Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/637

 ENGLAND 625 th, a plan recommended by Sir William Temple. He created a new council, or extended the privy council to 30 members, 15 of whom were to be the chief ministers, while the others were to be nobles or gentlemen, without of- fice, but of wealth and consideration. It was expected that this council would satisfy all parties, but it satisfied nobody, and failed from the commencement of its existence. The old form was soon restored. A tory reaction made the calling of parliament together un- necessary in the last years of Charles II. His successor, James II. , not content with an amount of power such as no other sovereign of his line had possessed, entered upon a course of action that plainly showed he had in view the total overthrow of the constitution both in church and state; and as his stanchest sup- porters had been churchmen, all parties in England were soon arrayed against him, ex- cept a few Catholics and a small portion of the dissenters. He had called a parliament im- mediately after his accession, and though it was the most servile body that had met for 80 years, and the king had said there were only 40 members of the house of commons whom he would not have named himself, he soon quarrelled with it. The ends which he had most at heart were, the repeal of the habeas cor- pus act, the establishment of a standing army, and the repeal of all laws that were directed against the Catholics. It so happened that these three things were precisely those which his own friends, the tories, were least inclined to grant. They were as much attached to the habeas corpus act as were the whigs ; they associated the idea of a standing army with the military rule of Cromwell ; and they saw ruin to the church of England in relief to the Catholics, and the one thing which they loved better than either monarch or monarchy was that church. For three years James carried on a warfare against the constitution, reviving the high commission court by his own act, and defiance of acts of parliament, and in various er ways showing his utter contempt of all traint. The events of IGSS-'Q removed him m the throne, and placed the constitution n a firm basis, on which it has since rested ithout serious disturbance. The government " parliament was then fairly acknowledged, d has never since been called in question, n the reign of William and Mary, and of Wil- ,m III., many things were done to settle the principles of the constitution. The declaration of rights adopted by the convention parliament was confirmed by the regular parliament, soon after ; and the act of settlement passed in 1700 contains eight additional articles, further lim- iting the power of the crown, and protecting popular freedom. The most important of these articles is the seventh, by which judges were to hold their seats during good behavior, and their salaries were to be ascertained and estab- lished. The first mutiny bill was passed in 1689, and has been renewed annually ever since, giving to parliament control of the sword. A triennial bill was passed in 1694, but septennial parliaments were established in 1717. As the law originally stood, the king could keep the parliament chosen immediately after his accession to the throne during the whole of his reign. The triennial act repealed this prerogative, and the septennial act con- firmed that repeal, while it extended the time for which parliament might endure. No par- liament, however, since that time has existed for seven years. The laws relating to treason, to libel, and to toleration, passed in the year immediately following the revolution, and which became part of the constitution, were generally of a liberal character. After the ac- cession of the house of Hanover, an attempt was made by a portion of the whigs to close the house of peers. George L gave his con- sent to the introduction of a bill by which, after a few more creations, no additions were to be made to the peerage. For the 16 elec- tive peers of Scotland, 25 hereditary peers were to be substituted. This measure succeeded in the house of peers, but the house of commons, under the lead of Walpole, threw it out. The government was strictly parliamentary down to the beginning of the reign of George III. That monarch attempted to rule parliament, and did not desist until he. found that his best chance to accomplish his purpose would be through a union with that body. The demand for parliamentary reform commenced in the time of the American revolution, and was caused by the conviction that began to prevail among men of all classes that the existing abuses were owing to the vices of the elec- toral system. The French revolution had the effect of delaying changes in England that were much demanded, as numerous members of the house of commons were returned by peers, or by rich individual commoners. The reform bill of 1832, and that of 1867-'8, though greatly enlarging the constituency of the house of commons in some respects, did not lessen the power of that body, which is more influen- tial now than ever before. The exclamation of Mr. Roebuck in 1858, "The crown! it is the house of commons ! " expresses the precise character of the government of the British em- pire. (See PAELIAMENT.) The spvereign, in theory, is almost as powerful as in 'early times, but in practice his power can hardly be said to exist. He can make war or peace, but the con- trol of the purse and the sword by parliament neutralizes that prerogative. The money to pay the salaries of the officers he appoints must be voted by parliament. He cannot alter the standard of the money which it is his privilege to coin. The appointments he makes are vir- tually made by parliament, the ministers being only a committee of members of that body, se- lected from it by its consent, and responsible to it. He is held to be incapable of doing wrong, and the ministers are responsible for all that is done in his name, which, whatever its