Government
Parlementary Remonstrance against Reforms of Royal Debts
In 1763, with the Seven Years’ War having gone badly for France and the treasury facing ever greater shortfalls, the crown issued a series of new edicts on fiscal matters, necessary in large measure to pay off the war debts, which would extend the "twentieth" surtax (originally levied in 1750); a
Remonstrance by the Parlement against the Denial of Sacraments in Paris (1753)
As the controversy over the refusal of sacraments came to dominate political and religious discussions in Paris, Versailles, and across the kingdom, the magistrates argued all the more strenuously that the King should compel the Archbishop to drop his intolerant attitude on the enforcement of Uni
Remonstrance on the Refusal of Sacraments (1751)
In June 1749, the priest of the St.–Etienne–du–Mont parish in Paris, acting on instructions from the Archbishop of Paris, refused the Eucharist and last rites to one of his parishioners who could not produce a "certificate of confession" proving his adherence to the bull Unigenitus.
Remonstrance by the Parlement against the Denial of Sacraments in Orléans
In 1713, the Pope had issued a bull entitled Unigenitus, condemning as heretical 101 beliefs held by some French Catholic priests who were known as "Jansenists." To Jansenists, this bull, or "constitution," was the religious equivalent of absolutism—an order from on high that quashed all oppositi
The Sentence against Damiens (1757)
Having found Damiens guilty, the judges ordered him punished in a gruesome public spectacle, with the intention of repressing symbolically, through his body, the threat to order that the judges perceived in his attack on the King.
Decree of the Parlement of Paris against Robert–François Damiens
After a three–month trial, the magistrates found Damiens guilty of parricide against the person of the King on 26 March 1757. In a final interrogation, Damiens is once again asked about accomplices. He then denies having them.
Taranaki Education Office Report, 1898
A state-funded, secular elementary education system was established in the colony of New Zealand in 1870, but the compulsory attendance provisions for 7 to 13-year-olds were not rigorously enforced, for Maori and Pakeha children alike, until the first decade of the 20th century.
Annual Report on Native Affairs, 1874
This extract from an annual report on Native Affairs reflects two realities of the 1870s: the on-going disruption of indigenous communities caused by settler and state demand for land acquisition; and the diversity of Maori experience, even within one tribal territory.
Adolescent Sexual Experimentation Should Not Be a Crime
Morris Ploscowe was a graduate of Harvard law school who served as chief clerk of the Court of Special Sessions, and later as magistrate, in New York City. Ploscowe also served on the staff of the Wickersham Commission that investigated Prohibition and a variety of other crimes in the U.S.
U.S. Supreme Court Decision Justifying Gender-Based Age of Consent Laws
The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the American legal system, with the power to determine whether laws enacted by state and federal legislators comply with the American constitution.