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In a defiant stance : the conditions of law in Massachusetts Bay, the Irish comparison ; and the coming of the American Revolution / John Phillip Reid

Author
Reid, John Phillip
Published
University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, [1977]
Copyright Date
©1977
Physical Description
1 online resource
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Contents
1. In the Very Face of Government: The American Comparison -- 2. It Signifies Little Who Is Governor: The Locus of Law -- 3. Sourve from Whence the Clamors Flow: The Conditions of Law -- 4. Democracy Is Too Prevalent in America: The Civil Traverse Jury -- 5. Juries Lie Open to Management: The Uses of the Grand Jury -- 6. In Defiance of the Threats: The Criminal Traverse Jury -- 7. Unless Law Are Enforced: The Legitimacy of Whig Law -- 8. By Consent of the Council: The Import of Local Control -- 9. The Seeds of Anarchy: The Execution of Whig Law -- 10. The Same Leaven with the People: The Legal Mind of the American Whig -- 11. Disjointed and Independent of Each Other: The Conditions of Imperial Law -- 12. The Government They Have Set Up: The Emergence of Whig Government -- 13. The Oppression of Centuries: The Irish Comparison -- 14. A Most Dreadful Ruin: The Legal Mind of British-Ruled Ireland -- 15. To Effect a Revolution: The Execution of Imperial Law -- 16. Enforced by Mobs: The Rule of Law.
Summary
The minimum of violence accompanying the success of the American Revolution resulted in large part, argues this book, from the conditions of law the British allowed in the American colonies. By contrast, Ireland's struggle for independence was prolonged, bloody, and bitter largely because of the repressive conditions of law imposed by Britain. Examining the most rebellious American colony, Massachusetts Bay, Professor Reid finds that law was locally controlled while imperial law was almost nonexistent as an influence on the daily lives of individuals. In Ireland the same English common law, because of imperial control of legal machinery, produced an opposite result. The Irish were forced to resort to secret, underground violence. The author examines various Massachusetts Bay institutions to show the consequences of whig party control, in contrast to the situation in 18th-century Ireland. A general conclusion is that law, the conditions of positive law, and the matter of who controls the law may have more significant effects on the course of events than is generally assumed.
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ISBN
9780271072241 (electronic bk.)
0271072245 (electronic bk.)
9780271022772
0271022779
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 43645274