436

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

dup. constitution which had been violated by the dethroned King~ i683. should be solemnly asserted, and, secondly, that many newlaws should be enacted, for the purpose of curbing the pre-rogative and purifying the administration of justice. Most ofthe suggestions of the committee were excellent; but it wasutterly impossible that the Houses could, in a month, or evenin a year, deal properly with matters so numerous, so various,and so important. It was proposed, among other things, thatthe militia should be remodelled, that the power which thesovereign possessed of proroguing and dissolving Parliamentsshould be restricted; that the duration of Parliaments shouldbe limited; that the royal pardon should no longer be plead-able to a parliamentary impeachment; that toleration shouldbe granted to Protestant Dissenters; that the crime of hightreason should be more precisely defined; that trials for hightreason should be conducted in a manner more favourable toinnocence; that the Judges should hold their places for life;that the mode of appointing Sheriffs should be altered; thatjuries should be nominated in such a way as might excludepartiality and corruption; that the practice of filing criminalinformations in the King’s Bench should be abolished; thatthe Court of Chancery should be reformed; that the fees ofpublic functionaries should be regulated; and that the law ofQuo Warranto should be amended. It was evident thatcautious and deliberate legislation on these subjects must bethe work of more than one laborious session; and it wasequally evident that hasty and crude legislation on subjectsso grave could not but produce new grievances, worse thanthose which it might remove. If the committee meant to givea list of the reforms which ought to be accomplished beforethe throne was filled, the list was absurdly long. If, on theother hand, the committee meant to give a list of all the re-forms which the legislature would do well to make in properseason, the list was strangely imperfect. Indeed, as soon asthe report had been read, member after member rose tosuggest some addition. It was moved and carried that theselling of offices should be prohibited, that the Habeas CorpusAct should bo made more efficient, and that the law of Man-