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.
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.
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.
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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