Why read Bills and Acts?

Book cover of Bills and Acts: Legislative Procedure in Eighteenth-Century England

Book description

The eighteenth century witnessed both a notable increase in the amount of legislation passed in each parliamentary session as a response to the changing economic and social climate, and the development of new forms of parliamentary practice which foreshadowed the much better known innovations of the nineteenth century. In consequence,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Bills and Acts as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Coleman A. Dennehy

Author

This book is fascinating for many reasons, but in particular this work defines the nature of the relationship between the institution of parliament, the relatively new role of the parliamentary agent (in particular in this case, Robert Harper), and the community of landowners and others who needed to get private bills and local bills passed through parliament. Lambert's real achievement is the depth and level of expertise that she developed in this book on the minute detail of the procedure alongside the rough-and-tumble of parliamentary agency, bringing the local into contact with the very core of the legislative and judicial…

From Coleman's list on The best books to understand how parliaments worked.