Summons, Meaning of, and Pro- 
 ceedings upon a, 88, 134 
 
 Superior Courts of. Justice, Func- 
 tions of, 77 sq. 
 
 Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 
 Provisions of, 77 sq. 
 
 Suspension of Habeas Corous Act. 
 What it means, 97 
 
 "PAIL ESTATE. Meaning of a, 
 
 * 112 
 
 Tenant in, Meaning of a, 112 
 Tax, Income, Nature of the, 149 
 Taxation, Local, Provisions re- 
 specting, 142 
 
 Proceedings respecting Bills re- 
 lating to, 48 
 
 Regulations respecting, 149 sq. 
 Taxes, Assessed, 149 
 
 Direct. What they are, 149- 
 152 
 
 indirect. What they are, 149- 
 152 
 
 Ticket-of-leave, Principles of grant- 
 ing a, 98 
 Title of an Act. Where it appears, 
 
 5 2 
 
 Tort, What is a, 127 
 Tory, Meaning of expression, 54, 55 
 Towns, Account of Charters granted 
 
 to, 143, 144 
 
 Corporate, Mode of regulating, 
 143, 144 
 
 Provisions for Local Govern- 
 ment of, 143, 144 
 
 Trade, Functions of the Board of, 
 64 
 
 Statistics. How obtained, i^x 
 62 
 
Index. 
 
 243 
 
 TRE 
 
 YEO 
 
 Treason, Constructive. What it is, 
 129 
 
 History and Account of Law 
 of, 128, 129 
 
 Misprision of. What it is, 130 
 
 - Procedure in Trials for High, 94 
 
 What sorts of, are often pardoned, 
 15, 16 
 
 Treasury, Account of the process of 
 making Payments by the, 215 
 
 - First Lord and other Officials of 
 the, 62, 63 
 
 Treaties, Proposed Interference of 
 Parliament respecting, 18 
 
 Queen's P'unctionsin relation to, 
 
 17 
 'I rial at Bar. What it is, 107 
 
 - by Jury, Nature of the institution 
 of, 92, 95 
 
 as a Constitutional Security, 132 
 
 A New. Principles upon which 
 it is granted, 105 
 
 - Description of Proceedings in a 
 Civil, 99 sq. 
 
 Trials in Parliament, Proceedings in, 
 
 21 
 Trustees, Regulations respecting, 
 
 126, 127 
 Trusts, Jurisdiction of Courts of 
 
 Chancery in no, in 
 
 UNCONSTITUTIONAL, 
 
 ^ Meaning, of Term, 3 
 
 Union, What is a, for purposes of 
 
 Poor-Law Relief, 139 
 Universal Suffrage, Movement in 
 
 favour of, 28 
 Universities, Method of conducting 
 
 Elections for, 35, 36 
 
 Universities, Qualifications for vot- 
 ing in, 27 
 
 WERDICT, Nature of a, 90, 91 
 
 , I0 r* 
 
 Special. What it is, 104 
 Viceroys of Ireland and India, 
 
 Functions of Queen respecting, 18 
 Volunteer Corps, Organisation of 
 the, 165 
 
 Y\7ALES. Account of its con- 
 
 * v nection with England, 177 
 War, Functions of the Secretary 
 
 for, 67 
 
 Warrant, A Search. What it is, 
 88, 13:5 
 
 Backing a, What is meant by, 88 
 of Committal, What is a, 89 
 
 Meaning of and Proceedings 
 upon a, 88, 134, 135 
 
 - What is a General, 135 
 
 What is a Royal, 18 
 
 Whig, Meaning of expression, 54 
 Will, Formalities necessary for 
 validity of a, 113, 114 
 
 Principles of Succession in de- 
 fault of a, in, 112 
 
 Women's Suffrage, Account of 
 Movement in favour of, 28, 29 
 
 Woods and Forests, Commissioners 
 of, 75 
 
 Works, Board of. What it is, 67 
 
 Chief Commissioner of, Func- 
 tions of, 67 
 
 Writs, Election, Nature of, 33, 34 
 
 \7EOMANRY Cavalry. How or- 
 * ganised, 165 
 
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