The following works (among others) have been used in the preparation of the present treatise, and are recommended to students for perusal or reference : HALLAM'S Works. BLACKSTONE'S Commentaries (Recent Edition). MAY'S Constitutional History. MAY'S Parliamentary Practice. FREEMAN'S Growth of the English Constitution. PALGRAVE'S Lectures on the House of Commons HOMERSHAM Cox's Institutions of the English Government. CREASY'S Rise and Progress of the English Constitution. GNEIST'S Self-Government in England. FISCHEL'S English Constitution. BURN'S Justice of the Peace. Civil Service Estimates for the Year. Parliamentary Report of Judicial Statistics. Report of Select Committee of House of Commons on Local Taxation. GLEN'S Public Health Acts. Municipal Corporation Act. GENERAL VIEW OF THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF ENGLAND. THE HE action of the English Constitution depends mainly upon a constant play between Central Authority and Local Authority. The CENTRAL Authority is (1) Legislative. Queen. House of Lords. House of Commons. (2) Executive. Queen. Cabinet Ministers. Subordinate Officers. The LOCAL Authority is very various, and is fixed (1) in the Parish, (2) in the County, and (3) in the Borough or Town. Local Authorities are either Special Officers or Boards, that is bodies of persons. These Officers or Boards are necessarily elected by persons living and paying taxes on the spot, though in some cases the Central Executive Authority controls the elections, by refusing to allow certain persons to be chosen, or by appointing additional officers of its own. This is all regulated by special Acts of Parliament. The principal purposes for which Local Authorities exist are: 1. The Relief of the Poor. 2. The Repair of Highways. 3. The Making and Repairing Sewers, and doing all other matters connected with the Public Health. 4. The Building and Managing of Lunatic Asylums. 5. The Building and Government of Gaols. B 6. The Lighting and Paving of a town or village. It is to be noticed again that the popular nature of the Central Government, both Legislative and Executive, is secured in the following ways: 1. By the mode of electing Members of the House of Commons, as elsewhere described. 2. By the power and habit of Petitioning both Houses of Parliament, and approaching Ministers of State by Deputation. 3. By the Jury system, according to which, in all the more important criminal trials, the judges are twelve men chosen out of the body of the people, qualified by having a certain sum of money. Thus generally one main part of the Government of the country is concerned with making Acts of Parliament, by the joint assent of the Queen and the two Houses of Parliament. Another main part is the Executive Action of the Cabinet, and all the Executive Officers representing the Queen. A third main part is what is done by Local Officers or Local Boards, in greater or less dependence on the Central Government. THE MONARCH. The succession to the Crown is regulated by an Act of Parliament, passed in 1700, called the Act of Settlement. By this Act the succession was limited to the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, granddaughter of James I., and her heirs, being members of the Church of England, that is, belonging to one of the great divisions of the Christian religion to which the great body of English people belong. The Monarch may be either a man or a woman. The present Queen began to reign in 1.837. Her eldest son is called the Prince of Wales, and will be King at her death. If he is not then alive, his eldest son will succeed, to the exclusion of his brothers. The sum paid to the Queen for her personal expenses is £60,000 a year. The whole sum paid for the expenses of the Court, pensions to servants, salaries and yearly payments for the support of members of the Royal Family, amounts to £385,000. |