The Constitution of England: Or, An Account of the English Government: in which it is Compared Both with the Republican Form of Government and the Other Monarchies in Europe

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H. G. Bohn, 1853 - 376 pages

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Page 202 - Sense taken for a malicious Defamation, expressed either in Printing or Writing, and tending either to blacken the Memory of one who is dead, or the Reputation of one who is alive, and to expose him to public Hatred, Contempt or Ridicule.
Page 76 - Will you to the utmost of your " power maintain the laws of God, the true profession of the " gospel, and the protestant reformed religion established " by the law ? And will you preserve unto the bishops and " clergy of this realm, and to the churches committed to " their charge, all such rights and privileges as by law do " or shall appertain unto them, or any of them ? — King " or queen. All this I promise to do.
Page 353 - 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.
Page 350 - The power and jurisdiction of parliament, says Sir Edward Coke, is so transcendent and absolute that it cannot be confined. either for causes or persons, within any bounds.
Page 75 - Will you solemnly promise and swear to govern the people of this kingdom of England, and the dominions thereto belonging, according to the statutes in parliament agreed on, and the laws and customs of the same? — The king or queen shall say, I solemnly promise so to do.
Page 354 - The liberty of the press is indeed essential to the nature of a free state ; but this consists in laying no previous restraints upon publications, and not in freedom from censure for criminal matter, when published. Every freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public ; to forbid this is to destroy the freedom of the press ; but if he publishes what is improper, mischievous, or illegal, he must take the consequence of his own temerity.
Page 5 - Strickland's (Agnes) Lives of the Queens of England, from the Norman Conquest. From official records and authentic documents, private and public.
Page 76 - The things which I have here before promised " I will perform and keep : so help me God : and then shall
Page 352 - Fortescue, in the name of his brethren, declared, " that they ought not to make answer to that question ; for it hath not been used aforetime that the justices should in anywise determine the privileges of the high court of parliament. For it is so high and mighty in its nature, that it may make law : and that which is law it may make no law : and the determination and knowledge of that privilege belongs to the lords of parliament, and not to the justices.
Page 354 - ... is necessary for the preservation of peace and good order, of government and religion, the only solid foundations of civil liberty. Thus the will of individuals is still left free ; the abuse only of that free will is the object of legal punishment. Neither is any restraint hereby laid upon freedom of thought or inquiry ; liberty of private sentiment is still left ; the disseminating, or making public, of bad sentiments, destructive of the ends of society, is the crime which society corrects.

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