EIS GLAND. 



561 



cities, ooroughs, and the 2 universities. Freeholders of 40 shillings yearly value, and persons 

 occupying property at a rent of not less than JG 50 a year, or holding property on copyhold, or on 

 lease of at least 60 years, of £10 yearly value, have the right to vote for the county members. 

 In the cities and boroughs, the qualifications were very various, and some boroughs, which had 

 ceased to contain any inhabitants, continued to return one or more members until the passage of 

 the reform act in 1832. By that act, the rotten boroughs, as they were called, were disfranchised, 

 and the right of sufirage is extended in the others to all £ 10 householders. The number of 

 voters in England is now about 620,000. The members of the House of Commons have 

 freedom of speech, and cannot be questioned out of the house for any words uttered in it. They 

 are exempted from arrest in civil suits, together with their servants, while in parliament, or in 

 going and returning. The ministers are compelled by custom to have a seat in parliament ; 

 and the Premier is commonly first Lord of the Treasury, as the directioa of the revenue gives 

 great influence. 



Composition of the House of Commons. 



England, 



40 counties, . . - . 

 185 cities, boroughs, and towns. 



Wales, J 1^ 



Total, for England, 



12 counties, 

 districts, 



Total for Wales, 



Members. 



- 144 



- 3-^7 



- 471 



15 

 14 



2'J 



Scotland, 



Ireland, 



33 counties, 



10 cities and boroughs. 



Total, for Scotland, 



■ 32 counties, 

 34 cities and towns. 



Total, for Ireland, 

 Total, 



Members 

 30 

 23 



53 



C4 

 41 



105 



- 658 



22. Laics The laws of England are divided into the statute law, or the enactments of the 

 legislature, and the common law, which is the most ancient, and which has gradually grown up 

 from the exigencies of society. The common law derives its authority from immemorial usage, 

 and the origin of it is lost in remote antiquity, though some of it may have come from acts 

 of Parliament, that have not been transmitted to us. This law lies in precedents and the de- 

 cisions of courts ; the evidences of it are in the records of courts, the reports of cases decided, 

 and the treatises of learned and ancient sages. This venerable law constitutes the basis of the 

 jurisprudence of all the United Stales, except Louisiana, w'here there is a code. 



The great inonuments of English law and bulwarks of justice, are the writ of " Habeas Cor- 

 pus " and the trial by jury. This writ, as it now stands, was granted in the 31st year of Charles 

 the Second, and it has been adopted in substance in all the United States ; where, as in Eng- 

 land, it may be suspended in emergencies, requiring the executive to have great powers, as in 

 rebellion or invasion. Any person, restrained of liis liberty, even by command of the king, 

 shall, upon the demand of his counsel, have a writ of Habeas Corpus to bring his body before 

 the Court of King's Bench or of the Common Pleas ; which shall, within three court days, 

 determine whether the cause of commitment be just. No subject can, therefore, be kept long 

 in prison without legal cause. 



The trial by jury is of Saxon origin, and, in England, the jury is composed of 12 persons, 

 who are required to be unanimous. In Scotland, the nu.mber is 15, and a majority is taken 

 instead of unanimity. 



If the English are judged only from their amusements and laws, we have reason to call them 

 a savage people. The capital offences are in number about 200. In the reign of George the 

 Third, 17 capital punishments have been made by one act, and by the marriage act, 5 capital 

 felonies are created in one line. Well may it be said, that a mere word slayeth.* The great- 



* Sir William Meredith said recently in Parliament, 

 " By this nickname of treason, there lies at this moment, 

 in Newgate, under sentence to be burnt alive, a girl jnst 

 turned of 14 ; at her master's bidding she hid some white- 

 washed farthings behind her stays, on which the jury 

 found her guilty as an accomplice. The master was 

 hanged last Wednesday, and the fagots all lay ready for 

 her ; no reprieve came till just as the cart was setting 

 out, and the girl would have been burnt alive, had it not 

 been for the humane and casual interference of Lord 

 Weymouth. Good God ! are we taught to execrate the 

 tires of Stnithfield, while we are lighting them now to 



71 



burn a poor harmless child for hiding a whitewashed 

 farthing. 



" When a member of Parliament brings in a new hang 

 ing law, he begins by mentioning some injury that may 

 be done to private property, for which a man is not yet 

 liable to be hanged, and then proposes the gallows as the 

 specific, infallible means of cure and prevention ; but the 

 bill in its progress often makes crimes capital, that scarce 

 deserve whipping. For instance, the shop-lifting act was 

 to prevent banker's and silver smiths' shops, where there 

 are commonly goods of great value, from being robbed ; 

 but it goes so far as to make it death to lift anything off a 



