The House of Commons and Monarchy

Hilaire Belloc

12 chapters · about 2 h

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The opening

I THE THESIS I THE HOUSE OF COMMONS WAS FORMED BY, AND IS ESSENTIALLY PART OF, AN ARISTOCRATIC STATE. ENGLAND HAVING CEASED TO BE AN ARISTOCRATIC STATE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IS CEASING TO FUNCTION.

THE THESIS I THE HOUSE OF COMMONS WAS FORMED BY, AND IS ESSENTIALLY PART OF, AN ARISTOCRATIC STATE. ENGLAND HAVING CEASED TO BE AN ARISTOCRATIC STATE THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IS CEASING TO FUNCTION.

THE House of Commons was for fully 250 years really, theoretically still is, the central institution of the English.

Within it the powers of the State were—and in theory still are — concentrated in a degree unknown to any other polity.

Whereas in other modern countries great organisms of capital value to the life of the community, and exercising clearly determined and independent functions, coexist with, modify, and check the executive power, here all was centralized.

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About this edition

The words
The author's text, copied word for word.
Left out
  • Page numbers and running heads from the printed pages, in 23 places
  • Notes and pages added by translators, editors or publishers, in 3 places
  • The cover (“3 IE HOUSE OF COMMON / 3 AND MONARCHY”, “H.BELLOC”) and a speck (3 blocks)
  • The title page and opening pages before chapter 1, in 13 places
  • The imprint: “First published in 1920”, a speck, “(All rights reserved)” (read “n'g/t/5 reserved)”) (3 blocks)
  • Other material that isn't the author's
  • The library's loan slip (“University of Toronto Roberts”, with a borrower's name and a book title) (8 blocks)