The Constitutional History of England From 1760 to 1860

CHAPTER I.

Mr. Hallam's View of the Development of the Constitution.--Symptoms of approaching Constitutional Changes.--State of the Kingdom at the Accession of George III.--Improvement of the Law affecting the Commissions of the Judges.--Restoration of Peace.--Lord Bute becomes Minister.--The Case of Wilkes.--Mr. Luttrell is Seated for Middlesex by the House of Commons.--Growth of Parliamentary Reporting.--Mr. Grenville's Act for trying Election Petitions.--Disfranchisement of Corrupt Voters at New Shoreham.

CHAPTER II.

The Regency Bill.--The Ministry of 1766 lay an Embargo on Corn.--An Act of Indemnity is Passed.--The Nullum Tempus Act concerning Crown Property; it is sought to Extend it to Church Property, but the Attempt fails.--The Royal Marriage Act.--The Lords amend a Bill imposing Export Duties, etc., on Corn.

CHAPTER III.. Mr. Grenville Imposes a Duty on Stamps in the North American

Mr. Grenville imposes a Duty on Stamps in the North American Colonies.--Examination of Dr. Franklin.--Lord Rockingham's Ministry Repeals the Duty.--Lord Mansfield affirms a Virtual Representation in the Colonies.--Mr. C. Townsend imposes Import Duties in America.--After some Years, the Civil War breaks out.--Hanoverian Troops are sent to Gibraltar.--The Employment of Hanoverian Regiments at Gibraltar and Minorca.--End of the War.--Colonial Policy of the Present Reign.--Complaints of the Undue Influence of the Crown.--Motions for Parliamentary Reform.--Mr. Burke's Bill for Economical Reform.--Mr. Dunning's Resolution on the Influence of the Crown.--Rights of the Lords on Money-bills.--The Gordon Riots.

CHAPTER IV.

Changes of Administration.--The Coalition Ministry.--The Establishment of the Prince of Wales.--Fox's India Bill.--The King Defeats it by the Agency of Lord Temple.--The Ministry is Dismissed, and Succeeded by Mr. Pitt's Administration.--Opposition to the New Ministry in the House of Commons.--Merits of the Contest between the Old and the New Ministry.--Power of Pitt.--Pitt's India Bill.--Bill for the Government of Canada.--The Marriage of the Prince of Wales to Mrs. Fitzherbert.--The King becomes Deranged.--Proposal of a Regency.--Opinions of Various Writers on the Course adopted.--Spread of Revolutionary Societies and Opinions.--Bills for the Repression of Sedition and Treason.--The Alien Act.--The Traitorous Correspondence Act.--Treason and Sedition Bills.--Failure of some Prosecutions under them.

CHAPTER V.. The Affairs of Ireland.--Condition of the Irish Parliament.--the

The Affairs of Ireland.--Condition of the Irish Parliament.--The Octennial Bill.--The Penal Laws.--Non-residence of the Lord- lieutenant.--Influence of the American War on Ireland.--Enrolment of the Volunteers.--Concession of all the Demands of Ireland.--Violence of the Volunteers.--Their Convention.--Violence of the Opposition in Parliament: Mr. Brownlow, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Flood.--Pitt's Propositions Fail.--Fitzgibbon's Conspiracy Bill.--Regency Question.--Recovery of the King.--Question of a Legislative Union.--Establishment of Maynooth College.--Lord Edward Fitzgerald.--Arguments for and against the Union.--It passes the Irish Parliament.--Details of the Measure.-- General Character of the Union.--Circumstances which Prevented its Completeness.

CHAPTER VI.

A Census is Ordered.--Dissolution of Pitt's Administration.--Impeachment of Lord Melville.--Introduction of Lord Ellenborough into the Cabinet.--Abolition of the Slave-trade.--Mr. Windham's Compulsory Training Bill.--Illness of the King, and Regency.--Recurrence to the Precedent of 1788-'89.--Death of Mr. Perceval.--Lord Liverpool becomes Prime-minister.--Question of Appointments in the Household.--Appointment of a Prime-minister.

CHAPTER VII.

The Toleration Act.--Impropriety of making Catholic Emancipation (or any other Important Matter) an Open Question.--Joint Responsibility of all the Ministers.--Detention of Napoleon at St. Helena.--Question whether the Regent could Give Evidence in a Court of Law in a Civil Action.--Agitation for Reform.--Public Meetings.--The Manchester Meeting.--The Seditious Meetings Prevention Bill.--Lord Sidmouth's Six Acts.

CHAPTER VIII.

Survey of the Reign of George III.--The Cato Street Conspiracy.--The Queen's Return to England, and the Proceedings against her.--The King Visits Ireland and Scotland.--Reform of the Criminal Code.--Freedom of Trade.--Death of Lord Liverpool.--The Duke of Wellington becomes Prime-minister.--Repeal of the Test and Corporation Act.--O'Connell is Elected for Clare.--Peel Resigns his Seat for Oxford.--Catholic Emancipation.--Question of the Endowment of the Roman Catholic Clergy.--Constitutional Character of the Emancipation.--The Propriety of Mr. Peel's Resignation of his Seat for Oxford Questioned.

CHAPTER IX.

Demand for Parliamentary Reform.--Death of George IV., and Accession of William IV.--French Revolution of 1830.--Growing Feeling in Favor of Reform.--Duke of Wellington's Declaration against Reform.--His Resignation: Lord Grey becomes Prime-minister.--Introduction of the Reform Bill.--Its Details.--Riots at Bristol and Nottingham.--Proposed Creation of Peers.--The King's Message to the Peers.--Character and Consequences of the Reform Bill.--Appointment of a Regency.-- Re-arrangement of the Civil List.

CHAPTER X.

Abolition of Slavery.--Abridgment of the Apprenticeship.--The East India Company's Trade is Thrown Open.--Commencement of Ecclesiastical Reforms.--The New Poor-law.--State of Ireland.--Agitation against Tithes.--Coercion Bill.--Beginning of Church Reform.--Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime-minister.--Variety of Offices held Provisionally by the Duke of Wellington.--Sir Robert Peel Retires, and Lord Melbourne Resumes the Government.--Sir Robert Peel Proposes a Measure of Church Reform.--Municipal Reform.--Measures of Ecclesiastical Reform.

CHAPTER XI.

Death of William IV., and Accession of Queen Victoria.--Rise of the Chartists.--Resignation of Lord Melbourne in 1839, and his Resumption of Office.--Marriage of the Queen, and Consequent Arrangements.--The Precedence of the Prince, etc.--Post-office Reform.--War in Afghanistan.--Discontent in Jamaica.--Insurrection in Canada.--New Constitution for Canada and other Colonies.--Case of Stockdale and Hansard.

CHAPTER XII.. Sir Robert Peel Becomes Prime-Minister.--Commercial

Sir Robert Peel becomes Prime-minister.--Commercial Reforms.--Free-trade.--Religious Toleration.--Maynooth.--The Queen's University.--Post-office Regulations.--The Opening of Letters.-- Naturalization of Aliens.--Recall of Lord Ellenborough.--Reversal of the Vote on the Sugar Duties.--Refusal of the Crown to Sanction a Bill.--The Question of Increase in the Number of Spiritual Peers.--Repeal of the Corn-laws.--Revolution in France, and Agitation on the Continent.--Death of Sir Robert Peel.--Indifference of the Country to Reform.--Repeal of the Navigation Laws.--Resolutions in Favor of Free-trade.--The Great Exhibition of 1851.

CHAPTER XIII.. Dismissal of Lord Palmerston.--Theory of the Relation Between the

Dismissal of Lord Palmerston.--Theory of the Relation between the Sovereign and the Cabinet.--Correspondence of the Sovereign with French Princes.--Russian War.--Abolition of the Tax on Newspapers.--Life Peerages.--Resignation of two Bishops.--Indian Mutiny.--Abolition of the Sovereign Power of the Company.--Visit of the Prince of Wales to India.--Conspiracy Bill.--Rise of the Volunteers.--National Fortifications.--The Lords Reject the Measure for the Repeal of the Paper-duties.--Lord Palmerston's Resolutions.--Character of the Changes during the last Century.

INDEX.

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

Mr. Hallam's View of the Development of the Constitution.--Symptoms of approaching Constitutional Changes.--State of the Kingdom at the Accession of George III.--Improvement of the Law affecting the Commissions of the Judges.--Restoration of Peace.--Lord Bute becomes Minister.--The Case of Wilkes.--Mr. Luttrell is Seated for Middlesex by the House of Commons.--Growth of Parliamentary Reporting.--Mr. Grenville's Act for trying Election Petitions.--Disfranchisement of Corrupt Voters at New Shoreham.

The learned and judicious writer to whom is due the first idea of a "Constitutional History of England," and of whose admirable work I here venture to offer a continuation, regards "the spirit of the government" as having been "almost wholly monarchical till the Revolution of 1688," and in the four subsequent reigns, with the last of which his volumes close, as "having turned chiefly to an aristocracy." And it may be considered as having generally preserved that character through the long and eventful reign of George III. But, even while he was writing, a change was already preparing, of which more than one recent occurrence had given unmistakable warning. A borough had been disfranchised for inveterate corruption in the first Parliament of George IV. Before its dissolution, the same House of Commons had sanctioned the principle of a state endowment of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland, and had given a third reading to a bill for the abolition of all civil restrictions affecting members of that religion. It was impossible to avoid foreseeing that the Parliamentary Reform inaugurated by the disfranchisement of Grampound would soon be carried farther, or that the emancipation, as it was termed, of all Christian sects was at least equally certain not to be long delayed. And it will be denied by no one that those measures, which had no very obscure or doubtful connection with each other, have gradually imparted to the constitution a far more democratic tinge than would have been willingly accepted by even the most liberal statesman of the preceding century, or than, in the days of the Tudors or of the Stuarts, would have been thought compatible with the maintenance of the monarchy.

When George III. came to the throne, he found the nation engaged in a war which was occupying its arms not only on the Continent of Europe, but in India and America also, and was extending her glory and her substantial power in both hemispheres. Inter arma silent leges. And, while the contest lasted, neither legislators in Parliament nor the people outside had much attention to spare for matters of domestic policy. Yet the first year of the new reign was not suffered to pass without the introduction of one measure limiting the royal prerogative in a matter of paramount importance to the liberty of the people, the independence of the judges. The rule of making the commissions of the judges depend on their good conduct instead of on the pleasure of the crown had, indeed, been established at the Revolution; but it was still held that these commissions expired with the life of the sovereign who had granted them; and, at the accession of Anne, as also at that of George II., a renewal of their commissions had been withheld from some members of the judicial bench. But now, even before the dissolution of the existing Parliament, the new King recommended to it such a change in the law as should "secure the judges in the enjoyment of their offices during their good behavior, notwithstanding any demise of the crown;" giving the proposal, which was understood to have been originally suggested by himself, additional weight by the very unusual step of making it the subject of a speech to the two Houses in the middle of the session. A bill to give effect to it was at once brought in, and, though the Houses sat only a fortnight longer, was carried before the dissolution.

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