Our Legal Heritage Part 105

Boards became independent of the king's Privy Council and answerable to the secretary of state.

In the 1680s, Charles compelled some of the livery companies in London to give up their charters to him and he called in many corporation charters of boroughs whenever some light excuse could be found to justify it. This was done by the use of the writ of quo warranto [by what authority] before a court. In London he had the tory mayor revive an ancient custom of selecting a sheriff by drinking to him at the annual feast. Two tory sheriffs were installed into office. All these actions gave the king a voice in selection of the officers of London and boroughs, since Royal commissioners would then determine who the officers would be. This was to a.s.sure London's representation in Parliament by Crown loyalists as London had been whig. It also allowed influenced selection of sympathetic jurors.

Criminal seditious libel was brought into the common law courts in 1664, when Benjamin Keach was tried for writing a book containing contradictions of the doctrine of the established church. He wrote against infant baptism and a.s.serted that laymen might preach the gospel.

The justice intimidated the jury to find him guilty. He was sentenced to be fined, to spend two hours in the pillory in two successive weeks, and his book to be burned before his face. He was to be imprisoned until he found sureties for his good behavior and renunciation of his doctrine and for his future appearance in court. Juries were loath to find anyone guilty of seditious libel.

James II succeeded Charles II to the throne and fostered Roman Catholicism by appointments and by attempting to suspend laws unfavorable to Catholics. He commanded all bishops to read in the churches his Declaration of Indulgence exempting both Catholic and Protestant dissenters from all penal statutes based on religion. Seven bishops refused to obey and jointly pet.i.tioned him, stating that his action was illegal according to Parliament. He prosecuted them for seditious libel in the pet.i.tion. The jury found them not guilty. James discharged the two justices of the five who had rejected the seditious libel doctrine which had been created by the Star Chamber Court. This roused the whigs and tories in turn to discharge him by joining in inviting Protestants William of Orange and Mary to take the throne in his place. James was effectively chased out of England by William's advancing army in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-9, which took away the powers of final authority from the king, but without transferring them to any other body. A "Bill of Rights" stated that

1. The king may not suspend laws or dispense with them without consent of Parliament.

2. The establishment of a Court of Commissioners and like bodies for ecclesiastical causes is illegal.

3. The king may not levy money or extend an authorized levy without consent of Parliament.

4. Subjects have a right to pet.i.tion the king without prosecution.

5. The king may not raise or keep a standing army within the country in time of peace without the consent of Parliament.

6. Protestants may have arms for their defense as allowed by law.

7. The elections of members of Parliament should be free.

8. The freedom of speech or debates or proceedings in Parliament should not be impeached or questioned in any court or place outside of Parliament.

9. Excessive bail should not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted (so no more men were whipped to death).

10. Jury selection should not be tampered with, and jurors who try men for high treason should be freeholders.

11. All grants and promises of fines and forfeiture of particular persons, before conviction, are illegal and void.

12. Parliament should be held frequently for redress of grievances and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the laws.

13. All Protestants may freely exercise their religion and the king will maintain the Protestant religion and the law and liberty of the realm.

The right of the peoples' representatives to select and depose the king and to change the order of succession was established. There was no divine right or hereditary right to the Crown. An English monarch was created by an act of Parliament. The king still called and dissolved Parliaments, except that Parliament continued for six months after the death of a king. From 1689, Parliament sat every year. Freedom of speech for members of Parliament was established by a resolution overturning a King's Bench felony conviction of Sir John Elliot.

By the act of settlement of 1701, no officer or pensioner of the king could be a member of Parliament. All resolutions by the Privy Council had to be signed by the members consenting to them. No one born outside the realm could be a member of the Privy Council or of Parliament, or could have any civil or military office or place of trust, or any grants of land or tenements from the king. Justices served during good behavior instead of at the pleasure of the king.

After the Glorious Revolution, Tories tended to accept of the Whig principles of limited const.i.tutional monarchy instead of rule by divine right.

Under William and Mary, the ministers were first chosen by them but could be impeached by the Commons and then removed by the Parliament.

The Commons removed anyone who disagreed with them as soon as he made a mistake. But the king could pardon anyone convicted by Parliamentary bill of attainder. This was inconsistent, so no one was allowed to plead pardon by the king in an impeachment by the Commons. Thus Parliament gained control of who would be ministers.

The Glorious Revolution favored the capitalists and the commercial magnates even though it had been started by the landed families, with whom they now intermarried. There were companies in the fis.h.i.+ng, silk, baize [a coa.r.s.e wool], sugar, rope, paper, iron, hardware, cutlery, gunpowder, saw milling, and pottery trades. These industries for manufacturing were organized on capitalist lines rather than being subject to guilds. That is, production was controlled by men with money and the means of manufacture. The largest pottery workshops employed about six men. One man shaped the pots, another made the handles and put them on, while the others did the decoration, the glazing, and the firing. New companies could be formed without royal or Parliamentary consent. Regulated companies declined. There were no more commercial monopolies. The Merchant Adventurers lost their last monopoly privileges and their entrance fees were abolished. Their method of limiting the volume of their exports of English cloth to Germany to keep up prices was obsolete. Now they tried to capture the market by selling cheap.

There were more joint-stock companies and on a larger scale. They also no longer restricted output to keep prices high, but geared to export many inexpensive goods.

Drinking of gin, which had first been made by a Flemish physician, became popular under King William, who was Dutch. The year of his accession, the gin monopoly ended.

From the mid-1500s to 1700, coal production increased fourteen times.

Sir Ambrose Crowley, an iron maker with coal works, established disability and medical benefits and pensions for his workers.