14. ANTICIPATIONS UNDER THE COMMON- WEALTH OF CHANGES IN THE LAW* By R. Robinson ^ THIS essay touches on some of the alterations made or suggested by the statesmen and jurists of the Republic in our judicature and in our criminal and civil law. It avoids social, constitutional, and political questions — political, like the union of Great Britain, though that involved an union of laws ; ^ constitutional, like the abolition and reconstruc- tion of the Upper House of Parliament ; * social, like the establishment of public works for the poor,^ and of a public post-office.^ The goodness of the laws of Charles II., contrasted with the badness of his government, has drawn a compliment from Blackstone, epigrams from Burke and Fox, and a paradox from Buckle. An enquiry into the source of these laws may show that the paradox is unreal, the epigrams unfounded, the compliment due to the Republicans ; that they, in
- This essay is taken from volume Til, pp. 567-601, of "Papers read
before the Juridical Society" (London: Wildy and Sons). It is without date, but was read in 1869 or 1870.
- Barrister-at-law, Fellow of Owen's College, Oxford.
With the above Essay may be compared the following: The Consti- tutional Experiments of the Commonwealth, by Edward Jenks (1890; Cambridge, University Press) ; The Interregnum, by F. A. Inderwick. »St. 1654, cc. 8, 9, 10: Whitelock, 517, 532, 632: "The decisions of the Engl, judges during the ursurpation," etc. Cp. Bacon, "Certayne articles touching the Union ... of Engl, and Scotl." [M. s. Qu. Coll. Oxf. 32.27 (D. 2. 129, [194])].
- Stt. 1648-9, c. 17; 1656-7, cc. 6, 18; 1659, July 12: Comm. Journ.:
Whitelock, 377, 569, foil.: 6 Thurloe, 107, 668: Ludlow (246). "J. Coke, " Unum necessarium .-" Stt. 1649, May 7: 1653-4, c. 20: Whitelock, 384, 531. Cp. St. 43 Eliz. c. 2: Child, "Proposals for the relief and employment of the poor" [11 Somers's Tracts, 606]. •Comm. Journ. 1649, Mar. 21; 1657, June 9: Stt. 1654, c. 51; 1666, e. 30. 4ffl
