Law, Crime and English Society, 1660–1830

by Edited by Norma Landau

• ISBN13: 9780521642613
• ISBN10: 0521642612
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book examines how the law was made, defined, administered, and used in eighteenth-century England. A team of leading international historians explore the ways in which legal concerns and procedures came to permeate society and reflect on eighteenth-century concepts of corruption, oppression, and institutional efficiency. These themes are pursued throughout in a broad range of contributions which include studies of magistrates and courts; the forcible enlistment of soldiers and sailors; the eighteenth-century 'bloody code'; the making of law basic to nineteenth-century social reform; the populace's extension of law's arena to newspapers; theologians' use of assumptions basic to English law; Lord Chief Justice Mansfield's concept of the liberty intrinsic to England; and Blackstone's concept of the framework of English law. The result is an invaluable account of the legal bases of eighteenth-century society which is essential reading for historians at all levels.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	ix
Notes on Contributors	x
Introduction	1	(18)
Norma Landau
Part 1 Law
Dread of the Crown Office: the English magistracy and King's Bench, 1740--1800	19	(27)
Douglas Hay
The trading Justice's trade	46	(25)
Norma Landau
Impressment and the law in eighteenth-century Britain	71	(26)
Nicholas Rogers
Part 2 Crime
War as a judicial resource. Press gangs and prosecution rates, 1740--1830	97	(20)
Peter King
Making the `bloody code'? Forgery legislation in eighteenth-century England	117	(22)
Randall Mcgowen
Mapping criminal law: Blackstone and the categories of English jurisprudence	139	(26)
David Lieberman
Part 3 Society
After Somerset: Mansfield, slavery and the law in England, 1772--1830	165	(20)
Ruth Paley
Religion and the law: evidence, proof and `matter of fact', 1660--1700	185	(23)
Barbara Shapiro
The press and public apologies in eighteenth-century London	208	(22)
Donna T. Andrew
Origins of the factory acts: the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act, 1802	230	(26)
Joanna Innes
John M. Beattie's publications	256	(2)
Index	258