To Hold and Bear Arms: The English Perspective

This Article discusses the English background to the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and undertakes to contest the prevailing opinion that the old medieval English duty of service in the militia, imposed theoretically on all males between the age of sixteen and sixty, was transformed at the time of England\u27s Glorious Revolution in 1688–89 into the right of the individual to keep and bear arms. The author of that thesis, Professor Joyce Malcolm of Bentley College in Massachusetts, maintains that Article VII of the Declaration of Rights, 1689 (better known as the Bill of Rights, its statutory form) secured that right and bequeathed it to the American colonists who, when drafting the Second Amendment, broadened that legacy, sweeping aside limitations and forbidding any infringement upon the individual right to possess arms. This Article, however, argues that this thesis is unacceptable and offers a reading of the evidence and of the nature of late-seventeenth-century England society and thought that is different from that of Professor Malcolm. This Article maintains that throughout its long history, the English government, for reasons that changed over time, took steps to limit and/or supervise the possession of guns. At no time did majority opinion hold that there was either a natural law right or a constitutional right of all individuals, not even all Protestant individuals, to have arms. There was no unrestricted English right of the individual to possess guns for the colonists to inherit

Negotiating An Indian Water Rights Settlement: The Colorado Ute Indian Experience

28 pages

Negotiating An Indian Water Rights Settlement: The Colorado Ute Indian Experience

28 pages

Lady Rachel Russell

Originally published in 1987. Lady Rachel Russell (1637–1723) was regarded as "one of the best women" by many of the most powerful people of her time. Wife of Lord William Russell, the prominent Whig opponent of King Charles II who was executed for treason in 1683, Lady Russell emerged as a political figure in her own right during the Glorious Revolution and throughout her forty-year widowhood. Award-winning historian Lois G. Schwoerer has written a biography that illuminates both the political life and the lives of women in late Stuart England. Lady Russell's interest in politics and religion blossomed during her marriage to Lord Russell and after his death: "as William became a Whig martyr, Rachel became a Whig saint." Her wealth, contacts, and role as her husband's surrogate gave her considerable influence to intercede in high government appointments, lend support in elections, and exchange favors with her friend Mary of Orange. In her domestic life she similarly took steps usually reserved to men, managing large estates in London and Hampshire and negotiating favorable marriage contracts for each of her three children. Although Lady Russell was unusual for her time, she was by no means unique. Other notable women shared her concerns and traits, although to differing degrees and effects. Schwoerer suggests that the horizons of women's lives in the seventeenth century may have extended farther than is often supposed