The name given by the Royalists to the members of the Long Parliament elected to fill the places of those who had been “disabled” by Parliament for joining the King’s forces.
An Act passed in the first year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, subjecting to fine all persons who absented themselves from Divine Service in their parish church on Sundays and Holy Days. Protestant dissenters were relieved from the penalties of this Act by the Toleration Act of William and Mary, but Roman Catholics obtained no relief until 1791.
The nickname of Alexander Comyn, a claimant to the Scottish throne, murdered by Robert Bruce in 1306.
The generic name of the various associations formed, under the Geneva Convention, for the relief of the wounded in war. The Red Cross is the badge of military hospitals, ambulances, doctors, etc.
The sobriquet of Prince Frederick Charles (1828-1885), nephew of William I of Germany.
An outbreak in 1869 of the half-breed settlers on the Red River, who resented the transfer of their settlement from the Hudson’s Bay Company to the newly formed province of Manitoba. It was found necessary to send regular troops against the insurgents, and the revolt was promptly quelled by Colonel (now Viscount) Wolseley. Their leader, Louis Riel, escaped, and was later the ringleader in the rising of 1885 known as Riel’s Rebellion.
A Bill passed in 1885 as the complement of the Franchise Act of 1884. It subdivided the old constituencies so as to leave only a few two-member constituencies in the boroughs. All the counties were divided into districts, each district returning one member. The plan adopted was the result of a conference between the two parties.
The Shire-reeve or Sheriff in Saxon times was the representative of the King for judicial and fiscal purposes. He presided over the Shire Court.
A provision in the constitution of Switzerland to the effect that all laws passed by the Federal Assembly must be submitted to the popular vote, if such a course is demanded by 30,000 Swiss citizens, or by the legislatures of eight Cantons.
The Great Reform Bill of 1832 abolished no less than fifty-six rotten boroughs, but its provisions as to redistribution and the franchise still left the larger share of political power in the hands of the landowning classes. It was first introduced in 1831, and passed the Commons by a majority of one, but was rejected by the Lords. A dissolution followed and, on the new Parliament assembling, the Bill again passed the Commons, this time by a majority of 109, but was again rejected by the Lords. The Ministry refused to resign, and the popular feeling was so strong that the Lords were forced to give way, and the Bill became law in 1832. In addition to 111 seats obtained by the disfranchisement of the rotten boroughs, some thirty boroughs were deprived of one member each. Of the seats thus obtained sixty-five were distributed among the counties, sixty-five among the larger towns, and thirteen were allotted to Scotland and Ireland. The borough franchise was given to ten pound householders, and in the counties the vote was given to copyholders and leaseholders, and to tenants at will paying £50 in rent.