military service, shall die, and at the time of his death his heir shall be of full age, and owe a relief, he shall have his inheritance by the ancient relief–that is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl, for a whole earldom, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a baron, for a whole barony, by a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a knight, for a whole knight’s fee, by a hundred shillings at most; and whoever oweth less shall give less, according to the ancient custom of fees.
3. But if the heir of any such shall be under age, and shall be in ward, when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without relief and without fine.
4. The keeper of the land of such an heir being under age, shall take of the land of the heir none but reasonable issues, reasonable customs, and reasonable services, and that without destruction and waste of his men and his goods; and if we commit the custody of any such lands to the sheriff, or any other who is answerable to us for the issues of the land, and he shall make destruction and waste of the lands which he hath in custody, we will take of him amends, and the land shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall answer for the issues to us, or to him to whom we shall assign them; and if we sell or give to any one the custody of any such lands, and he therein make destruction or waste, he shall lose the same custody, which shall be committed to two lawful and discreet men of that fee, who shall in like manner answer to us as aforesaid.
5. But the keeper, so long as he shall have the custody of the land, shall keep up the houses, parks, warrens, ponds, mills, and other things pertaining to the land, out of the issues of the same land; and shall deliver to the heir, when he comes of full age, his whole land, stocked with ploughs and carriages, according as the time of wainage shall require, and the issues of the land can reasonably bear.
6. Heirs shall be married without disparagement, and so that before matrimony shall be contracted, those who are near in blood to the heir shall have notice. 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage and inheritance; nor shall she give anything for her dower, or her marriage, or her inheritance, which her husband and she held at the day of his death; and she may remain in the mansion house of her husband forty days after his death, within which time her dower shall be assigned.
8. No widow shall be distrained to marry herself, so long as she has a mind to live without a husband; but yet she shall give security that she will not marry without our assent, if she hold of us; or without the consent of the lord of whom she holds, if she hold of another.
9. Neither we nor our bailiffs shall seize any land or rent for any debt so long as the chattels of the debtor are sufficient to pay the debt; nor shall the sureties of the debtor be distrained so long as the principal debtor has sufficient to pay the debt; and if the principal debtor shall fail in the payment of the debt, not having wherewithal to pay it, then the sureties shall answer the debt; and if they will they shall have the lands and rents of the debtor, until they shall be satisfied for the debt which they paid for him, unless the principal debtor can show himself acquitted thereof against the said sureties.
10. If any one have borrowed anything of the Jews, more or less, and die before the debt be satisfied, there shall be no interest paid for that debt, so long as the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold; and if the debt falls into our hands, we will only take the chattel mentioned in the deed.
11. And if any one shall die indebted to the Jews, his wife shall have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if the deceased left children under age, they shall have necessaries provided for them, according to the tenement of the deceased; and out of the residue the debt shall be paid, saving, however, the service due to the lords, and in like manner shall it be done touching debts due to others than the Jews.
12. _No scutage or aid[26] shall be imposed in our kingdom, unless by the general council of our kingdom_; except for ransoming our person, making our eldest son a knight, and once for marrying our eldest daughter; and for these there shall be paid no more than a reasonable aid. In like manner it shall be concerning the aids of the City of London.
[Footnote 26: In the time of the feudal system _scutage_ was a direct tax in commutation for military service; _aids_ were direct taxes paid by the tenant to his lord for ransoming his person if taken captive, and for helping defray the expenses of knighting his eldest son and marrying his eldest daughter.]
13. And the City of London shall have all its ancient liberties and free customs, as well by land as by water: furthermore, we will and grant that all other cities and boroughs, and towns and ports, shall have all their liberties and free customs.
14. _And for holding the general council of the kingdom concerning the assessment of aids, except in the three cases aforesaid, and for the assessing of scutages, we shall cause to be summoned the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons of the realm, singly by our letters. And furthermore, we shall cause to be summoned generally, by our sheriffs and bailiffs, all others who hold of us in chief, for a certain day, that is to say, forty days before their meeting at least, and to a certain place; and in all letters of such summons we will declare the cause of such summons. And summons being thus made, the business shall proceed on the day appointed, according to the advice of such as shall be present, although all that were summoned come not._
15. We will not for the future grant to any one that he may take aid of his own free tenants, unless to ransom his body, and to make his eldest son a knight, and once to marry his eldest daughter; and for this there shall be only paid a reasonable aid.
16. No man shall be distrained to perform more service for a knight’s fee, or other free tenement, than is due from thence.
17. Common pleas shall not follow our court, but shall be holden in some place certain.
18. Trials upon the Writs of Novel Disseisin,[27] and of Mort d’ancestor,[28] and of Darrein Presentment,[29] shall not be taken but in their proper counties, and after this manner: We, or if we should be out of the realm, our chief justiciary, will send two justiciaries through every county four times a year, who, with four knights of each county, chosen by the county, shall hold the said assizes[30] in the county, on the day, and at the place appointed.
[Footnote 27: Dispossession.]
[Footnote 28: Death of the ancestor; that is, in cases of disputed succession to land.]
[Footnote 29: Last presentation to a benefice.]
[Footnote 30: The word Assize here means an assembly of knights or other substantial persons, held at a certain time and place where they sit with the Justice. ‘Assisa’ or ‘Assize’ is also taken for the court, place, or time at which the writs of Assize are taken.–_Thompson’s Notes._]
19. And if any matters cannot be determined on the day appointed for holding the assizes in each county, so many of the knights and freeholders as have been at the assizes aforesaid shall stay to decide them as is necessary, according as there is more or less business.
20. A freeman shall not be amerced for a small offence, but only according to the degree of the offence; and for a great crime according to the heinousness of it, saving to him his contenement;[31] and after the same manner a merchant, saving to him his merchandise. And a villein shall be amerced after the same manner, saving to him his wainage, if he falls under our mercy; and none of the aforesaid amerciaments shall be assessed but by the oath of honest men in the neighbourhood.
[Footnote 31: “That by which a person subsists and which is essential to his rank in life.”]
21. Earls and barons shall not be amerced but by their peers, and after the degree of the offence.
22. No ecclesiastical person shall be amerced for his lay tenement, but according to the proportion of the others aforesaid, and not according to the value of his ecclesiastical benefice.
23. Neither a town nor any tenant shall be distrained to make bridges or embankments, unless that anciently and of right they are bound to do it.
24. No sheriff, constable, coroner, or other our bailiffs, shall hold “Pleas of the Crown.” [32]
[Footnote 32: These are suits conducted in the name of the Crown against criminal offenders.]
25. All counties, hundreds, wapentakes, and trethings, shall stand at the old rents, without any increase, except in our demesne manors.
26. If any one holding of us a lay fee die, and the sheriff, or our bailiffs, show our letters patent of summons for debt which the dead man did owe to us, it shall be lawful for the sheriff or our bailiff to attach and register the chattels of the dead, found upon his lay fee, to the amount of the debt, by the view of lawful men, so as nothing be removed until our whole clear debt be paid; and the rest shall be left to the executors to fulfil the testament of the dead; and if there be nothing due from him to us, all the chattels shall go to the use of the dead, saving to his wife and children their reasonable shares.[33]
[Footnote 33: A person’s goods were divided into three parts, of which one went to his wife, another to his heirs, and a third he was at liberty to dispose of. If he had no child, his widow had half; and if he had children, but no wife, half was divided amongst them. These several sums were called “reasonable shares.” Through the testamentary jurisdiction they gradually acquired, the clergy often contrived to get into their own hands all the residue of the estate without paying the debts of the estate.]
27. If any freeman shall die intestate, his chattels shall be distributed by the hands of his nearest relations and friends, by view of the Church, saving to every one his debts which the deceased owed to him.
28. No constable or bailiff of ours shall take corn or other chattels of any man unless he presently give him money for it, or hath respite of payment by the goodwill of the seller.
29. No constable shall distrain any knight to give money for castle-guard, if he himself will do it in his person, or by another able man, in case he cannot do it through any reasonable cause. And if we have carried or sent him into the army, he shall be free from such guard for the time he shall be in the army by our command.
30. No sheriff or bailiff of ours, or any other, shall take horses or carts of any freeman for carriage, without the assent of the said freeman.
31. Neither shall we nor our bailiffs take any man’s timber for our castles or other uses, unless by the consent of the owner of the timber.
32. We will retain the lands of those convicted of felony only one year and a day, and then they shall be delivered to the lord of the fee.[34]
[Footnote 34: All forfeiture for felony has been abolished by the 33 and 34 Vic., c. 23. It seems to have originated in the destruction of the felon’s property being part of the sentence, and this “waste” being commuted for temporary possession by the Crown.]
33. All kydells[35] (wears) for the time to come shall be put down in the rivers of Thames and Medway, and throughout all England, except upon the sea-coast.
[Footnote 35: The purport of this was to prevent inclosures of common property, or committing a “Purpresture.” These wears are now called “kettles” or “kettle-nets” in Kent and Cornwall.]
34. The writ which is called _praecipe_, for the future, shall not be made out to any one, of any tenement, whereby a freeman may lose his court.
35. There shall be one measure of wine and one of ale through our whole realm; and one measure of corn, that is to say, the London quarter; and one breadth of dyed cloth, and russets, and haberjeets, that is to say, two ells within the lists; and it shall be of weights as it is of measures.
36. _Nothing from henceforth shall be given or taken for a writ of inquisition of life or limb, but it shall be granted freely, and not denied._[36]
[Footnote 36: This important writ, or “writ concerning hatred and malice,” may have been the prototype of the writ of _habeas corpus_, and was granted for a similar purpose.]
37. If any do hold of us by fee-farm, or by socage, or by burgage, and he hold also lands of any other by knight’s service, we will not have the custody of the heir or land, which is holden of another man’s fee by reason of that fee-farm, socage,[37] or burgage; neither will we have the custody of the fee-farm, or socage, or burgage, unless knight’s service was due to us out of the same fee-farm. We will not have the custody of an heir, nor of any land which he holds of another by knight’s service, by reason of any petty serjeanty[38] by which he holds of us, by the service of paying a knife, an arrow, or the like.
[Footnote 37: “Socage” signifies lands held by tenure of performing certain inferior offices in husbandry, probably from the old French word _soc_, a plough-share.]
[Footnote 38: The tenure of giving the king some small weapon of war in acknowledgment of lands held.]
38. No bailiff from henceforth shall pat any man to his law[39] upon his own bare saying, without credible witnesses to prove it.
[Footnote 39: Equivalent to putting him to his oath. This alludes to the Wager of Law, by which a defendant and his eleven supporters or “compurgators” could swear to his non-liability, and this amounted to a verdict in his favour.]
39. _No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseised, or outlawed, or banished, or any ways destroyed, nor will we pass upon him, nor will we send upon him, unless by the lawful judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land._
40. _We will sell to no man, we will not deny to any man, either justice or right._
41. All merchants shall have safe and secure conduct, to go out of, and to come into England, and to stay there and to pass as well by land as by water, for buying and selling by the ancient and allowed customs, without any unjust tolls; except in time of war, or when they are of any nation at war with us. And if there be found any such in our land, in the beginning of the war, they shall be attached, without damage to their bodies or goods, until it be known unto us, or our chief justiciary, how our merchants be treated in the nation at war with us; and if ours be safe there, the others shall be safe in our dominions.
42. It shall be lawful, for the time to come, for any one to go out of our kingdom, and return safely and securely by land or by water, saving his allegiance to us; unless in time of war, by some short space, for the common benefit of the realm, except prisoners and outlaws, according to the law of the land, and people in war with us, and merchants who shall be treated as is above mentioned.[40]
[Footnote 40: The Crown has still technically the power of confining subjects within the kingdom by the writ “ne exeat regno,” though the use of the writ is rarely resorted to.]
43. If any man hold of any escheat,[41] as of the honour of Wallingford, Nottingham, Boulogne, Lancaster, or of other escheats which be in our hands, and are baronies, and die, his heir shall give no other relief, and perform no other service to us than he would to the baron, if it were in the baron’s hand; and we will hold it after the same manner as the baron held it.
[Footnote 41: The word _escheat_ is derived from the French _escheoir_, to return or happen, and signifies the return of an estate to a lord, either on failure of tenant’s issue or on his committing felony. The abolition of feudal tenures by the Act of Charles II. (12 Charles II. c. 24) rendered obsolete this part and many other parts of the Charter.]
44. Those men who dwell without the forest from henceforth shall not come before our justiciaries of the forest, upon common, summons, but such as are impleaded, or are sureties for any that are attached for something concerning the forest.[42]
[Footnote 42: The laws for regulating the royal forests, and administering justice in respect of offences committed in their precincts, formed a large part of the law.]
45. We will not make any justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs, but of such as know the law of the realm and mean duly to observe it.
46. All barons who have founded abbeys, which they hold by charter from the kings of England, or by ancient tenure, shall have the keeping of them, when vacant, as they ought to have.
47. All forests that have been made forests in our time shall forthwith be disforested; and the same shall be done with the water-banks that have been fenced in by us in our time.
48. All evil customs concerning forests, warrens, foresters, and warreners, sheriffs and their officers, water-banks and their keepers, shall forthwith be inquired into in each county, by twelve sworn knights of the same county, chosen by creditable persons of the same county; and within forty days after the said inquest be utterly abolished, so as never to be restored: so as we are first acquainted therewith, or our justiciary, if we should not be in England.
49. We will immediately give up all hostages and charters delivered unto us by our English subjects, as securities for their keeping the peace, and yielding us faithful service.
50. We will entirely remove from their bailiwicks the relations of Gerard de Atheyes, so that for the future they shall have no bailiwick in England; we will also remove Engelard de Cygony, Andrew, Peter, and Gyon, from the Chancery; Gyon de Cygony, Geoffrey de Martyn, and his brothers; Philip Mark, and his brothers, and his nephew, Geoffrey, and their whole retinue.
51. As soon as peace is restored, we will send out of the kingdom all foreign knights, cross-bowmen, and stipendiaries, who are come with horses and arms to the molestation of our people.
52. If any one has been dispossessed or deprived by us, without the lawful judgment of his peers, of his lands, castles, liberties, or right, we will forthwith restore them to him; and if any dispute arise upon this head, let the matter be decided by the five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned, for the preservation of the peace. And for all those things of which any person has, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been dispossessed or deprived, either by our father King Henry, or our brother King Richard, and which we have in our hands, or are possessed by others, and we are bound to warrant and make good, we shall have a respite till the term usually allowed the crusaders; excepting those things about which there is a plea depending, or whereof an inquest hath been made, by our order before we undertook the crusade; but as soon as we return from our expedition, or if perchance we tarry at home and do not make our expedition, we will immediately cause full justice to be administered therein.
53. The same respite we shall have, and in the same manner, about administering justice, disafforesting or letting continue the forests, which Henry our father, and our brother Richard, have afforested; and the same concerning the wardship of the lands which are in another’s fee, but the wardship of which we have hitherto had, by reason of a fee held of us by knight’s service; and for the abbeys founded in any other fee than our own, in which the lord of the fee says he has a right; and when we return from our expedition, or if we tarry at home, and do not make our expedition, we will immediately do full justice to all the complainants in this behalf.
54. No man shall be taken or imprisoned upon the appeal[43] of a woman, for the death of any other than her husband.
[Footnote 43: An _Appeal_ here means an “accusation.” The appeal here mentioned was a suit for a penalty in which the plaintiff was a relation who had suffered through a murder or manslaughter. One of the incidents of this “Appeal of Death” was the Trial by Battle. These Appeals and Trial by Battle were not abolished before the passing of the Act 59 Geo. III., c. 46.]
55. All unjust and illegal fines made by us, and all amerciaments imposed unjustly and contrary to the law of the land, shall be entirely given up, or else be left to the decision of the five-and-twenty barons hereafter mentioned for the preservation of the peace, or of the major part of them, together with the aforesaid Stephen, Archbishop of Canterbury, if he can be present, and others whom he shall think fit to invite; and if he cannot be present, the business shall notwithstanding go on without him; but so that if one or more of the aforesaid five-and-twenty barons be plaintiffs in the same cause, they shall be set aside as to what concerns this particular affair, and others be chosen in their room, out of the said five-and-twenty, and sworn by the rest to decide the matter.
56. If we have disseised or dispossessed the Welsh of any lands, liberties, or other things, without the legal judgment of their peers, either in England or in Wales, they shall be immediately restored to them; and if any dispute arise upon this head, the matter shall be determined in the Marches by the judgment of their peers; for tenements in England according to the law of England, for tenements in Wales according to the law of Wales, for tenements of the Marches according to the law of the Marches: the same shall the Welsh do to us and our subjects.
57. As for all those things of which a Welshman hath, without the lawful judgment of his peers, been disseised or deprived of by King Henry our father, or our brother King Richard, and which we either have in our hands or others are possessed of, and we are obliged to warrant it, we shall have a respite till the time generally allowed the crusaders; excepting those things about which a suit is depending, or whereof an inquest has been made by our order, before we undertook the crusade: but when we return, or if we stay at home without performing our expedition, we will immediately do them full justice, according to the laws of the Welsh and of the parts before mentioned.
58. We will without delay dismiss the son of Llewellin, and all the
Welsh hostages, and release them from the engagements they have entered into with us for the preservation of the peace.
59. We will treat with Alexander, King of Scots, concerning the restoring his sisters and hostages, and his right and liberties, in the same form and manner as we shall do to the rest of our barons of England; unless by the charters which we have from his father, William, late King of Scots, it ought to be otherwise; and this shall be left to the determination of his peers in our court.
60. All the aforesaid customs and liberties, which we have granted to be holden in our kingdom, as much as it belongs to us, all people of our kingdom, as well clergy as laity, shall observe, as far as they are concerned, towards their dependents.
61. And whereas, for the honour of God and the amendment of our kingdom, and for the better quieting the discord that has arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these things aforesaid; willing to render them firm and lasting, we do give and grant our subjects the underwritten security, namely that the barons may choose five-and-twenty barons of the kingdom, whom they think convenient; who shall take care, with all their might, to hold and observe, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties we have granted them, and by this our present Charter confirmed in this manner; that is to say, that if we, our justiciary, our bailiffs, or any of our officers, shall in any circumstance have failed in the performance of them towards any person, or shall have broken through any of these articles of peace and security, and the offence be notified to four barons chosen out of the five-and-twenty before mentioned, the said four barons shall repair to us, or our justiciary, if we are out of the realm, and, laying open the grievance, shall petition to have it redressed without delay: and if it be not redressed by us, or if we should chance to be out of the realm, if it should not be redressed by our justiciary within forty days, reckoning from the time it has been notified to us, or to our justiciary (if we should be out of the realm), the four barons aforesaid shall lay the cause before the rest of the five-and-twenty barons; and the said five-and-twenty barons, together with the community of the whole kingdom, shall distrain and distress us in all the ways in which they shall be able, by seizing our castles, lands, possessions, and in any other manner they can, till the grievance is redressed, according to their pleasure; saving harmless our own person, and the persons of our Queen and children; and when it is redressed, they shall behave to us as before. And any person whatsoever in the kingdom may swear that he will obey the orders of the five-and-twenty barons aforesaid in the execution of the premises, and will distress us, jointly with them, to the utmost of his power; and we give public and free liberty to any one that shall please to swear to this, and never will hinder any person from taking the same oath.
62. As for all those of our subjects who will not, of their own accord, swear to join the five-and-twenty barons in distraining and distressing us, we will issue orders to make them take the same oath as aforesaid. And if any one of the five-and-twenty barons dies, or goes out of the kingdom, or is hindered any other way from carrying the things aforesaid into execution, the rest of the said five-and-twenty barons may choose another in his room, at their discretion, who shall be sworn in like manner as the rest. In all things that are committed to the execution of these five-and-twenty barons, if, when they are all assembled together, they should happen to disagree about any matter, and some of them, when summoned, will not or cannot come, whatever is agreed upon, or enjoined, by the major part of those that are present shall be reputed as firm and valid as if all the five-and-twenty had given their consent; and the aforesaid five-and-twenty shall swear that all the premises they shall faithfully observe, and cause with all their power to be observed. And we will procure nothing from any one, by ourselves nor by another, whereby any of these concessions and liberties may be revoked or lessened; and if any such thing shall have been obtained, let it be null and void; neither will we ever make use of it either by ourselves or any other. And all the ill-will, indignations, and rancours that have arisen between us and our subjects, of the clergy and laity, from the first breaking out of the dissensions between us, we do fully remit and forgive: moreover, all trespasses occasioned by the said dissensions, from Easter in the sixteenth year of our reign till the restoration of peace and tranquillity, we hereby entirely remit to all, both clergy and laity, and as far as in us lies do fully forgive. We have, moreover, caused to be made for them the letters patent testimonial of Stephen, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Henry, Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and the bishops aforesaid, as also of Master Pandulph, for the security and concessions aforesaid.
63. Wherefore we will and firmly enjoin, that the Church of England be free, and that all men in our kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, truly and peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly to themselves and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and places, forever, as is aforesaid. It is also sworn, as well on our part as on the part of the barons, that all the things aforesaid shall be observed in good faith, and without evil subtilty. Given under our hand, in the presence of the witnesses above named, and many others, in the meadow called Runingmede, between Windsor and Staines, the 15th day of June, in the 17th year of our reign.
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The translation here given is that published in Sheldon Amos’s work on _The English Constitution_. The translation given by Sir E. Creasy was chiefly followed in this, but it was collated with another accurate translation by Mr. Richard Thompson, accompanying his _Historical Essay on Magna Charta_, published in 1829, and also with the Latin text. “The explanation of the whole Charter,” observes Mr. Amos, must be sought chiefly in detailed accounts of the Feudal system in England, as explained in such works as those of Stubbs, Hallam, and Blackstone. The scattered notes here introduced have only for their purpose to elucidate the most unusual and perplexing expressions. The Charter printed in the Statute Book is that issued in the ninth year of Henry III., which is also the one specially confirmed by the Charter of Edward I. The Charter of Henry III. differs in some (generally) insignificant points from that of John. The most important difference is the omission in the later Charter of the 14th and 15th Articles of John’s Charter, by which the King is restricted from levying aids beyond the three ordinary ones, without the assent of the ‘Common Council of the Kingdom.’ and provision is made for summoning it. This passage is restored by Edward I. Magna Charter has been solemnly confirmed upwards of thirty times. See the chapter on the Great Charter, in Green’s _History of the English People_. See also Stubbs’s _Documents Illustrative of English History_. “The whole of the constitutional history of England,” says Stubbs, “is a commentary on this Charter, the illustration of which must be looked for in the documents that precede and follow.”
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“CONFIRMATIO CHARTARUM” OF EDWARD I.
1297.
I. Edward, by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, and Duke Guyan, to all those that these present letters shall hear or see, greeting. Know ye that we, to the honour of God and of holy Church, and to the profit of our realm, have granted for us and our heirs, that the Charter of Liberties and the Charter of the Forest, which were made by common assent of all the realm in the time of King Henry our father, shall be kept in every point without breach. And we will that the same Charters shall be sent under our seal as well to our justices of the forest as to others, and to all sheriffs of shires, and to all our other officers, and to all our cities throughout the realm, together with our writs in the which it shall be contained that they cause the foresaid Charters to be published, and to declare to the people that we have confirmed them in all points; and that our justices, sheriffs, mayors, and other ministers, which under us have the laws of our land to guide, shall allow the said Charters pleaded before them in judgment in all their points; that is to wit, the Great Charter as the common law, and the Charter of the Forest according to the assize of the Forest, for the wealth of our realm.
II. And we will that if any judgment be given from henceforth, contrary to the points of the Charters aforesaid, by the justices or by any other our ministers that hold plea before them against the points of the Charters, it shall be undone and holden for naught.
III. And we will that the same Charters shall be sent under our seal to cathedral churches throughout our realm, there to remain, and shall be read before the people two times by the year. IV. And that all archbishops and bishops shall pronounce the sentence of great excommunication against all those that by word, deed, or counsel do contrary to the foresaid Charters, or that in any point break or undo them. And that the said curses be twice a year denounced and published by the prelates aforesaid. And if the prelates or any of them be remiss in the denunciation of the said sentences, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York for the time being, as is fitting, shall compel and distrain them to make that denunciation in form aforesaid.
V. And for so much as divers people of our realm are in fear that the aids and tasks which they have given to us beforetime towards our wars and other business, of their own grant and goodwill, howsoever they were made, might turn to a bondage to them and their heirs, because they might be at another time found in the rolls, and so likewise the prises taken throughout the realm by our ministers; we have granted for us and our heirs, that we shall not draw such aids, tasks, nor prises into a custom, for anything that hath been done heretofore, or that may be found by roll or in any other manner.
VI. Moreover we have granted for us and our heirs, as well to archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and other folk of holy Church, as also to earls, barons, and to all the commonalty of the land, that for no business from henceforth will we take such manner of aids, tasks, nor prises but by the common consent of the realm, and for the common profit thereof, saving the ancient aids and prises due and accustomed.
VII. And for so much as the more part of the commonalty of the realm find themselves sore grieved with the matelote of wools, that is to wit, a toll of forty shillings for every sack of wool, and have made petition to us to release the same; we, at their requests, have clearly released it, and have granted for us and our heirs that we shall not take such thing nor any other without their common assent and goodwill; saving to us and our heirs the custom of wools, skins, and leather, granted before by the commonalty aforesaid. In witness of which things we have caused these our letters to be made patents. Witness Edward our son, at London, the 10th day of October, the five-and-twentieth of our reign.
And be it remembered that this same Charter, in the same terms, word for word, was sealed in Flanders under the King’s Great Seal, that is to say, at Ghent, the 5th day of November, in the 52th year of the reign of our aforesaid Lord the King, and sent into England.
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The words of this important document, from Professor Stubbs’s translation, are given as the best explanation of the constitutional position and importance of the Charters of John and Henry III. See historical notice in Stubbs’s _Documents Illustrative of English History_, p. 477. This is far the most important of the numerous ratifications of the Great Charter. Hallam calls it “that famous statute, inadequately denominated the Confirmation of the Charters, because it added another pillar to our constitution, not less important than the Great Charter itself.” It solemnly confirmed the two Charters, the Charter of the Forest (issued by Henry II. in 1217–see text in Stubbs, p. 338) being then considered as of equal importance with Magna Charta itself, establishing them in all points as the law of the land; but it did more. “Hitherto the king’s prerogative of levying money by name of _tallage_ or _prise_, from his towns and tenants in demesne, had passed unquestioned. Some impositions, that especially on the export of wool, affected all the king’s subjects. It was now the moment to enfranchise the people and give that security to private property which Magna Charta had given to personal liberty.” Edward’s statute binds the king never to take any of these “aids, tasks, and prises” in future, save by the common assent of the realm. Hence, as Bowen remarks, the Confirmation of the Charters, or an abstract of it under the form of a supposed statute _de tallagio non concedendo_ (see Stubbs, p. 487), was more frequently cited than any other enactment by the parliamentary leaders who resisted the encroachments of Charles I. The original of the _Confirmatio Chartarum_, which is in Norman French, is still in existence, though considerably shriveled by the fire which damaged so many of the Cottonian manuscripts in 1731.
THE GRANT OF THE GREAT CHARTER.
An island in the Thames between Staines and Windsor had been chosen as the place of conference: the King encamped on one bank, while the barons–covered the marshy flat, still known by the name of Runnymede, on the other. Their delegates met in the island between them, but the negotiations were a mere cloak to cover John’s purpose of unconditional submission. The Great Charter was discussed, agreed to, and signed in a single day. One copy of it still remains in the British Museum, injured by age and fire, but with the royal seal still hanging from the brown, shrivelled parchment. It is impossible to gaze without reverence on the earliest monument of English freedom which we can see with our own eyes and touch with our own hands, the great Charter to which from age to age patriots have looked back as the basis of English liberty. But in itself the Charter was no novelty, nor did it claim to establish any new constitutional principles. The Charter of Henry the First formed the basis of the whole, and the additions to it are for the most part formal recognitions of the judicial and administrative changes introduced by Henry the Second. But the vague expressions of the older charters were now exchanged for precise and elaborate provisions. The bonds of unwritten custom which the older grants did little more than recognize had proved too weak to hold the Angevins; and the baronage now threw them aside for the restraints of written law. It is in this way that the Great Charter marks the transition from the age of traditional rights, preserved in the nation’s memory and officially declared by the Primate, to the age of written legislation, of Parliaments and Statutes, which was soon to come. The Church had shown its power of self-defence in the struggle over the interdict, and the clause which recognized its rights alone retained the older and general form. But all vagueness ceases when the Charter passes on to deal with the rights of Englishmen at large, their right to justice, to _security of person and property, to good government_. ‘No freeman,’ ran the memorable article that lies at the base of our whole judicial system, ‘shall be seized or imprisoned, or dispossessed, or outlawed, or in any way brought to ruin; we will not go against any man nor send against him, save by legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.’ ‘To no man will we sell,’ runs another, ‘or deny, or delay, right or justice.’ The great reforms of the past reigns were now formally recognized; judges of assize were to hold their circuits four times in the year, and the Court of Common Pleas was no longer to follow the King in his wanderings over the realm, but to sit in a fixed place. But the denial of justice under John was a small danger compared with the lawless exactions both of himself and his predecessor. Richard had increased the amount of the scutage which Henry II. had introduced, and applied it to raise funds for his ransom. He had restored the Danegeld, or land tax, so often abolished, under the new name of ‘carucage,’ had seized the wool of the Cistercians and the plate of the churches, and rated movables as well as land. John had again raised the rate of scutage, and imposed aids, fines, and ransoms at his pleasure without counsel of the baronage. The Great Charter met this abuse by the provision on which our constitutional system rests. With the exception of the three customary feudal aids which still remained to the crown, ‘no scutage or aid shall be imposed in our realm save by the Common Council of the realm;’ and to this Great Council it was provided that prelates and the greater barons should be summoned by special writ, and all tenants in chief through the sheriffs and bailiffs, at least forty days before. But it was less easy to provide means for the control of a King whom no man could trust, and a council of twenty-four barons was chosen from the general body of their order to enforce on John the observance of the Charter, with the right of declaring war on the King should its provisions be infringed. Finally, the Charter was published throughout the whole country, and sworn to at every hundred-mote and town-mote by order from the King.–_Green’s Short History of the English People_, p. 123.
* * * * *
APPENDIX D.
A PART OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS.
AN ACT FOR DECLARING THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF THE SUBJECT, AND SETTLING THE SUCCESSION OF THE CROWN. 1689.
Whereas the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminster, lawfully, fully, and freely representing all the estates of the people of this realm, did upon the thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred eighty-eight [o.s.],[44] present unto their Majesties, then called and known by the names and style of William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, being present in their proper persons, a certain Declaration in writing, made by the said Lords and Commons, in the words following, viz.:
[Footnote 44: In New Style Feb. 23, 1689.]
Whereas the late King James II., by the assistance of divers evil counsellors, judges, and ministers employed by him, did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and the laws and liberties of this kingdom:
1. By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without consent of Parliament.
2. By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power.
3. By issuing and causing to be executed a commission under the Great Seal for erecting a court, called the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes.
4. By levying money for and to the use of the Crown by pretence of prerogative, for other time and in other manner than the same was granted by Parliament.
5. By raising and keeping a
standing army within this kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament, and quartering soldiers contrary to law.
6. By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to be disarmed, at the same time when Papists were both armed and employed contrary to law.
7. By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in Parliament.
8. By prosecutions in the Court of King’s Bench for matters and causes cognizable only in Parliament, and by divers other arbitrary and illegal causes.
9. And whereas of late years, partial, corrupt, and unqualified persons have been returned, and served on juries in trials, and particularly divers jurors in trials for high treason, which were not freeholders.
10. And excessive bail hath been required of persons committed in criminal cases, to elude the benefit of the laws made for the liberty of the subjects.
11. And excessive fines have been imposed; and illegal and cruel punishments inflicted.
12. And several grants and promises made of fines and forfeitures before any conviction or judgment against the persons upon whom the same were to be levied.
All which are utterly and directly contrary to the known laws and statutes, and freedom of this realm.
And whereas the said late King James II. having abdicated the government, and the throne being thereby vacant, his Highness the Prince of Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power) did (by the advice of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and divers principal persons of the Commons) cause letters to be written to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, being Protestants, and other letters to the several counties, cities, universities, boroughs, and cinque ports, for the choosing of such persons to represent them as were of right to be sent to Parliament, to meet and sit at Westminster upon the two-and-twentieth day of January, in this year one thousand six hundred eighty and eight,[45] in order to such an establishment, as that their religion, laws, and liberties might not again be in danger of being subverted; upon which letters elections have been accordingly made.
[Footnote 45: In New Style Feb. 1, 1689.]
And thereupon the said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, pursuant to their respective letters and elections, being now assembled in a full and free representation of this nation, taking into their most serious consideration the best means for attaining the ends aforesaid, do in the first place (as their ancestors in like case have usually done) for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties, declare:
1. That the pretended power of suspending of laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority, without consent of Parliament, is illegal.
2. That the pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal.
3. That the commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious.
4. _That levying money for or to the use of the Crown by pretence and prerogative, without grant of Parliament, for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal._[46]
5. _That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal._[47]
6. _That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law._[48]
7. _That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law._[49]
8. That election of members of Parliament ought to be free.
9. _That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parliament._[50]
10. _That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed; nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted._[51]
11. _That jurors ought to be duly impanelled and returned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be freeholders._[52]
[Footnote 46: Compare this clause 4 with clauses 12 and 14 of Magna Charta, and with Art. I. Section vii. clause 1 of the Constitution of the United States.]
[Footnote 47: Compare clause 5 with Amendment I.]
[Footnote 48: Compare clause 6 with Amendment III.]
[Footnote 49: Compare clause 7 with Amendment II.]
[Footnote 50: Compare clause 9 with Constitution, Art. I. Section vi. clause 1.]
[Footnote 51: Compare clause 10 with Amendment VIII.]
[Footnote 52: Compare clause 11 with Amendments VI. and VII.]
12. That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void.
13. And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, Parliament ought to be held frequently.
And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties; and that no declarations, judgments, doings or proceedings, to the prejudice of the people in any of the said premises, ought in any wise to be drawn hereafter into consequence or example.
To which demand of their rights they are particularly encouraged by the declaration of his Highness the Prince of Orange, as being the only means for obtaining a full redress and remedy therein.
Having therefore an entire confidence that his said Highness the Prince of Orange will perfect the deliverance so far advanced by him, and will still preserve them from the violation of their rights, which they have here asserted, and from all other attempts upon their religion, rights, and liberties:
II. The said Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminster, do resolve, that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, be, and be declared, King and Queen of England, France, and Ireland, and the dominions thereunto belonging, to hold the crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions to them the said Prince and Princess during their lives, and the life of the survivor of them; and that the sole and full exercise of the regal power be only in, and executed by, the said Prince of Orange, in the names of the said Prince and Princess, during their joint lives; and after their deceases, the said crown and royal dignity of the said kingdoms and dominions to be to the heirs of the body of the said Princess; and for default of such issue to the Princess Anne of Denmark, and the heirs of her body; and for default of such issue to the heirs of the body of the said Prince of Orange. And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, do pray the said Prince and Princess to accept the same accordingly.
The act goes on to declare that, their Majesties having accepted the crown upon these terms, the rights and liberties asserted and claimed in the said declaration are the true, ancient, and indubitable rights and liberties of the people of this kingdom, and so shall be esteemed, allowed, adjudged, deemed, and taken to be, and that all and every the particulars aforesaid shall be firmly and strictly holden and observed, as they are expressed in the said declaration; and all officers and ministers whatsoever shall serve their Majesties and their successors according to the same in all times to come.
The act then declares that William and Mary are and of right ought to be King and Queen of England, etc.; and it goes on to regulate the succession after their deaths.
The passing of the Bill of Rights in 1689 restored to the monarchy the character which it had lost under the Tudors and the Stuarts. The right of the people through its representatives to depose the King, to change the order of succession, and to set on the throne whom they would, was now established. All claim of divine right, or hereditary right independent of the law, was formally put an end to by the election of William and Mary. Since their day no English sovereign has been able to advance any claim to the crown save a claim which rested on a particular clause in a particular Act of Parliament. William, Mary, and Anne were sovereigns simply by virtue of the Bill of Rights. George the First and his successors have been sovereigns solely by virtue of the Act of Settlement. An English monarch is now as much the creature of an Act of Parliament as the pettiest tax-gatherer in his realm.–_Green’s Short History_, p. 673.
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APPENDIX E.
THE FUNDAMENTAL ORDERS OF CONNECTICUT.
1638(9).
_The first written constitution that created a government._
Forasmuch as it hath pleased the Allmighty God by the wise disposition of his diuyne pruidence so to Order and dispose of things that we the Inhabitants and Residents of Windsor, Harteford and Wethersfield are now cohabiting and dwelling in and vppon the River of Conectecotte and the Lands thereunto adioyneing; And well knowing where a people are gathered togather the word of God requires that to mayntayne the peace and vnion of such a people there should be an orderly and decent Gouerment established according to God, to order and dispose of the affayres of the people at all seasons as occation shall require; doe therefore assotiate and conioyne our selues to be as one Publike State or Comonwelth; and doe, for our selues and our Successors and such as shall be adioyned to vs att any tyme hereafter, enter into Combination and Confederation togather, to mayntayne and p’rsearue the liberty and purity of the gospell of our Lord Jesus w’ch we now p’rfesse, as also the disciplyne of the Churches, w’ch according to the truth of the said gospell is now practised amongst vs; As also in o’r Ciuell Affaires to be guided and gouerned according to such Lawes, Rules, Orders and decrees as shall be made, ordered & decreed, as followeth:–
1. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that there shall be yerely two generall Assemblies or Courts, the one the second thursday in Aprill, the other the second thursday in September, following; the first shall be called the Courte of Election, wherein shall be yerely Chosen from tyme to tyme soe many Magestrats and other publike Officers as shall be found requisitte: Whereof one to be chosen Gouernour for the yeare ensueing and vntill another be chosen, and noe other Magestrate to be chosen for more than one yeare; p’ruided allwayes there be sixe chosen besids the Gouernour; w’ch being chosen and sworne according to an Oath recorded for that purpose shall haue power to administer iustice according to the Lawes here established, and for want thereof according to the rule of the word of God; w’ch choise shall be made by all that are admitted freemen and haue taken the Oath of Fidellity, and doe cohabitte w’thin this Jurisdiction, (hauing beene admitted Inhabitants by the maior p’rt of the Towne wherein they liue,) or the mayor p’rte of such as shall be then p’rsent.
2. It is Ordered, sentensed and decreed, that the Election of the aforesaid Magestrats shall be on this manner: euery p’rson p’rsent and quallified for choyse shall bring in (to the p’rsons deputed to receaue them) one single pap’r w’th the name of him written in yet whom he desires to haue Gouernour, and he that hath the greatest number of papers shall be Gouernor for that yeare. And the rest of the Magestrats or publike Officers to be chosen in this manner: The Secretary for the tyme being shall first read the names of all that are to be put to choise and then shall seuerally nominate them distinctly, and euery one that would hane the p’rson nominated to be chosen shall bring in one single paper written vppon, and he that would not haue him chosen shall bring in a blanke: and euery one that hath more written papers then blanks shall be a Magistrat for that yeare; w’ch papers shall be receaued and told by one or more that shall be then chosen by the court and sworne to be faythfull therein; but in case there should not be sixe chosen as aforesaid, besids the Gouernor, out of those w’ch are nominated, then he or they w’ch haue the most written pap’rs shall be a Magestrate or Magestrats for the ensueing yeare, to make vp the foresaid number.
3. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Secretary shall not nominate any p’rson, nor shall any p’rson be chosen newly into the Magestracy w’ch was not p’rpownded in some Generall Courte before, to be nominated the next Election; and to that end yt shall be lawfull for ech of the Townes aforesaid by their deputyes to nominate any two whom they conceaue fitte to be put to election; and the Courte may ad so many more as they iudge requisitt.
4. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that noe p’rson be chosen
Gouernor aboue once in two yeares, and that the Gouernor be always a member of some approved congregation, and formerly of the Magestracy w’th this Jurisdiction; and all the Magestrats Freemen of this Comonwelth: and that no Magestrate or other publike officer shall execute any p’rte of his or their Office before they are seuerally sworne, w’ch shall be done in the face of the Courte if they be p’rsent, and in case of absence by some deputed for that purpose.
5. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that to the aforesaid Conrte of Election the seu’rall Townes shall send their deputyes, and when the Elections are ended they may p’rceed in any publike searuice as at other Courts. Also the other Generall Courte in September shall be for makeing of lawes, and any other publike occation, w’ch conserns the good of the Comonwelth.
6. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that the Gou’rnor shall, ether by himselfe or by the secretary, send out sumons to the Constables of eu’r Towne for the cauleing of these two standing Courts, on month at lest before their seu’rall tymes: And also if the Gou’rnor and the gretest p’rte of the Magestrats see cause vppon any spetiall occation to call a generall Courte, they may giue order to the secretary soe to doe w’thin fowerteene dayes warneing; and if vrgent necessity so require, vppon a shorter notice, giueing sufficient grownds for yt to the deputyes when they meete, or els be questioned for the same; And if the Gou’rnor and Mayor p’rte of Magestrats shall ether neglect or refuse to call the two Generall standing Courts or ether of them, as also at other tymes when the occations of the Comonwelth require, the Freemen thereof, or the Mayor p’rte of them, shall petition to them soe to doe: if then yt be ether denyed or neglected the said Freemen or the Mayor p’rte of them shall haue power to giue order to the Constables of the seuerall Townes to doe the same, and so may meete togather, and ehuse to themselues a Moderator, and may p’rceed to do any Acte of power, w’ch any other Generall Courte may.
7. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed that after there are warrants giuen out for any of the said Generall Courts, the Constable or Constables of ech Towne shall forthw’th give notice distinctly to the inhabitants of the same, in some Publike Assembly or by goeing or sending from howse to howse, that at a place and tyme by him or them lymited and sett, they meet and assemble the: selues togather to elect and chuse certen deputyes to be att the Generall Courte then following to agitate the afayres of the comonwelth; w’ch said Deputyes shall be chosen by all that are admitted Inhabitants in the seu’rall Townes and haue taken the oath of fidellity; p’ruided that non be chosen a Deputy for any Generall Courte w’ch is not a Freeman of this Comonwelth.
The foresaid deputyes shall be chosen in manner following: euery p’rson that is p’rsent and quallified as before exp’rssed, shall bring the names of such, written in seu’rrall papers, as they desire to haue chosen for that Imployment. and these 3 or 4, more or lesse, being the number agreed on to be chosen for that tyme, that haue greatest number of papers written for the: shall be deputyes for that Courte; whose names shall be endorsed on the backe side of the warrant and returned into the Courte, w’th the Constable or Constables hand vnto the same.
8. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that Wyndsor, Hartford and Wethersfield shall haue power, ech Towne, to send fower of their freemen as deputyes to euery Generall Courte; and whatsoeuer other Townes shall be hereafter added to this Jurisdiction, they shall send so many deputyes as the Courte shall judge meete, a resonable p’rportion to the number of Freemen that are in the said Townes being to be attended therein; w’ch deputyes shall have the power of the whole Towne to giue their voats and alowance to all such lawes and orders as may be for the publike good, and unto w’ch the said Townes are to be bownd.
9. It is ordered and decreed, that the deputyes thus chosen shall haue power and liberty to appoynt a tyme and a place of meeting togather before any Generall Courte to aduise and consult of all such things as may concerne the good of the publike, as also to examine their owne Elections, whether according to the order, and if they or the gretest p’rte of them find any election to be illegall they may seclud such for p’rsent from their meeting, and returne the same and their resons to the Courte; and if yt proue true, the Courte may fyne the p’rty or p’rtyes so intruding and the Towne, if they see cause, and giue out a warrant to goe to a newe election in a legall way, either in p’rte or in whole. Also the said deputyes shall haue power to fyne any that shall be disorderly at their meetings, or for not coming in due tyme or place according to appoyntment; and they may returne the said fynes into the Courte if yt be refused to be paid, and the tresurer to take notice of yt, and to estreete or levy the same as he doth other fynes.
10. It is Ordered, sentenced and decreed, that euery Generall Courte, except such as through neglecte of the Gou’rnor and the greatest p’rte of Magestrats the Freemen themselves doe call, shall consist of the Gouernor, or some one chosen to moderate the Court, and 4 other Magestrats at lest, w’th the mayor p’rte of the deputyes of the geuerall Townes legally chosen; and in case the Freemen or mayor p’rte of them, through neglect or refusall of the Gouernor and mayor p’rte of the magestrats, shall call a Courte, y’t shall consist of the mayor p’rte of Freemen that are p’rsent or their deputyes, w’th a Moderator chosen by the: In w’ch said Generall Courts shall consist the supreme power of the Comonwelth, and they only shall haue power to make laws or repeale the:, to graunt leuyes, to admitt of Freemen, dispose of lands vndisposed of, to seuerall Townes or p’rsons, and also shall haue power to call ether Courte or Magestrate or any other p’rson whatsoeuer into question for any misdemeanour, and may for just causes displace or deale otherwise according to the nature of the offence; and also may deale in any other matter that concerns the good of this comonwelth, excepte election of Magestrats, w’ch shall be done by the whole boddy of Freemen.
In w’ch Courte the Gouernour or Moderator shall haue power to order the Courte to giue liberty of spech, and silence vnceasonable and disorderly speakeings, to put all things to voate, and in case the vote be equall to haue the casting voice. But non of these Courts shall be adiorned or dissolued w’thout the consent of the maior p’rte of the Court.
11. It is ordered, sentenced and decreed, that when any Generall Courte vppon the occations of the Comonwelth haue agreed vppon any sume or somes of mony to be leuyed vppon the seuerall Townes w’thin this Jurisdiction, that a Comittee be chosen to sett out and appoynt w’t shall be the p’rportion of euery Towne to pay of the said letiy, p’rvided the Comittees be made up of an equall number out of each Towne.
14’th January, 1638, the 11 Orders abouesaid are voted.
THE OATH OF THE GOU’RNOR, FOR THE [P’RSENT].
I —- being now chosen to be Gou’rnor wthin this Jurisdiction, for the yeare ensueing, and vntil a new be chosen, doe sweare by the greate and dreadfull name of the everliueing God, to p’rmote the publicke good and peace of the same, according to the best of my skill; as also will mayntayne all lawfull priuiledges of this Comonwealth; as also that all wholesome lawes that are or shall be made by lawfull authority here established, be duly executed; and will further the execution of Justice according to the rule of Gods word; so helpe me God, in the name of the Lo: Jesus Christ.
THE OATH OF A MAGESTRATE, FOR THE P’RSENT.
I, —- being chosen a Magestrate w’thin this Jurisdiction for the yeare ensueing, doe sweare by the great and dreadfull name of the euerliueing God, to p’rmote the publike good and peace of the same, according to the best of my skill, and that I will mayntayne all the lawfull priuiledges thereof according to my vnderstanding, as also assist in the execution of all such wholsome lawes as are made or shall be made by lawfull authority heare established, and will further the execution of Justice for the tyme aforesaid according to the righteous rule of Gods word; so helpe me God, etc.
[Until 1752, the legal year in England began March 25 (Lady Day), not January 1. All the days between January 1 and March 25 of the year which we now call 1639 were therefore then a part of the year 1638; so that the date of the Constitution is given by its own terms as 1638, instead of 1639.]
APPENDIX F.
THE STATES CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO ORIGIN.
1. The thirteen original states.
2. States formed directly from other states. Vermont from territory disputed between New York and New Hampshire, Kentucky from Virginia, Maine from Massachusetts, West Virginia from Virginia.
3. States from the Northwest Territory (see p. 253). Ohio, Michigan,
Indiana, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Minnesota, in part.
4. States from other territory ceded by states. Tennessee, ceded by North Carolina,
Alabama, ceded by South Carolina and Georgia, Mississippi, ceded by South Carolina and Georgia.
5. States from the Louisiana purchase (see p. 253). Louisiana, North Dakota,
Arkansas, South Dakota, Missouri, Montana,
Kansas, Minnesota, in part, Nebraska, Wyoming, in part, Iowa, Colorado, in part.
6. States from Mexican cessions.
California, Wyoming, in part, Nevada, Colorado, in part.
7. States from territory defined by treaty with Great Britain (see p. 254).
Oregon, Washington, Idaho.
8. States from other sources.
Florida, from a Spanish cession, Texas, by annexation (see p. 254).
APPENDIX G.
TABLE OF STATES AND TERRITORIES.
(_Ratio of representation based on census of_ 1890–173,901.)
Popula- Popula- Rep tion to Area in tion, in Elect. Dates. No. Names. sq.m. sq. m. 1890. Cong vote 1892. 1892. Ratified the Constitution.
1787, Dec. 7 1 Delaware 82.1 2,050 168,493 1 3 Dec. 12 2 Pennsylvania 111.2 45,215 5,258,014 30 32 Dec. 18 3 New Jersey 179.7 7,815 1,444,933 8 10 1788, Jan. 2 4 Georgia 30.8 59,475 1,837,353 11 13 Jan. 9 5 Connecticut 149.5 4,990 746,258 4 6 Feb. 6 6 Massachusetts 269.2 8,315 2,238,943 13 15 April 28 7 Maryland 85.3 12,210 1,042,390 6 8 May 23 8 South Carolina 37.6 30,570 1,151,149 7 9 June 21 9 New Hampshire 40.4 9,305 376,530 2 4 June 25 10 Virginia 39. 42,450 1,655,980 10 12 July 26 11 New York 121.9 49,170 5,997,853 34 35 1789, Nov. 21 12 North Carolina 30.9 52,250 1,617,947 9 11 1790, May 29 13 Rhode Island 276.4 1,250 345,506 2 4
Admitted to the Union.
1791, March 4 14 Vermont 34.6 9,565 332,422 2 4 1792, June 1 15 Kentucky 46. 40,400 1,858,635 11 13 1796, June 1 16 Tennessee 42. 42,050 1,767,518 10 12 1803, Feb. 19 17 Ohio 89.4 41,060 3,672,316 21 23 1812, April 30 18 Louisiana 22.9 48,720 1,118,587 6 8 1816, Dec. 11 19 Indiana 60.3 36,350 2,192,404 13 15 1817, Dec. 10 20 Mississippi 42.7 46,810 1,289,600 7 9 1818, Dec. 3 21 Illinois 67.5 56,650 3,826,351 22 24 1819, Dec. 14 22 Alabama 28.9 52,250 1,513,017 9 11 1820, March 15 23 Maine 20. 33,040 661,086 4 6 1821, Aug. 10 24 Missouri 38.5 69,415 2,679,184 15 17 1836, June 15 25 Arkansas 20.9 53,850 1,128,179 6 8 1837, Jan. 25 26 Michigan 35.5 58,915 2,093,889 12 14 1845, March 3 27 Florida 6.6 58,680 391,422 2 4 1815, Dec. 29 28 Texas 8.4 265,780 2,235,523 13 15 1846, Dec. 28 29 Iowa 34.1 56,025 1,911,896 11 13 1848, May 29 30 Wisconsin 30. 56,040 1,686,880 10 12 1850, Sept. 9 31 California 7.6 158,360 1,208,130 7 9 1858, May 11 32 Minnesota 15.6 83,365 1,301,826 7 9 1859, Feb. 14 33 Oregon 3.2 96,030 313,767 2 4 1861, Jan. 29 34 Kansas 17.3 82,080 1,427,096 8 10 1863, June 19 35 West Virginia 30.7 24,780 762,794 4 6 1864, Oct. 31 36 Nevada 0.4 110,700 45,761 1 3 1867, March 1 37 Nebraska 13.6 77,510 1,058,910 6 8 1876, Aug. 1 38 Colorado 3.9 103,925 412,198 2 4 1889, Nov. 2 { 39 North Dakota } 2.5 70,795 182,719 1 3 { 40 South Dakota } 4.2 77,650 328,808 2 4 1889, Nov. 8 41 Montana 0.9 146,080 132,159 1 3 1889, Nov. 11 42 Washington 5. 69,180 349,390 2 4 1890, July 3 43 Idaho 0.9 84,800 84,385 1 3 1890, July 10 44 Wyoming 0.6 97,890 60,705 1 3
Organised.
1850, Sept. 9 Utah 2.4 84,970 207,905 1850, Sept. 9 New Mexico 1.2 122,580 153,593 1863, Feb. 24 Arizona 0.5 113,020 59,620 1868, July 27 Alaska 577,390 no census 1834, June 30 Indian Territory 31,400 no census 1889, April 22 Oklahoma 1.5 39,030 61,834 1791, Mar 3 Dist. of C. 3,291.1 70 230,392
1892, total House of Representatives 356 + Senate 88 = electoral votes, 444.
APPENDIX H.
POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, 1790-1890,
_Showing Percentages of Urban Population._
Date. | Pop. of U.S. | No. of | Pop. of Cities. | % of | | Cities | |of Urban Pop. ——————————————————————- 1790 | 3,929,214 | 6 | 131,472 | 3.33 1800 | 5,308,483 | 6 | 210,873 | 3.9 1810 | 7,239,881 | 11 | 356,920 | 4.9 1820 | 9,633,822 | 13 | 474,135 | 4.9 1830 | 12,866,020 | 26 | 864,509 | 6.7 1840 | 17,069,453 | 44 | 1,453,994 | 8.5 1850 | 23,191,876 | 85 | 2,897,586 | 12.5 1860 | 31,443,321 | 141 | 5,072,256 | 16.1 1870 | 38,558,371 | 226 | 8,071,875 | 20.9 1880 | 50,155,783 | 286 | 11,318,597 | 22.5 1890 | 62,622,250 | 443 | 18,235,670 | 29.1 ——————————————————————–
APPENDIX I.
AN EXAMINATION PAPER FOR CUSTOMS CLERKS.
Applicant’s No..
APPLICANT’S DECLARATION.
DIRECTIONS.–1. The number above is _your examination number_. Write it at the top of every sheet given you in this examination.
2. Fill promptly all the blanks in this sheet. Any omission may lead to the rejection of your papers.
3. Write all answers and exercises in ink.
4. Write your name on no other sheet but this.
Place this sheet in the envelope. Write your number on the envelope and seal the same.
DECLARATION.
I declare upon my honour as follows:
1. My true and full name is (if female, please say whether Mrs. or Miss)
2. Since my application was made I have been living at (give all the places)
3. My post-office address in full is
4. If examined within twelve months for the civil service–for any post-office, custom-house, or Department at Washington–state the time, place, and result.
5. If you have ever been in the civil service, state where and in what position, and when you left it and the reasons therefor.
6. Are you now under enlistment in the army or navy?
7. If you have been in the military or naval service of the United States, state which, and whether you were honourably discharged, when, and for what cause.
8. Since my application no change has occurred in my health or physical capacity except the following:
9. I was born at —-, on the —- day of —-, 188.
10. My present business or employment is
11. I swore to my application for this examination as near as I can remember at (town or city of) —-, on the —- day of —-, 188.
All the above statements are true, to the best of my knowledge and belief.
(_Signature in usual form_.)————
Dated at the city of —-, State of —-, this —- day of —-, 188_.
FIRST SUBJECT.
_Question 1._ One of the examiners will distinctly read (at a rate reasonable for copying) fifteen lines from the Civil-Service Law or Rules, and each applicant will copy the same below from the reading as it proceeds.
_Question 2._ Write below at length the names of fifteen States and fifteen cities of the Union.
_Question 3. Copy the following precisely_:
“And in my opinion, sir, this principle of claiming monopoly of office by the right of conquest, unless the public shall effectually rebuke and restrain it, will effectually change the character of our Government. It elevates party above country; it forgets the common weal in the pursuit of personal emolument; it tends to form, it does form, we see that it has formed, a political combination, united by no common principles or opinions among its members, either upon the powers of the Government or the true policy of the country, but held together simply as an association, under the charm of a popular head, seeking to maintain possession of the Government by a vigorous exercise of its patronage, and for this purpose agitating and alarming and distressing social life by the exercise of a tyrannical party proscription. Sir, if this course of things cannot be checked, good men will grow tired of the exercise of political privileges. They will see that such elections are but a mere selfish contest for office, and they will abandon the Government to the scramble of the bold, the daring, and the desperate.”–_Daniel Webster on Civil Service, in 1832_.
_Question 4._ Correct any errors in spelling which you find in the following sentences, writing your letters so plainly that no one of them can be mistaken:
Unquestionebly every federil offeser should be able to spell corectly the familier words of his own languege.
Lose her hankercheif and elivate her head immediatly or she will spedily loose her life by strangelation.
SECOND SUBJECT.
_Question 1._ Multiply 2341705 by 23870 and divide the product by 6789.
_Give operation in full._
_Question 2._ Divide two hundred and five thousand two hundred and five, and two hundred and five ten-thousandths, by one hundred thousand one hundred, and one hundredth.
_Question 3._ Multiply 10-2/3 by 7-1/8 and divide the product by 9-1/2, reducing the same to the simplest form.
_Give operation in full._
_Question 4._ The annual cost of the public schools of a city is $36,848. What school-tax must be assessed, the cost of collecting being 2 per cent., and 6 per cent of the assessed tax being uncollectible?
_Give operation in full._
_Question 5._ Add 7-3/4, 3/5 of 6-2/9, 8-11/12, 6-1/2 divided by 8-1/8, and reduce to lowest terms.
_Give operation in full._
_Question 6._ The Government sold 3000 old muskets at 22-1/2 per cent, of their cost. The purchaser becoming insolvent paid only 13 per cent. of the price he agreed to pay; that is, he paid $900. What did each musket cost the Government?
_Give operation in full._
_Question 7._ What will it cost to carpet a room 36 feet wide by 72 feet long with 3/4 width carpet at $2.12 per yard, including cost of carpet-lining at 11 cents a square yard and 12 cents a yard for making and laying the carpet?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 8. A owned 7/8 of a ship and sold 4/5 of his share to B, who sold 5/9 of what he bought to C, who sold 6/7 of what he bought to D. What part of the whole vessel did D buy?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 9. A man bought a cargo of wool and sold seven thousand and forty-five ten-thousandths of it. How much had he left?
_Give operation in full in decimal fractions_.
_Question_ 10. A merchant imported from Bremen 32 pieces of linen of 32 yards each, on which he paid for the duties, at 24 per cent, $122.38, and other charges to the amount of $40.96. What was the invoice value per yard, and the cost per yard after duties and charges were paid?
_Give operation, in full_.
THIRD SUBJECT.
_Question_ 1. On a mortgage for $3,125, dated July 5, 1880 (interest at 3-1/2 per cent), a payment of $840 was made April 23, 1881. What amount was due January 17, 1882?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 2. The Government sold an old vessel for $160,000, payable two fifths in eight months and the residue in seventeen months from the sale. What was the present cash value of the vessel, the current rate of interest on money being five per cent?
_Give operation in full_.
_Question_ 3. Write a promissory note to be given by J. Brown to J. Smith, for 60 days, without grace, for $500, at 5 per cent interest, and state what amount will be due at maturity of the note.
_Question_ 4. James X. Young, a contractor, had the following dealings with the Treasury Department: He furnished January 4, 1882, 14 tables at $16 each; June 6, 1882, 180 desks at $18.50 each; December 7, 1882, 150 chairs at $2 each, and July 18, 1883, 14 book-cases at $90 each. He was paid cash as follows: January 31, 1882, $224; June 30, $1,800; December 18, $300; and July 31, 1883, he was allowed on settlement $75 for cartage and charged $25 for breakages. State his account and show balance due.
FOURTH SUBJECT.
_Question_ 1. State the meaning of tense and of mood, and explain the difference between them in the English language or grammar.
_Question_ 2. Correct any errors you find in the following sentences:
The boy done it, and he is as restless here as he will be if he was with you.
He had did it and spoke of doing it before we come here.
_Question_ 3. Write a letter to Senator Jackson answering in full his letter of September 7 to the Secretary of the Treasury in which he asks: “How must my nephew proceed to obtain a clerkship in the Treasury Department, under the Civil-Service Law, and what are the requisite qualifications of a good clerk?”
FIFTH SUBJECT.
_Question_ 1. Write without abbreviation the names of fifteen seaports of the Union.
_Question_ 2. Name four of the principal tributaries of the Mississippi River.
_Question_ 3. Bound the State in which you live.
_Question_ 4. Which States are peninsular, and upon what waters are they situated?
_Question_ 5. Name six of the principal railroads in the United States.
_Question_ 6. Name seven of the leading agricultural products of the United States, and state in what section of the country each is most extensively cultivated.
APPENDIX J.
THE NEW YORK CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT OF 1890.
CHAP. 94.–AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE FIVE OF THE PENAL CODE RELATING TO CRIMES AGAINST THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
Approved by the Governor April 4, 1890. Passed, three fifths being present.
_The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:_
SECTION 1. Title five of the Penal Code, entitled “Of crimes against the elective franchise,” is hereby amended so as to read as follows:
Section 41. It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by himself or through any other person:
1. To pay, lend, or contribute, or offer or promise to pay, lend, or contribute any money or other valuable consideration, to or for any voter, or to or for any other person, to induce such voter to vote or refrain from voting at any election, or to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting at such election for any particular person or persons, or to induce such voter to come to the polls or remain away from the polls at such election, or on account of such voter having voted or refrained from voting or having voted or refrained from voting for any particular person, or having come to the poll or remained away from the polls at such election.
2. To give, offer, or promise any office, place, or employment, or to promise to procure or endeavour to procure any office, place, or employment to or for any voter, or to or for any other person, in order to induce such voter to vote or refrain from voting at any election, or to induce any voter to vote or refrain from voting at such election for any particular person or persons.
3. To make any gift, loan, promise, offer, procurement, or agreement, as aforesaid, to, for, or with any person in order to induce such person to procure or endeavour to procure the election of any person, or the vote of any voter at any election.
4. To procure or engage, promise or endeavour to procure, in consequence of any such gift, loan, offer, promise, procurement, or agreement, the election of any person or the vote of any voter at such election.
5. To advance or pay or cause to be paid any money or other valuable thing to or for the use of any other person with the intent that the same, or any part thereof, shall be used in bribery at any election, or to knowingly pay, or cause to be paid, any money or other valuable thing to any person in discharge or repayment of any money, wholly or in part, expended in bribery at any election.
Section 41_a_. It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by himself or through any other person:
1. To receive, agree, or contract for, before or during an election, any money, gift, loan, or other valuable consideration, office, place, or employment for himself or any other person, for voting or agreeing to vote, or for coming or agreeing to come to the polls, or for remaining, away or agreeing to remain away from the polls, or for refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting, or for voting or agreeing to vote or refraining or agreeing to refrain from voting for any particular person or persons at any election.
2. To receive any money or other valuable thing during or after an election on account of himself or any other person having voted or refrained from voting at such election, or on account of himself or any other person having voted or refrained from voting for any particular person at such election, or on account of himself or any other person having come to the polls or remained away from the polls at such election, or on account of having induced any other person to vote or refrain from voting or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or persons at such election.
41_b_. It shall be unlawful for any candidate for public office, before or during an election, to make any bet or wager with a voter, or take a share or interest in or in any manner become a party to any such bet or wager, or provide or agree to provide any money to be used by another in making such bet or wager, upon any event or contingency whatever. Nor shall it be lawful for any person, directly or indirectly, to make a bet or wager with a voter, depending upon the result of any election, with the intent thereby to procure the challenge of such voter, or to prevent him from voting at such election.
Section 41_c_. It shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly, by himself or any other person in his behalf, to make use of, or threaten to make use of, any force, violence, or restraint, or to inflict or threaten the infliction by himself, or through any other person, of any injury, damage, harm, or loss, or in any manner to practice intimidation upon or against any person, in order to induce or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting at any election, or to vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or persons at any election, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting at any election. And it shall be unlawful for any person by abduction, duress, or any forcible or fraudulent device or contrivance whatever to impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere with, the free exercise of the elective franchise by any voter; or to compel, induce, or prevail upon any voter either to give or refrain from giving his vote at any election, or to give or refrain from giving his vote for any particular person at any election. It shall not be lawful for any employer in paying his employees the salary or wages due them to inclose their pay in “pay envelopes” upon which there is written or printed any political mottoes, devices, or arguments containing threats, express or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of such employees. Nor shall it be lawful for any employer, within ninety days of general election to put up or otherwise exhibit in his factory, work-shop, or other establishment or place where his employees may be working, any hand-bill or placard containing any threat, notice, or information that in case any particular ticket or candidate shall be elected, work in his place or establishment will cease, in whole or in part, or his establishment be closed up, or the wages of his workmen be reduced, or other threats, express or implied, intended or calculated to influence the political opinions or actions of his employees. This section shall apply to corporations, as well as to individuals, and any person or corporation violating the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, and any corporation violating this section shall forfeit its charter.
Section 41_d_. Every candidate who is voted for at any public election held within this state shall, within ten days after such election, file as hereinafter provided an itemized statement, showing in detail all the moneys contributed or expended by him, directly or indirectly, by himself or through any other person, in aid of his election. Such statement shall give the names of the various persons who received such moneys, the specific nature of each item, and the purpose for which it was expended or contributed. There shall be attached to such statement an affidavit subscribed and sworn to by such candidate, setting forth in substance that the statement thus made is in all respects true, and that the same is a full and detailed statement of all moneys so contributed or expended by him, directly or indirectly, by himself or through any other person in aid of his election. Candidates for offices to be filled by the electors of the entire state, or any division or district thereof greater than a county, shall file their statements in the office of the secretary of state. The candidates for town, village, and city offices, excepting the city of New York, shall file their statements in the office of the town, village, or city clerk respectively, and in cities wherein there is no city clerk, with the clerk of the common council wherein the election occurs. Candidates for all other offices, including all offices in the city and county of New York, shall file their statements in the office of the clerk of the county wherein the election occurs.
Section 41_e_. A person offending against any provision of sections forty-one and forty-one-a of this act is a competent witness against another person so offending, and may be compelled to attend and testify upon any trial, hearing, proceeding, or investigation in the same manner as any other person. But the testimony so given shall not be used in any prosecution or proceeding, civil or criminal, against the person so testifying. A person so testifying shall not thereafter be liable to indictment, prosecution, or punishment for the offense with reference to which his testimony was given and may plead or prove the giving of testimony accordingly, in bar of such an indictment or prosecution.
Section 41_f_. Whosoever shall violate any provision of this title, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for not less than three months nor more than one year. The offenses described in section[53] forty-one and forty-one-a of this act are hereby declared to be infamous crimes. When a person is convicted of any offense mentioned in section forty-one of this act he shall in addition to the punishment above prescribed, forfeit any office to which he may have been elected at the election with reference to which such offense was committed; and when a person is convicted of any offense mentioned in section forty-one-a of this act he shall in addition to the punishment above prescribed be excluded from the right of suffrage for a period of five years after such conviction, and it shall be the duty of the county clerk of the county in which any such conviction shall be had, to transmit a certified copy of the record of conviction to the clerk of each county of the state, within ten days thereafter, which said certified copy shall be duly filed by the said county clerks in their respective offices. Any candidate for office who refuses or neglects to file a statement as prescribed in section forty-one-d of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour, punishable as above provided and shall also forfeit his office.
[Footnote 53: So in the original.]
Section 41_g_. Other crimes against the elective franchise are defined, and the punishment thereof prescribed by special statutes.
Section 2. Section forty-one of the Penal Code, as it existed prior to the passage of this act, is hereby repealed.
Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately. APPENDIX K.
FORM OF AUSTRALIAN BALLOT ADOPTED IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1889.
OFFICIAL BALLOT
FOR
PRECINCT, WARD,
OF (CITY OR TOWN),
NOVEMBER__, 18__.
[Fac-Simile of Signature of Secretary.] _Secretary of the Commonwealth_.
SAMPLE BALLOT,
With explanations and illustration.
Prepared by the Ballot Act League with the approval of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
* * * * *
Some representative districts elect one, some two, and a few three representatives to the General Court. Worcester County elects four commissioners of insolvency instead of three as in other counties.
No county commissioners or special commissioners will be voted for in the cities of Boston and Chelsea or the county of Nantucket.
* * * * *
Forms for nominating candidates can be had at the department of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
* * * * *
Carefully observe the official specimen ballots to be posted and published just before election day.
To vote for a Person, mark a Cross X
GOVERNOR Vote for ONE.
OLIVER AMES, of Easton Republican. WILLIAM H EARLE, of Worcester Prohibition. WILLIAM E. RUSSELL, of Cambridge Democratic.
LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR Vote for ONE. JOHN BASCOM, of Williamstown Prohibition. JOHN Q.A. BRACKETT, of Arlington Republican. JOHN W. CORCORAN, of Clinton Democratic.
SECRETARY Vote for ONE.
WILLIAM S. OSGOOD, of Boston Democratic. HENRY R. PEIRCE, of Abington Republican. HENRY C. SMITH, of Williamsburg Prohibition.
TREASURER Vote for ONE.
JOHN M. FISHER, of Attleborough Prohibition. GEORGE A. MARDEN, of Lowell Republican. HENRY O. THACHER, of Yarmouth Democratic.
AUDITOR Vote for ONE.
CHARLES R. LADD, of Springfield Republican. EDMUND A. STOWE, of Hudson Prohibition. WILLIAM A. WILLIAMS, of Worcester Democratic.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL Vote for ONE. ALLEN COFFIN, of Nantucket Prohibition. SAMUEL O. LAMB, of Greenfield Democratic. ANDREW J. WATERMAN, of Pittsfield Republican.
COUNCILLOR, Third District Vote for ONE. ROBERT O. FULLER, of Cambridge Republican. WILLIAM E. PLUMMER, of Newton Democratic. SYLVANUS C. SMALL, of Winchester Prohibition.
SENATOR, Third Middlesex District Vote for ONE. FREEMAN HUNT, of Cambridge Democratic. CHESTER W. KINGSLEY, of Cambridge /Republican. \Prohibition.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY, Northern District Vote for ONE. CHARLES S. LINCOLN, of Somerville Democratic. JOHN M. READ, of Lowell Prohibition. WILLIAM B. STEVENS, of Stoneham Republican.
————————————————————- in the Square at the right of the name.
————————————————————- ————————————————————- REPRESENTATIVES IN GENERAL COURT
First Middlesex District. Vote for TWO.
WILLIAM H. MARBLE, of Cambridge Prohibition. __ ISAAC McLEAN, of Cambridge Democratic. __ GEORGE A. PERKINS, of Cambridge Democratic. __ JOHN READ, of Cambridge Republican. __ CHESTER V. SANGER, of Cambridge Republican. __ WILLIAM A. START, of Cambridge Prohibition. __ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ————————————————————-
SHERIFF Vote for ONE.
HENRY G. CUSHING, of Lowell Republican. __ HENRY G. HARKINS, of Lowell Prohibition. __ WILLIAM H. SHERMAN, of Ayer Democratic. __ ____________________________________________________________ ————————————————————- COMMISSIONERS OF INSOLVENCY Vote for THREE.
JOHN W. ALLARD, of Framingham Democratic. __ GEORGE J. BURNS, of Ayer Republican. __ WILLIAM P. CUTTER, of Cambridge Prohibition. __ FREDERIC T. GREENHALGE, of Lowell Republican. __ JAMES HICKS, of Cambridge. Prohibition. __ JOHN C. KENNEDY, of Newton Republican. __ RICHARD J. McKELLEGET, of Cambridge Democratic. __ EDWARD D. McVEY, of Lowell Democratic. __ ELMER A. STEVENS, of Somerville Prohibition. __ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ————————————————————-
COUNTY COMMISSIONER Vote for ONE.
WILLIAM S. FROST, of Marlborough Republican. __ JOSEPH W. BARBER, of Sherborn Prohibition. __ JAMES SKINNER, of Woburn Democratic. __ ____________________________________________________________ ————————————————————-
SPECIAL COMMISSIONERS Vote for TWO.
HENRY BRADLEE, of Medford Democratic. __ LYMAN DYKE, of Stoneham Republican. __ JOHN J. DONOVAN, of Lowell Democratic. __ WILLIAM E. KNIGHT, of Shirley Prohibition. __ ORSON E. MALLORY, of Lowell Prohibition. __ EDWIN E. THOMPSON, of Woburn Republican. __ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ————————————————————-
[Illustration: SKETCH OF POLLING PLACE.]
SUGGESTIONS TO VOTERS.
Give your name and residence to the ballot clerk, who, on finding your name on the check list, will admit you within the rail and hand you a ballot.
Go alone to one of the voting shelves and there unfold your ballot.
Mark a cross X in the square at the right of the name of each person for whom you wish to vote. No other method of marking, such as erasing names, will answer.
Thus, if you wished to vote for John Bowles for Governor, you would mark your ballot in this way:–
GOVERNOR Vote for ONE
JOHN BOWLES, of Taunton Prohibition. X THOMAS E. MEANS, of Boston Democratic. ELIJAH SMITH, of Pittsfield Republican.
If you wish to vote for a person whose name is not on the ballot, write, or insert by a sticker, the name in the blank line at the end of the list of candidates for the office, and mark a cross X in the square at the right of it. Thus, if you wished to vote for George T. Morton, of Chelsea, for Governor, you would prepare your ballot in this way:–
GOVERNOR Vote for ONE
JOHN BOWLES, of Taunton Prohibition. THOMAS E. MEANS, of Boston Democratic. ELIJAH SMITH, of Pittsfield Republican. _George T. Morton, of Chelsea_ X
Notice, that for some offices you may vote for “two” or “three” candidates, as stated in the ballot at the right of the name of the office to be voted for, e.g.: “COMMISSIONERS OF INSOLVENCY. Vote for THREE.”
If you spoil a ballot, return it to the ballot clerk, who will give you another. You cannot have more than two extra ballots, or three in all. You cannot remain within the rail more than ten minutes, and in case all the shelves are in use and other voters waiting, you are allowed only five minutes at the voting shelf.
Before leaving the voting shelf, fold your ballot in the same way as it was folded when you received it, and keep it so folded until you place it in the ballot box.
Do not show any one how you have marked your ballot.
Go to the ballot box and give your name and residence to the officer in charge.
Put your folded ballot in the box with the certificate of the Secretary of the Commonwealth uppermost and in sight.
You are not allowed to carry away a ballot, whether spoiled or not.
A voter who declares to the presiding official (under oath, if required) that he was a voter before May 1, 1857, and cannot read, or that he is blind or physically unable to mark his ballot, can receive