Existing comment:
The World They Inherited
Britons on both sides of the Atlantic believed that governing was the role of aristocrats and wealthy gentlemen. Political power came with economic power, with birth into the right social circles, and with influential connections.
Common people also had a limited role. Most common men who owned property could vote for a member of the lower house of their legislature. Voters could also serve on juries that enforced the law. Most did not qualify to participate in those ways, but free British subjects could petition their rulers with grievances in writing or with mass demonstrations or riots. They could seek justice in courts of common law, with juries of their peers. |