no unfair malice had made him publish a cruel truth, as sometimes might be the case. The maxim of "the greater the truth the greater the libel" continued long to be the stigma of the English law. This has been finally removed in the present reign by an Act which was framed and introduced by Lord Campbell, now Chief Justice of England. By that statute (6 & 7 Vict. c. 96), on the trial of any indictment or information for a defamatory libel, the accused party, having notified by his plea the defence that he is about to set up, may defend himself by showing the truth of the matters charged, and also that it was for the public benefit that the said matters charged should be published. If he can satisfy a jury of these points, he is to be acquitted; if not, he is justly punishable. It would be impossible to provide better for the objects which are stated in the commencement of the Act," For more effectually securing the liberty of the press, and for better preventing abuses in exercising the said liberty." Lord Campbell's Act, though last in date, deserves to be classed as not least in merit among the constitutional treasures of the statute-book.
We have now traced the English Constitution from its origin; and we have watched the first development of its principles at a time when the newly-formed English nation consisted of not more than two millions of human beings; one-half at least of whom were in an abject state of serfdom, while the other half, the freemen of the land, the “liberi homines" of Magna Carta, were divided into proud and powerful barons, each girt with his band of armed retainers and personal dependants; into smaller landowners, equal in birth but inferior in possession to the great peers; into a class of still smaller owners of land, our free yeomanry, and into citizens and burgesses,
who were beginning to revive the old Roman system of municipal self-government, and to re-awaken 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. 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, 330.
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.
Appropriation of supplies, 329.
Aristotle's classification of political
functions, 7. 351.
Arms, right of the subject to, 313,
and note.
Army, standing, in time of peace,
without consent of parliament,
illegal, 295. 320.
Arnold, Dr., on jury trials as an in-
strument of national education, 230.
Articuli super cartas, 231.
Attainder, 144, note; bills of, 252;
writ of, 305, note.
Bail, 147, note; excessive, not to be
required, 320.
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.
Bicameral system, 198.
Bill of Rights-its constitutional im-
portance, 4; text of, and notes,
317-326.
Boroughs, Saxon, 50; oppressions of,
after Norman Conquest, 105. 193;
first represented in Henry III.'s
reign, 194; electors, who, 256.
268; early borough system, 268;
changes and abuses, 269; rotten
boroughs, 342; present state of
municipal self-government, 350.
Britons, ancient. See "Celts."
Bushell's case, 305.
Cabinet, 332-364.
Campbell's (Lord) Libel Act, its con-
stitutional value, 394.
Celts-British Celts, their character,
&c., 24; how far Romanized, 25;
how far did the Saxons extirpate
or blend with them, 28-31.
Centralization-Distinction between,
in matters of imperial or general
state interest, and in matters of
local interest, 372 and note;
value of the first, 209. 372; per-
nicious effects of the second, 374-
378; and see note at 378.
Ceorls, their social and political posi-
tion in Saxon England, 43. 46. 49.
Chancellor, Lord, 366. 383.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 366.
Charles I., disputes between, and his
three first parliaments, 280-295;
sincere in unconstitutional opinions
respecting his prerogative, 280;
grants the Petition of Right, 291.
Charles II.-Important constitutional | County Court, in Saxon times, 47;
statutes during his reign, 301-304.
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. 253. 272;
qualification for, 248, 260; bo-
rough members, when first intro-
duced, 194; coalesce with knights
of the shire in one House, 199;
gradual increase of power of House
of Commons in fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, 235-246. 262;
House of Commons the preponde-
rant branch of the Legislature after
Charles II.'s restoration, 300;
position after revolution of 1688,
343; effect of Reform Bill, 349.
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 our nationality, 10.
12; its principles traced in Magna
Carta, and the Confirmatio Carta
rum, 178-220; its progress dur-
ing the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, 235-273; its
under the Tudors, 274-277; res-
cued by the Petition of Right,
290; further secured by Bill of
Rights, 317; its adaptation to our
present state, 394.
Constitution of the British Empire,
360.
Constitutional forms, their value, 363.
Constitutional morality, 363.
Convention, 309.
Copyholds, 103. 260, note.
Coroner, 140, note. 351.
Council, the King's, 195. 264. 326;
Privy Council, their present
power, 334, note.
after the Counquest, 139, note.
171. 192. 221.
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-
Declaration of Rights, 309.
Discussion, free, right of, 392.
Dispensing power, 265. 303. 313.
Education in England, 356, note.
Elections, provisions for freedom of,
254. 314; attempts of Crown in
early times to influence, 257; of
James II., 303; how often held,
339.
Electors of knights of the shire, 192.
248. 260; under Reform Bill,
350.
in boroughs, 263; under
Reform Bill, 350.
probable numbers in four-
teenth century, 268. 270; at pre-
sent, 354.
Electoral Franchise, property and in-
telligence to be regarded in its
distribution, 350; how far now
accessible, 359.
English nation, its four elements, 13;
population at time of Conquest,
67; in John's reign, 72; at pre-
sent, 351.
Escuage, 102. 134.
Feudal system, its general character,
73. 83; peculiarities of, in Eng-
land, 84. 91; feudal tenures, 100-
104. 293.
Freedom of the press, 391, 392; of
public discussion, 392.
Freehold tenure, 293.
Frankpledge, 48. 99. 171. 210.
German, main stream of the English
nations, 16; 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.
Grote, his remarks on kingship in
mediæval Europe, 179, note; on
Constitutional Morality, 363.
Habeas Corpus, 149, note; 204-207.
293. 299; Habeas Corpus Acts,
295. 301, note.
History, unity of, 10.
Hundreds, a primitive institution of
ancient Germans, 19; of ancient
Danes, 37.
Hundred Court, 46. 100. 171.
Impeachment, 238. 381.
Institutional liberty, 362, note; 390.
James II., his aggressions on the
Constitution, 307; his flight from
England, 316.
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., 298;
made irremovable quamdiu se
bene gesserint, by Act of Settle-
ment, 328.
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, 225.
383; early property qualification
required for jurors, 268; the
present, 386; trial by jury, how
viewed in fourteenth century, 269;
practice of fining jurors for their
verdicts, 298; declared illegal, ib.
Justice not to be sold, denied, or
delayed, 148. 153, note.
Justices, who ought to be made, 155
and note.
Justices of the peace, 369, 370, 371.
Kings, early German ones, 18;
Danish, 36; Anglo-Saxon, 52;
Anglo-Norman, 90; kingly power
recognised in the Great Charter,
179; hereditary kingships, 179,
180.338; 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, 274-277; general joy of
the nation when the king was re
stored in 1660, 299; limitation of
kingly power at revolution of 1688,
337; end of struggle between,
and people, 387; constitutional
position of our kings since then, ib.
352.
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