Constitution of the British Isles (1829)

Conventions

Daniel O'Connell

Percy Shelley

Grand Lodge of the British Isles

Heads of British Isles

Impeachment

Lives of Great Britons

London

Parliament

Country folders/Europe/British Isles/Religion

Senate House

Universities

Name - British Isles (English)

Continent - Europe

Capital - London

Head of state - Chief Magistrate Mary Burgess

Head of government - Prime Minister Zachary Varghese

Legislature - Parliament - Senate (upper), House of Commons (lower)

Lord Chancellor - Bernard O'Higgins

Speaker of the House of Commons - William Gates

Legislation Minister - John Mackenzie

Judiciary - Supreme Court of Judicature

Justice Minister - Peter Taylor

Form of government - Unitary republic under a democratic ministerial confidential constitution

Form of law - Brougham Code

Demonym - British

Area -

Capital (and largest city) - London - 7,715,000 (city), 12,382,000 (metro)

Time zone - TMP+00:00

Currency - British ducat

Language - English

Other languages

-Ireland - Irish (co-official)

-Wales - Welsh (co-official)

Population - 82,142,000

Density -

National festival - Charter Day (January 24) - commemorates the promulgation of the Charter of Liberty and Security and Frame of Government (1829), and the birth (1749) of Charles James Fox, iconic precursor of the British Wars > Popular Revolution (1827-9)

Anthem - Rule Britannia

Motto - God and Our Right

-OTL Union Jack but with a 3:2 ratio

84,442,000

-Scotland: 4,831,000

-Wales: 2,989,000

-England: 54,191,000

-Ireland: 22,431,000

Chief Secretary of Ireland: Eamonn Muir (Radical)

Chief Secretary of Scotland: Francis B. MacMahon (Moderate)

Chief Secretary of Wales: Llewyn Jones (Associationist)

Chief Secretary of Mercia: (Radical)

Chief Secretary of Wessex:

Chief Secretary of East Anglia: (Moderate)

Chief Secretary of Coritania:

Lord Mayor of London: Alfred Donnell (Radical)

Chief Secretary of Bernicia:

Chief Secretary of Deira:

Chief Secretary of Prima: (Moderate)

-Dublin and other Irish cities way more populous as they exist in the context of a larger Ireland and with a Legislature to help it grow

-Birmingham likewise since it got state investment, particularly in time of Martineau, and also cuz center of radicalism

-and it is a major railroad terminus, giving it massive pop boom in context of truncated Railway Mania

-Sheffield is smaller because it had difficulties in constructing railroad to there, plus railways in general longer

-thus railway boom takes a while

-elected by Parliament in joint session as a Senate for a ten-year term

-impeachable, and violation of stringent terms is considered abdication

-formally addressed "Elective Majesty"

-part of early period when British Isles was a "republic without republicans" to project a sense of monarchical normality to monarchies of Europe and project moderation

-but in keeping with foxite tendencies of Heads of British Isles > 1828-1839 Henry Vassall-Fox, Baron Holland (Whig), CM toasts to "Our Sovereign, the Majesty of the People" to represent from whence the majesty is, by constitution, derived

-all executive power is formally vested in CM, but delegated away

-existence justified as an emergency check on Commons' power

-and to truncate ambition by being on top of it all

-and to serve as a representative of the British nation with some separation from day-to-day politics

-full title: "Mary Burgess, vested by the Majesty of the People of the British Isles Chief Magistrate, Defender of Liberty and Security"

-may be deposed by House of Commons

-in practice this means appointed by Commons

-Chief Magistrate cannot do anything unless ministers countersign

-these people are the people who really rule the British Isles

-twelve lictors who serve as personal bodyguard of Chief Magistrate

-Parliament may veto and remove as appropriate

-for ceremonial occasions, wear red suit and white cravat

-and carry fasces

-formal one consists in center of long black rod tipped with English lion

-surrounded by white rods

-one tipped with Scottish unicorn

-another tipped with Irish harp

-another tipped with Welsh dragon

-another tipped with Manx peregrine falcon

-another tipped with Norman lion

-center rod perennially replaced as it is used to knock against iron doors

-consists of 200 Peers

-reformed under Heads of British Isles > 1897-1907 Charles James Fox Martineau (Radical-Democratic - "Radical") †

-consisting of grad students from

1. Oxford

2. Cambridge

3. Inns of Court

4. London

5. Newcastle

6. Kings

7. Lunar

8. Leeds

9. York

10. Exeter

11. Combined English

12. Carnarvon

13. Merthyr Tydfil

14. Cardiff

15. Combined Welsh

16. St. Andrews and Glasgow

17. Aberdeen and Edinburgh

18. Faculty of Advocates and Brougham

19. Combined Scottish

20. Dublin

21. Cork

22. Belfast

23. Derry

24. O'Connell

25. Galway

26. Tara

27. Combined Irish

-consisting of Lords Agent-General for

1. Gibraltar

2. Saint Helena

-consisting of 15 outgoing MPs from the outgoing House of Commons

-consisting of 56 elected by electoral colleges consisting of county councils

-consisting of 35 elected by various Chambers of Commerce from across the country

-consisting of 35 elected by the Chamber of Labour, consisting of labor representatives

-consisting of 15 elected by the Chamber of Agriculture, consisting of representatives of agrarian interests

-consisting of 5 elected by electoral colleges consisting of school boards

-consisting of 10 selected by the Crown

-occur annually

-Chief Magistrate takes permission from Parliamentary Guard to enter through Magisterial Porch

-with one of his lictors permitted to go with him

-lictor knocks on the door of the Peers with long end of fasces to ask invitation in for purpose of speech

-Peers debate resolution, accepted

-with Chief Magistrate seated on chair, lictor goes to Commons, knocks on door with long end of fasces to request they join peers for debate

-Ministers ejected, go with lictor

-doors slammed in face

-Commons debates, may take a while depending on mood, but eventually accepts

-Commons goes to lobby in b/w, at bar, to listen to speech

-Chief Magistrate gives general, short speech on constitutional principles, then yields floor to ministers

-ministers then give speeches on policy issues (as appropriate)

The first Catholic MP since the institution of the Penal Laws was the radical reformer, reconciler of liberty and Catholicism, Irish nationalist, pacifist, and abolitionist politician and statesman Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847). Following a long political career in which he fought against civil disabilities suffered by Catholics and Nonconformists through the use of peaceful protest, he was arrested in 1823 by the Frederick regime; he was freed in 1827, following the British Wars > Popular Revolution (1827-9) ending the Frederick regime permanently. That same year, a Convention Parliament was convened, and following the precedent of previous Convention Parliaments, no oath-giving would be required for elected MPs, a fact which meant that Catholics were now eligible for election to Parliament. O'Connell took full advantage of this and won election as an MP for Clare County along with a substantial Irish contingent of fellow MPs who he led. As an MP in the Convention Parliament, his support was indispensable and he made sure that the new Constitution declared religious liberty and equality under the law, along with an end to anti-Catholic oaths for public office. Following the ratification of the Constitution, he later won election to regular Parliament as a member for West Clare (1829-1831; 1833-1834), Central Dublin (1837-1843), and West Cork (1843-1847), in which he helped to found the Radical Party and was involved in abolitionism, the abolition of the common law and legal reform, reforms to administration in Ireland and India, and finally the establishment of the Irish Assembly in 1847. His name remains internationally renowned to this day, synonymous with liberty and political change through peaceful protest.

The first Asian MP, the first Indian MP, the first Bengali MP, and the first Hindu MP was the Bengali sociopolitical and religious reformer Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1841). Following a career in which he founded his own sect of Hinduism and crusaded against widow mistreatment in Hinduism, and also fought for civil rights in the British Raj, he moved to Britain in 1830, in which he took advantage of the end of religious civil disabilities due to the British Wars > Popular Revolution (1827-9) to win election to Parliament as a member for East Finsbury in the same year. He joined the coalition which preceded the Radical Party in 1831. Though he successfully proposed and pushed through a bill banning sati, he faced a string of racist attacks and found himself condescended to even by allies; an attempt to reform colonial administration of the Raj to recognize Indian civil rights and institute representative government was watered down into insignificance. Disillusioned following the end of his term as MP in 1833, he made his way back to India in which he worked to promote education and pushed civil rights charters into princely states in the hopes that future generations would succeed at establishing good government for the peoples of India. Note that the religious faith of Ram Mohan Roy is a matter of some dispute; he belonged to Brahmo Samaj, a Hindu sect influenced by Unitarian Christianity. During his election in 1830 he was viewed as a Unitarian Christian, and he was sworn in on an edition of the Bible which included solely the doctrines of Jesus. Furthermore, the religion of Naya Dharma regards him posthumously as an adherent and an important precursor towards their goal of reconciling the world's religions. If Ram Mohan Roy is not counted as a Hindu, then the first Hindu MP was Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1901), who served as a Lord Agent-General for the city of Bombay from 1882 to 1885, in which he fought unsuccessfully for the establishment of industry, famine relief systems, and poor relief in the British Raj.

The first Jewish MP was the financier, activist, philanthropist, and politician Moses Montefiore (1784-1885). Born into an Italian banking family which later moved to London, he served as a stockbroker as a young man, and it was on the stock market on which he made his fortune. Active in the business of Old London, he made connections with reformist circles of evangelicals and nonconformists, which brought him increasingly towards politics. During the Convention Parliament, Montefiore petitioned it to ensure the new parliamentary oath would not exclude Jewish people, and this proved successful. In 1834 he was elected MP for the Eastern Division of the City of London (now Old London), and he was sworn in on the Hebrew Bible with his head covered. In this term, he fought to protect the City of London against the Radical-controlled Parliament's desire to abolish its feudal privileges. This fight proved successful, the City of London was except from the Muncipal Reform Act of 1834, and it took until the 1850s for the City of London to be stripped of its feudal privileges. In this regard, Montefiore aligned himself with the Moderates, but otherwise he was a supporter of Radical politics and causes and supported much of the dramatic Radical programme passed in this period. Declining to be re-elected after 1837 and retiring from business, for the rest of his life Montefiore devoted himself for the rest of his life to the cause for which he is famous: defending Jewish people around the world from persecution.

The first atheist MP was Richard Carlile (1790-1856). Ultra radical MP from 1830 to 1834.

-headed by Justice Minister

-who appoints and dismisses all judges in the nation

-and also serves as the deciding judge in the Supreme Court of Judicature

-and also chairs Impeachment trials

-and also submits judicial advisory opinions on laws to the Legislation Minister

-Supreme Court of Judicature sits at the apex of the judicial system

-and any case may be appealed to it

-but is strictly below Parliament

-there is also a court for each legislative region

-albeit with only Ireland's being a true court of appeal and in others appeals often jump over them

-additionally below that there is an array of county courts

-and below that there are magistrates at the local level

-each court has one or several eleemosynary advocates attached

-who serve for free for people who can't afford other counsel

-because a certain time of serving as an eleemosynary advocate is required for serving as variously jobs in the judiciary and senior counsel

-also courts have prehensors to apprehend people or things for judges for hearings

-and courts have their own jails attached run by various appointed officials called consignees

-and consignees also hold some real property

-preceded by Bank of England

-1796 french invasion of ireland sees mass panic, large run on bank devastating reserves

-several branches having to close just to prevent losing all their money

-results in suspension of note conversion

-hyperinflation ensues, as notes are now worthless

-in decades that follow Bank tries to rebuild reserves

-suspicion that gold out of bank will be hoarding results in bank keeping ingot after ingot

-this in turn results in gold deflation policies all around the world

-though Bank engages in credit restriction policies the need to fund reactionary powers of Europe means that it continues to loan money

-just worsens national debt policy further

-and at the same time restriction of credit, loans called in, results in British deflation

-with the Year Without A Summer, it tries to take advantage of speculation bubble

-bubble increases further but fails

-to maintain wartime streams of money, engages in massive amounts of speculation, hands out loans to all kinds of colonial endeavours esp in australia

-this just makes it harder to fund the war

-with Second French War (1821-32) Bank loans to Europe continue with a furor

-this worsens credit within Britain itself, and this results in worsening economy

-British Wars > Popular Revolution (1827-9), end of war

-mobs sack Threadneedle Street and other branches to take their gold

-new regime makes order that it will redeem notes at a specific value at a later date

-doesn't express what value will be the redemption, but does help rally it

-in 1835 several private banks go under, causing Recessions > Panic of 1835

-same year Heads of British Isles > 1834-1837 Samuel Whitbread (Radical) declares he'll redeem Bank of England notes at 1% of value

-new bank established in 1830 as part of stabilizing the situation

-includes strict 1.5:1 notes to reserves ratio

-after Neramnew Gold Rush in Australia that's when good times for British Isles come

-gold comes flowing, credit increases, and so do banknotes in circulation

-imperial affairs headed by Commission for much of 19th century

-before it became effectively independent

-today the Commission is an intergovernmental body with a new name

-with (originally) delegations headed by

-President of the Commission - British

-Lord Agent-General for Nova Scotia

-Lord Agent-General for Upper Canada

-Delegate for Old Upper Canada

-Delegate for Assiniboia

-Delegate for Saskatchewan

-Lord Agent-General for Lower Canada

-Lord Agent-General for Columbia

-Lord Agent-General for the West Indies

-Delegate for the Bahamas

-Delegate for Jamaica

-Delegate for Trinidad

-Delegate for Barbados

-Delegate for the Leeward Islands

-Lord Agent-General for Natal

-Lord Agent-General for Australia

-Delegate for New South Wales

-Delegate for Felicitania

-Delegate for Foxland

-Delegate for New Munster

-President of the East India Commission

-later transitions into intergovernmental body

-incl. the United States