The constitution violated : $b An essayButler, Josephine Elizabeth Grey
History
The constitution violated : $b An essay
Butler, Josephine Elizabeth Grey
Constitutional law -- Great Britain; Prostitutes -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- Great Britain
De Tocqueville’s _Democracy in America_. Third edition. Saunders and
Otley.
Blackstone’s Commentaries. Thirteenth edition, with Christian’s Notes.
De Lolme on the Constitution. Second edition. Wilkie and Robinson.
Creasy on the Constitution. Eighth edition. Bentley.
Guizot’s Causes of the Success of the English Revolution. Murray.
APPENDIX A.
De Tocqueville says on Jury Trial, “To look upon the jury as a mere
judicial institution, is to confine our attention to a very narrow view
of it; for however great its influence may be upon the decisions of the
law courts, that influence is very subordinate to the powerful effects
which it produces on the destinies of the community at large. The jury
is above all a political institution, and it must be regarded in this
light to be fully appreciated.
“The institution of the jury may be aristocratic or democratic,
according to the class of society from which the jurors are selected;
but it always preserves its republican character, inasmuch as it places
the real direction of society in the hands of the governed, or of a
portion of the governed, instead of leaving it under the authority of
the Government.... The true sanction of political laws is to be found in
penal legislation, and if that sanction be wanting, the law will sooner
or later lose its cogency. He who punishes infractions of the law is the
real master of society. Now, the institution of the jury raises the
people itself, or at least a class of citizens, to the bench of judicial
authority. The institution of the jury consequently invests the people,
or that class of citizens, with the direction of society.... The jury
serves to communicate the spirit of the judges to the minds of the
citizens; and this spirit, with the habits which attend it, is the
soundest preparation for free institutions.”[106] Thus, while in England
we are gradually allowing the institution of the jury to fall into
disuse, we are making the central executive the real master of society,
and while we imagine we are advancing towards a more strongly republican
character, we are in fact retrograding towards imperialism.
APPENDIX B.
In the Act passed 6th August 1861, “To consolidate and amend the statute
law of England and Ireland relating to larceny and other similar
offences,” 24 and 25 Victoria, chapter 96, there is, by clause 110, an
appeal allowed in summary cases as follows:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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