GOVERNMENT AND ADMESTISTEATION. 479 



deliberate on public affairs, and on tbese occasions only those councillors attend 

 who are specially summoned. Although England has not inaptly been described 

 as an oligarchic republic, the sovereign is supposed to wield not only the executive 

 powers, but also a portion of the legislative ones, for no Act of Parliament can 

 become law without his signature. But the royal signature is rarely refused, 

 and if the influence exercised by royalty is very great in England, this is chiefly 

 due to the deference exhibited by the leaders of the Houses of Parliament, and the 

 feeling of respect and loyalty which penetrates all classes of the people. The 

 succession to the crown is settled on the heirs of Princess Sophia of Hanover, 

 being Protestants. The Queen, by virtue of a recent Act of Parliament, bears 

 also the title of Empress of India. She enjoys a civil list of £38-5,000, and, in 

 addition, the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster, amounting to about £45,000 

 annually. The Prince of Wales is paid an annuity of £40,000, and the revenues 

 of the Duchy of Cornwall (£66,000). The other annuities payable to the members 

 of the royal family amount to £121,000, making a total civil list of £656,000 — 

 a small sum, when compared with what is paid to the reigning families of some 

 other countries. 



The law throughout the British Empire is administered in the name of the Queen 

 Empress. The inferior criminal jurisdiction in the counties is exercised by Justices 

 of the Peace, appointed by the Crown on presentation by the Lord- Lieutenant. 

 These unpaid magistrates hold petty sessions for the summary disposal of minor 

 offences, and courts of quarter sessions for the trial of more serious crimes and 

 misdemeanours. In boroughs these duties are generally discharged by stipendiary 

 magistrates and recorders, also appointed by the Crown. Minor civil cases are 

 disposed of in county courts, but all more serious law business, whether of a civil 

 or criminal nature, is referred to one of the divisions of the High Court of 

 Justice in London, whose judges annually go on circuit and hold assizes in the 

 principal towns of the kingdom. There is a Court of Appeal, presided over by 

 the Lord High Chancellor, and the House of Lords is the final Court of Appeal. 

 The procedure of English criminal courts is scrupulously careful to surround 

 the accused with every safeguard to insure a fair trial. He need reply to no 

 questions which may incriminate him, and it is for his accusers to produce evidence 

 establishing his guilt. The verdict of the jury — an institution which has spread 

 from England into nearly every country of the world — must be unanimous. 



The Lord High Chancellor, in addition to his other titles, bears that of " Keeper 

 of her Majesty's Conscience," and the sovereign, since Henry VIIL, has called him- 

 self Defender of the Faith. These titles point to the existence of a State Church, 

 and in reality half a century has scarcely elapsed since every Government official was 

 required to be a member of the Church as by law established, and no marriage was 

 valid except it had been celebrated by a minister of this Established Church. In 

 Ireland the Anglican Church was disestablished in 1871, and its ministers and 

 members now occupy legally the same footing as do the ^members of other 



