A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR ANTIQUITIES. No. 1, VOL. I.] LONDON, JANUARY, 1873. LONG AGO; A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF POPULAR PRICE SIXPENCE; Or Posted regularly on the day of Publication to any Wholesale Agent for the Supply of the Trade: E. W. ALLEN, 11, Ave Maria Lane. [PRICE SIXPENCE. and thickets on the wayside, and to look out for wild fruit which has escaped even their keen glance, or to pick up unconsidered trifles they have thought beneath their regard. The writers who start this new vehicle for the transmission of lost or scattered facts have worked together in the same team before, and will, it is hoped, be found to step in pace in their accustomed places, but they have secured the aid of some old stagers on the same road, so that the store they hope to carry through the country from month to month shall contain some article to the taste of everyone who is looking out for it. They are no pedants; but, inspired with as strong a passion for raking up old matters as Dr. Dryasdust himself, will try to present them in a sightly shape, only preserving the cobwebs when, like old port, it would be little short of sacrilege to remove them. The allu CONSERVATIVE is a word that has only sion to that grand old institution suggests a prowithin the memory of the present genera- mise that, ifold,' these facts shall not be dry.' tion acquired a political meaning. It of right Some departments of history mature so much belongs to no party, but represents the natural sooner than others that it may be difficult to say instincts of us all to preserve all that is worth generally what is the tawny age, but, speaking keeping in memory. In its wider and original broadly, we believe that in practice LONG AGO sense it might be applied to all the intellects of will take a range sweeping the dust from preall the world and of all generations. The monks historic time to the end of the last century. For of old, writing painfully on their sheets of there are curiosities of social life in the time vellum, were the conservatives of learning-the when George the Third was king which are as printers of the present day follow the art con- completely lost to memory or modern knowservative of all arts. In this broad and proper ledge as the hieroglyphics on an Egyptian construction of the word, the publication of mummy. There is no "hard and fast line" to which this sheet is the seed- leaf, will be con- be drawn in this respect. We throw out a lasso servative-in its occasional delvings to the roots to catch fugitive facts of all ages, which have of old words or old customs it will be entirely broken loose from the tight reins of historians, radical-and in remunerating labourers in the and run out of record. field which it has settled down upon it hopes to prove itself liberal. So there is a fair prospect that it will secure the sympathies and friendship of all parties in the State. We are no Sir Oracles nor modern sphynxes, and do not undertake to solve problems; but we invite queries nevertheless, and trust to a spirit of literary reciprocity for the interchange of inIt has a plain broad track in front, which the formation where our own imperfect knowledge Gentleman's Magazine of old and Notes and Queries fails us. In this department we trust to have a of later years have cleared, but it has an errant large circle of " friends in council;" and country propensity to entangle itself with the brambles investigators, removed from the great centres of enquiry, shall have through our columns, the aid This statute was repealed in the reign of Mary, of practised members of our staff specially when all spiritual power was handed over to the retained to make researches in our metropolitan Pope, (6) but it was restored to the Statute Book, storehouses of historic volumes, the only exaction with only the alteration rendered necessary by being a regard for brevity and a public interest in the sex of the monarch, immediately on Elizathe subject of inquiry. Any communications beth's accession to the throne. (c) requiring details encroaching unduly upon our space cannot be inserted. So far the style was settled by Act of Parliament, but it has been strangely varied in usage. The conductors of LONG AGO will gratefully The early Norman kings had been content to receive intimations of the neglect of national describe themselves on their great seals and monuments, the decay of historic ruins, or of coins as "Dei Gratiâ Rex Anglorum" (obverse), any contemplated acts of Vandalism, with a and "Dux Normannorum" (reverse); (d) “ Dei view to bringing the subject prominently before public notice. Gratiâ Rex Angliæ, Dominus Hiberniæ" (obverse), "Dux Normanniæ et Aquitaniæ, Comis The title may possibly be objected to as not Andigavia" (reverse); By the Grace of God, being explicit enough; but it formed the subject King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of of long and anxious discussion. "The Olden Normandy, and Aquitaine and Count of AnTime" only lost by a mere minority of votes, giers"; (e) "Dei Gratiâ Rex Angliæ, Dominus but the result of the ballot becoming known Hiberniæ, Dux Aquitoniæ "; (ƒ) “Dei Gratiâ (quite against the law), it was agreed on all Rex Angliæ et Brittaniæ (Brittany) et Domisides that LONG AGO had an elasticity about it that nus Hiberniæ "; (g) "Rex Angliæ et Franciæ would embrace matters of interest to everyone et Dominus Hiberniæ." (h) The only addition enquiring into a PAST of which this country has to this style was on the accession of James I., little need to be ashamed; while it left the door when it ran, "Dei Gratiâ Angliæ, Scotiæ, Franopen for students of the history of the world. ciæ et Hiberniæ Rex, Fidei Defensor," and reFor better or for worse, the title of LONG AGO mained in that form in the reign of Charles. was adopted; and it is for the future to The great seal of Oliver and Richard Cromwell decide whether the small majority or the formid- bore the inscription "Olivarus" (or "Ricarable minority were the best judges. They are dus") Dei Gratiâ Republicæ, Angliæ, Scotiæ, all united now, and swear true and faithful alle- et Hiberniæ Protector "a pretty close copy of giance to the flag they unfold this day. And the royal form; but the old pretension to the they trust to fulfil the promise set forth in the crown of France was resumed with the restoraprospectus, and to follow (with all due modesty tion, when "Magnæ Brittanniæ " was also for and respect be it said) in the honoured footsteps of "Sylvanus Urban, Gent.," who set so good an example a hundred and forty years, or thereabouts at all events, long, LONG AGO. THE OLDEN LAWS OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. KING, LORDS, AND COMMONS. WE do not purpose referring to the several statutes which were passed at different times to settle or confirm the succession to the crown, but simply to notice one or two which bore generally upon the kingly office without regard to individuals. There is an Act of Henry the Eighth of the year 1543 which declares the sovereign style and title to be," By the grace of God, King of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the Church of England, and also of Ireland, in Earth the Supreme Head." (a) a. 35 Henry VIII., chapter 3. the first time substituted for " Angliæ et Scotia.” With the Hanoverian succession came the addition, "Brunsvicæ et Luneburgeii Dux, Sacri Romani Imperii Archithesauri et Princeps Elect;" but in the reign of George III. the absurd appendage of "Francia" was dropped from the king's style. But although the kingly title was clearly laid down by Act of Parliament in the reign of Henry VIII., as we have already explained, some strange versions of it may be found among old deeds and other documents. Thus in that very reign we find him described in the register of a Northamptonshire parish, as "Or most Sovereygne Lorde Kynge Henry ye Eight, by ye Gce of Gode, Kynge of Englande and of France, Defender of ye Feyth, Lord of Yreland, and ye spme hede i erth of ys hys Church of Eng b. 1 and 2 Phillip and Mary, chapter 8. d. Great seal of Stephen and Henry II. f. Great seal of Henry III., and Edward I., II., and III. h. Great seal of Henry V., Edward IV., Richard III., and Henry VI. and VII. First took particular pains to have it carried out, having passed an Act in 1297 (~) requiring Magna Charta and the Forest Statutes to be read before the people in all cathedral churches twice a-year, and another in 1300, altering the requirements to four times a-year. (0) By the fourth chapter of the latter Act, all persons breaking the charters are to be excommunicated, "and the curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates." lande." (i) In the following reign we meet with Charta should be periodically read in all a more elaborate description-"Our Sovaigne churches, but this was soon disregarded, and the Lorde and Lady Phillip and Mary, by the Grace practice fell into disuse, although Edward the of God, Kinge and Queene of England, France, Naples, Jerusalem, and Yreland, Defenders of the Faythe, Prince of Spaine and Cycele (Sicily), Archduke of Austrya, Duke of Acquittan, Burgundy, and Brabant, Cowntys of Flanders and Tyrolle." (j) All that Philip seems to have done for the crown of England seems to have been to bring a number of empty titles to it; but it strikes the student of our laws that he was more completely recognised as king regnant than readers of our ordinary histories would discover. In a third register (k) Elizabeth has these appendages to her name " Our most graecous Soverayne, Lady Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of Ingland, Fraunce, and Ireland, Queene, in Westminster Hall on the 13th of May, beDefendor of the Ould, Auncient, and Catholique Faithe, and in Yearthe next and immediately under Christ, and principale Member of his Churche and Supreame Governoure of this Realme; as well in all causes, as over all persons, Ecclesiastical or Temporale." But previously to this, in 1253, Henry the Third, on the complaint of the clergy that the Great Charter was infracted, republished it in person and with solemn state and magnificence fore a large number of nobles, and particularly confirmed the Sentence of Excommunication, which had been more privately promulgated in 1224 and 1237. At the conclusion of the sentence, when the prelates cast down their tapers, extinguished but smoking, with the execration, Of course the farther we go back the greater "So may all that incur the sentence be extindo we find the tendency to assume an arbitrary guished and stink in hell!" the king added, power on the part of our kings. In the early "So help me God, I will keep all these things entries of the Statute Book many of the laws inviolate as I am a man, as I am a Christian, read and seem more like proclamations than as I am a knight, and as I am a king crowned legislative enactments. In the reign of Edward and annointed." (p) the First any concession of the king's supposed rights or privileges was guarded by a proviso thus :-" And forasmuch as the king hath or dained these things unto the honour of God and Holy Church, and for the Commonwealth, and for the remedy of such as be grieved, he would not that at any other time it should turn in prejudice of himself or of his Crown, but that such right as appertains to him should be saved in all points." (1) The Acts of this period awarding punishments for certain offences, left things very much at the pleasure of the king, usually winding up with the words :" And farther as the king may direct," or "otherwise as the king may see fit." An old Act defining the crime of murder, runs :-" and if it be proved that it was done in self-defence or accident, the king may take him to his grace, if it please him." (m) The olden kings were ready enough in making a show of confirming Magna Charta, and then went back to invade it. The two sides of the picture are well contrasted in the two following instances:-The law required that Magna i. Register of Newbottle, Northamptonshire, 1538. j. Church Book of Burton Blean, Kent, 1555. k. Register of St. Andrew's, Holborn, 1558. 1. 3 Edward I., chapter 50. m. 6 Edward I., chapter 9. As a contrast to this we find Richard the Second declaring of the members of the House of Commons that "Slaves they were and slaves they should be," and protested before his Parliament that he "would not, at their request, discharge the meanest scullion in his kitchen." The same sovereign said of the law, that they were "in his breath, and he could make and unmake them at his pleasure." () He made the experiment with what success is well known. Henry the Eighth got a grant from Parliament that his proclamation should have the effect of law; Elizabeth obtained a similar concession; and James the First issued numerous proclamations as "Acts of State;" holding that, "As it was blasphemy for man to dispute what God might do in the plentitude of his Omnipotence, so it was sedition for subjects to dispute what a king might do in the fullness of his power. (r) n. 25 Edward I., chapter 3. o. 28 Edward I., chapter 1. p. Matthew Paris, Matthew of Westminster, Walter Hemingford, &c. q. "Bacon's Historical and Political Discourse on the Laws and Government of England," part ii., chapter I and 2. r. See also Chamberlayn's Present State of Great Britain, edition 1746, vol. i., book i., “Of the king; his style and dignity." brought their action for libel like other people. (v) This statement, however, was premature, for in 1773 the Earl of Sandwich brought an action under these statutes in the Court of Queen's Bench against Miller, of the London Evening Post, for charging him with the sale of Admiralty offices, and obtained a verdict with three thousand pounds damages. The second estate next claims our notice. There are no statutes of any general interest affecting the first House of the Legislature; but as regards the individual rights and privileges of peers as members of that House, there are one or two facts worth referring to. The most prominent, perhaps, is the right of a member to claim the privilege of trial by his peers-a privilege claimed in our own time by the lately The power that initiates the law is not itself deceased Earl of Cardigan, on which occasion above the law; and, although governed princithe Lord High Steward, Black Rod and Kings-pally by its own "orders," is subject to several at-arms were set to work searching for prece- statutes passed specially for its regulation. One dents and forms of trial, which had almost of the earliest allusions to a Iarliament to be become forgotten things of the past, and the found in the Statute Book is in the year 1331, result of which excited for the time, no small from which it would appear that previous Paramount of public curiosity and wonderment. liaments had been somewhat uncertain and The same right belongs to peeresses. This irregular in their periods of meeting, and they was decided after the trial and conviction of are required for the future to assemble at least Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, for witchcraft, once in every year. The statute itself is a model of through the intrigues of Cardinal Beaufort; conciseness: "Item. It is accorded that a Parwhen an Act was passed putting peeresses liament shall be holden every year once, and upon the same footing in this respect as more often if need be."(w) This was confirmed peers. (s) in 1362, when the mission of Parliament was thus explained: "Item, for the maintenance of the said articles and statutes, and redress of divers mischiefs and grievances, which daily. happen.(x) A peer can only forfeit his nobility by attainder; but there is only one instance upon record, occurring in the reign of Edward the Fourth, when George Nevile, Duke of Bedford, was degraded by Act of Parliament on account of his poverty, which rendered him unable to support his dignity. () The Act of Attainder ran thus: -"Forasmuch as oftentimes it is seen that when any lord is called to high estate and hath not convenient livelihood to support the same dignity, it induceth great poverty and indigence, and causeth oftentimes great extortion, embracery and maintenance to be bad, to the great trouble of all such countries where such estate shall happen to be: therefore," &c. A peer or peeress in her own right, or by marriage, is exempted from arrest in civil cases. A peer sitting in judgment in the Courts of the Lord High Steward or the trial of a fellow peer, does not give his verdict or his oath, but on his honour; laying his hand upon his heart and pronouncing the words, "Guilty" or "Not Guilty, upon my honour," but in an ordinary court of justice he must be sworn in the usual way. An act of slander or libel against a peer was, by early statutes, made more heinous than an ordinary libel, and can be treated as "scandalum magnatum." (u) But in the last century, Chief Justice Holt said the right had been tacitly waived by the great men of the realm, who s. 20 Henry VI., chapter 9. t. Coke's Fourth Institute, 355. u. 1 Edward I., chapter 34, and 2 Richard II., statute i., chapter 5. In the reign of Charles the Second, Parliaments were made triennial, (y) and this was confirmed in the reign of William the Third. (z) But the troubles of 1715 formed an excuse, "When a restless and Popish faction are designing and endeavouring to renew the rebellion within this kingdom and an invasion from abroad," for extending the life of Parliament to seven years, as more frequent elections were found inconvenient and "very grievous and burthensome by occasioning much greater and more continued expense, and more violent and lasting heats and animosities, and, especially in such times, might be destructive to the peace and security of the Government."(a) In 1429, in consequence of the privilege of voting in Parliamentary elections having been claimed "by very great, outrageous, and excessive numbers of the people dwelling within the same counties of the realm of England, of the which most part was of people of small substance and of no value, whereof every one of them pretended a voice equivalent as to such elections to be made with the most worthy knights and esquires dwelling within the same counties, whereby manslaughters, riots, battev. Holt's Law of Libel, page 151. w. 4 Edward III., chapter 14. x. 36 Edward III., chapter 10. y. 16 Charles II., chapter I. 2. 6 William and Mary, chapter 2. |