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A History of Constitutional Reform in Great Britain and Ireland; With Full Account of the Three Great Measures of 1832, 1867 and 1884
A History of Constitutional Reform in Great Britain and Ireland With Full Account of the Three Great Measures of 1832 1867 and 1884 Author:James Murdoch General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1885 Original Publisher: Blackie Subjects: Constitutional history Great Britain Ireland Great Britain Constitutional history Ireland Constitutional history Suffrage Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may... more » be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: They offered counsel on matters of state, but the king objected. They insisted upon freedom of speech, and tho leading members were thrown into the Tower. Charles I. was even more tyrannical than his father. "When the House of Commons refused supplies he also threw some of the members into prison. He then proceeded to levy money without them. The House objected, and was dissolved. The king resolved to dispense with a Parliament altogether, which he did for a period of twelve years, until he summoned the Long Parliament, which immediately proceeded to the assumption of sovereign power. Charles II. and James II. both governed on the Rise oi the same despotic principles, and in 1688, when James abdi- Comm"- cated, the great contest of the three estates -- latterly of the King and Commons for political supremacy in the country -- came to a close. The House of Commons had won the victory. III. THE STATUS QUO IN 1688. By the settlement that took place on the ascension of William and Mary the results of the great conflict that had then been going on for six hundred years were definitely ascertained. The throne was fixed to be open to Revolution Protestants only, and an annual sum was awarded to the settlement, king to meet the expenses of the civil list, while all the remaining revenue was left in the hands of the Commons to support the army and navy and defray the cost of government. The old constitutional form of government was maintained, of ...« less