fold myriads more), the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is supreme. There can scarcely be, at the present time, an educated Englishman, who has not, or who cannot, if he pleases, acquire a vote in the selection of Members of the Commons House of that Parliament. It is not too much to expect of him that he should qualify himself mentally for such a vote, by the possession of at least general knowledge as to the constitutional condition, not only of his own country in which he dwells, but also of her daughter-lands' (to use the Miltonic phrase), of the colonies and other transmarine British dominions, which the votes and resolutions of the House of Commons may influence so largely for weal or for woe. Another cause which ought to make a fair general knowledge of the political status of India and of the colonies widespread among our middle classes, is the increasing practical connection between the population of the home country and the populations of these distant possessions. How few families are there, which have not some member or connection residing in India, or in one of the colonies, and pursuing there some official, or mercantile, or other career. How few families are there, in which appointment, or employment, or speculation in one of those lands is not looked forward to as the means by which one of the rising generation is to get his living. Moreover, a residence in most of these countries by no means implies the same amount of exile and severance from a man's native land, as was the case formerly. Facilities of communication have increased, and are increasing so rapidly, that the Colonist and the Anglo-Indian may now enjoy frequent periods of temporary return to England, besides the hoped-for season of rest (which most cherish in expectation) when the pension shall have been earned, or the competence secured, when the chain of care shall be unwound, when the mind shall lay aside its load, and when the weary wanderer shall repose in his own household in his old home.1 There are certainly some colonies, in which the proportion of settlers, in the strict sense of the word, is becoming larger; that is, of colonists who regard their new abode as a permanent home, and who design it to be the home of their children and their children's children. But these are precisely the colonies, which have the most liberal representative institutions, and in which constitutional rights are most dearly valued. All causes concur in giving increased interest to the study of the political condition of their populations, and to the study of their political relations with the Imperial Government itself. No one can hope to understand these things, unless Oh quid solutis est beatius curis, Quum mens onus reponit; ac peregrino he has a fair general knowledge of the component parts of the Imperial Parliament, and of the powers and functions of these parts relatively to each other. In other words, before the student begins his scrutiny of Parliament in its Imperial character, he ought to understand it in its character of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He ought to be acquainted with the rise, the progress, and the main principles of the English Constitution, and also of the British Constitution. By which last phrase (though not strictly accurate) is generally understood the Constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the unions of England with Scotland and with Ireland respectively. I have in another work (of which this is, in some respect, a supplement) treated of the Rise and Progress of the English Constitution. The successive unions of England with Scotland (1707), and of the United Kingdom of England and Scotland with Ireland (1799), made that Constitution the British Constitution, as now it is commonly called, meaning the Constitution of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and the Parliament of this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is the Imperial Parliament. The principles of the British Constitution are substantially the same that grew up in England as the principles of the English Constitution. But the com position, as well as the numbers of both our Houses of Parliament, has been affected by the unions; and there are still some distinctions as to political and legal institutions and rights between the respective kingdoms making up the United Kingdom. In order to give a full and clear understanding of the British Constitution and of the Imperial Parliament, it will be useful to begin with a recapitulation of the leading principles of the English Constitution. Next it will be serviceable to sketch the Constitutions of Scotland and Ireland before their respective unions. with England, and to observe the main provisions of the compact, by which each union was regulated. We must see to what matters the union extended, and what matters were left unaffected by it. We shall have to consider, also, how far the introduction of the Scottish element influenced the character of the old English Constitution, and how far the introduction of the Irish element influenced the character of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Great Britain. We must finally advert to the important constitutional changes that have been effected during the present century by the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867-68, and other enactments. We shall then be in a position to comprehend and remember the Imperial Constitution of the United Kingdom itself. We can afterwards proceed to the more enlarged view of this Constitution, as it affects those parts of the Empire which lie beyond the territorial limits of the United Kingdom. In this last part of our work we must necessarily take a general view of the circumstances, under which these transmarine dominions have been acquired: and it will be useful to add a brief notice of the form of local government now actually existing in each of these dependencies of the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. To do all this in detail would require the writing of many volumes; but it may be possible in a few chapters to prepare a sound and plain first platform of information on the subject, to which each student may from other stores superadd for himself a more copious and elaborate treasure-house of knowledge. |