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ginning to revive the old Roman system of municipal self-government, and to reawaken the spirit of commercial energy and enterprise. First framed in those troubled times, and for that scanty and ill-assorted population, our Constitution has expanded with the expanse of civilization, numbers, and power; and while it has preserved all its integral parts and all its primary attributes, it has become the government of and for us, the eighteen millions of this mighty English nation, whose language, laws, arts, arms, and institutions are overspreading every region of the world. On the blessings of that government, on the security and order which it guarantees, and on the independent energy and freedom which it sanctions and inspires, it is surely needless to dwell further in addressing the men of 1848, who have witnessed the misery and degradation which anarchical violence and despotic coercion have caused in other lands. Our Constitution must from time to time require remedial changes; and at present the anomalies of the distribution of the suffrage, and the shameful corruption with which its exercise is too often accompanied, are pressing on our statesmen's anxious. attention. He who has studied our Constitution the most deeply will venerate it the most; and, while he vigorously extirpates abuses, and steadily works out its vital law of growth and development, he will religiously guard its primary institutions from the experiments of the conceited theorist and the assaults of the disloyal destroyer.

INDEX.

ACT of Settlement, 300.
Aids, 102. 134.

Anglo-Saxon, chief element of Eng-
lish, 15; meaning of word, 17;
original homes of Anglo-Saxons,
ib.; their primitive institutions
and character, 18; land in Bri-
tain, 21; how far were their con-
quests wars of extermination,
28-31; their conversion, its civi-
lizing effects, 33; Anglo-Saxon in-
stitutions as matured in England,
42-52.

Appeal of felony, what, 158.
Aristotle's classification of political
functions, 7.

Arms, right of the subject to, 293,
and note.

Army, standing, in time of peace,
without consent of parliament,
illegal, 292.

Attainder, 144, note; bills of, 244;
writ of, 286, note.

Bail, 147, note; excessive not to be
required, 292.

Barons of England-force King John
to grant the Great Charter, 120;
headed a national movement and
sought national objects, 124; Lord
Chatham's eulogium on, 150;
meaning of term "Baron," 185.
Bill of Rights-its constitutional im-
portance, 4; text of, and notes,
289-298.

Boroughs, Saxon, 50; oppressions of

after Norman conquest, 105. 193;

first represented in Henry III.'s
reign, 194; electors, who, 251.
262; early borough system, 262;
changes and abuses, 263; rotten
boroughs, 313; present state of
municipal self-government, 328.
Britons, ancient. See "Celts."

Campbell's (Lord) Libel Act, its con-
stitutional value, 334.
Celts-British Celts, their character,
&c., 24; how far Romanized, 25;
how far did the Saxons extirpate
or blend with them, 28-31.
Ceorls, their social and political posi-

tion in Saxon England, 43. 46. 49.
Charles I., disputes between, and
his three first parliaments, 269;
sincere in unconstitutional opi-
nions respecting his prerogative,
270; grants the Petition of Right,
275.

Charles II.-Important Constitutional
statutes during his reign, 283-287.
Charters of early Anglo-Norman
kings, 107; of Henry I., 117.
See "Magna Carta."
Chatham, Lord, his Bible of the
English Constitution, 5; his eu-
logium on the barons who gained
the Great Charter, 150.
Church, civilizing influence of, in
early times, 33, 34. 53.
Commons, House of, origin, 187;
knights of the shire, 187-192;
how elected, 192. 257. 248;
qualification for, 248, 249. 251;

borough members, when first intro-
duced, 194; coalesce with knights
of the shire in one House, 197;
gradual increase of power of House
of Commons in fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, 230-244.254;
House of Commons the preponde-
rant branch of the legislature after
Charles II.'s restoration, 281;
effect of Reform Bill, 318.
Confirmatio Cartarum, its constitu
tional value, 176.
Constitution, English, meaning of
the term, 3; its leading princi-
ples, 4; its law of progress, 6;
coeval with
r nationality, 10.
12; its princ, les traced in Magna
Carta, and the Confirmatio Carta-
rum, 178-220; its progress dur-
ing the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, 230-264; its state
under the Tudors, 265-268; res-
cued by the Petition of Right,
273; further secured by Bill of
Rights, 289; its adaptation to our
present state, 335.
Copyholds, 103. 260, note.
Coroner, 140, note. 328.
Council, the King's, 195. 256. 302;
Privy Council, their present
power, 303, note.

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County Court, in Saxon times, 47;
after the Conquest, 139, note.
171. 192. 217.
Crown, see "King."

Danish element of our nation, 35;
Danes first attack England, ib.;
Danish primitive institutions and
character, 36-38; extent of their
conquests and influence here, 39-
41.

Dispensing power, 255. 289. 291.
Discussion, free, right of, 331.

Elections, provisions for freedom of,
215. 292; attempts of Crown in
early times to influence, 215, 216;
of James II., 291; how often
held, 315.

Electors of knights of the shire, 192.

248.259; under Reform Bill, 321.

Electors of boroughs, 251; under
Reform Bill, 319.

probable numbers in four-
teenth century, 259. 263, 264; at
present, 321.

Electoral Franchise, property and in-
telligence to be regarded in its
distribution, 325; how far now
accessible, 326.

English nation, its four elements, 13;
population at time of Conquest,
67; in John's reign, 72; at pre-
sent, 321.
Escuage, 102. 134.

Feudal system, its general character,
73. 83; peculiarities of, in Eng-
land, 84. 91; feudal tenures, 100-
104. 282.

Freedom of the press, 332; of pub-
lic discussion, 331.
Freehold tenure, 283.
Frankpledge, 48. 99. 171. 206.

German, mainstream of the English

nations, 17; German character,
19, 20; their habits and institu-
tions as described by Cæsar and
Tacitus, 18-21. See also "Anglo-
Saxons."

"Germania" of Tacitus, its value for
both ancient and modern history,
10; quoted, 18, 19.

Habeas Corpus, 149, note, 200-203.
272. 277; Habeas Corpus Acts,
284 286, note.

Hundreds, a primitive institution of
ancient Germans, 19; of ancient
Danes, 37.

Hundred Court, 46. 100. 171.

Impeachment, 234.

John King John, his evil character,
its importance to our history,
106-110; his losses and quarrels,
110-113; the national rising
against him, 120; grants the Great
Charter, 126; his death, 165.
Judges of assize, 137, note.

Judges, how appointed and removed

before the Act of Will. III., 286;
made irremovable quamdiu se
bene gesserint, by Act of Settle-
ment, 302. 305.

Jury, trial by, a principle of the
Constitution, 4; recognised in the
Great Charter, 204-220; defini-
tion of, 205; jurors at first wit-
nesses, 206; gradual change in
this respect, 207. 216; probable
origin of trial by jury, 213. 216;
its value at the present time, 221.
225; early property qualification
required for jurors, 260; the
present, 329; trial by jury, how
viewed in fourteenth century, 261;
practice of fining jurors for their
verdicts, 285; declared illegal,
287; present jury qualification,
329.

Justice not to be sold, denied, or
delayed, 148. 153, note.
Justices, who ought to be made, 155
and note.

Kings, early German ones, 18;
Danish, 36; Anglo-Saxon, 52;
Anglo-Norman, 90; kingly power
recognised in the Great Charter,
179; hereditary kingships, 179,
180; kingly power in England a
limited power, 181, 182; kingly
prerogatives in the times of the
later Plantagenets, 255; uncon-
stitutional pretensions of the
Stuarts, 270-272; general joy of
the nation when the king was re-
stored in 1660, 280; limitation of
kingly power at revolution of 1688,
291; end of struggle between
and people, 307; constitutional
position of our kings since then, ib.

Labouring classes, their former state

in England, 92; their present,
258; change in the character of in
towns, 327.

Liberty of the press, 332.

Magna Carta.-Primary record of the
Constitution, 3; how gained, 120-
126; text of John's Charter, with

explanatory notes, 130-164; re-
newed in Henry III.'s reign, 165;
text of, as confirmed by subsequent
kings, 166-175; principles of the
Constitution traced in, 178-220;
reverence paid to, 225; Mackin-
tosh's eulogium on, 228.

Nationality, English, dates from thir-
teenth century, 12-14; meaning
of the word, 14.
Nobility, English, difference between
and continental noblesse, 198.
Norman element of our nation, 56:
the Northmen, i. e. Normans, con-
quer Neustria, 57; characteristics
of the Normans, 58, 59; Norman
institutions before the conquest of
England, 59. 86; wretched state
of the peasantry of Normandy, 61;
Norman conquest of England, 62;
extent of changes caused here by
it, 65; beneficial to England, 55.

Parliament, 4. 182. 192; division
into two Houses, 197; growing
power of after thirteenth century,
230, et seq.; convened and dis-
solved by king, 255; time for
holding, 313. See " Commons,"
"Electors," "Peers."

Pauperism, amount of in England,
324.

Peers, 182; origin of House of, 185-

187; how summoned to parlia-
ment, 187; peerage in England
hereditary, 186; peers, how cre-
ated by king, 187; attempt to
limit this, 310; advantages of
House of Peers, 311; present con-
stitutional position, 330.
Petition of Right, its constitutional
importance, 4; when and how ob-
tained, 273-275; its text, 275-
279.

Pleas of the Crown, 139.
Press, liberty of, 332.
Proclamations, royal, 303.
Protestantism, its ascendancy in
England, 282. 288.

Public opinion, present political power
of, 329.

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