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Introduction, Robert Tennyson

Robert Tennyson

This is a study of the private legislative business of parliament between 1688 and 1774, the preconditions of its growth and the manner of its legitimization. Through the eighteenth century, the products of parliament’s private business increasingly impacted the lives of Englishmen, at every rung on the social ladder. Yet, despite the number, variety and extent of these proposals passing through parliament and sanctioned by its private legislation, our understanding of this critical aspect of parliament’s agency in the eighteenth century is remarkably underdeveloped. This study endeavors to extend our understanding of this business through a detailed examination of the …