BILL OF MORTALITY. In England this was a weekly return issued under the supervision of the company of parish clerks showing the number of deaths in a parish. During the Tudor period England suffered much from plague, and various precautionary measures became necessary. Quarantine or isola tion was the most important, but to carry it out successfully it was necessary to have early warning of the existence of plague in each parish or house. For this purpose searchers—usually women —were appointed, who reported to the clerk the cause of each death in the parish. He, in turn, sent a report to the parish clerks' hall, from whence was issued weekly a return of all the deaths from plague and other causes in the various parishes, as well as a list of those parishes which were free from plague. Bills of mortality are usually said to date from 1538, when parish registers were established by Cromwell (Lord Essex), but there is extant a bill which dates from Aug. 1535, and one which is pos sibly even earlier than this. It is certain that they first began to be compiled in a recognized manner in Dec. 16o3, and they were continued regularly from that date down to 1842, when under the Births and Deaths Registration act, 1836, they were superseded by the registrar-general's returns. It was not till 1728, when the ages of the dead were first introduced, that bills of mortality acquired any considerable statistical value. It was on the data thus furnished that the science of life insurance was founded. BILL OF RIGHTS, an important statute in English con stitutional history enacted in Dec. 1689. Its provisions were based upon the Declaration of Right and delivered by the lords and commons to the Prince and Princess of Orange, afterwards William III and Mary. The act (the full name of which is "An Act declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject, and settling the Succession of the Crown"), after reciting the unconstitutional proceedings of James II., the abdication of that King, the consequent vacancy of the Crown, and the summons of the convention parliament, declared, on the part of the lords and commons, "for the vindicating and asserting their ancient rights and liberties":— "(I) That the pretended power of suspending of laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal. (2) That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it bath been as sumed and exercised of late, is illegal. (3) That the commission for erecting the late court of commissioners for ecclesiastical causes, and all other commissions and courts of like nature, are illegal and pernicious. (4) That levying money for or to the use of the Crown, by pretence of prerogative, without grant of Parlia ment, for longer time or in other manner than the same is or shall be granted, is illegal. (5) That it is the right of the subjects to petition the King, and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal. (6) That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of Parliament, is against law. (7) That the subjects which are Protestants may have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions, and as allowed by law. (8) That elections of members of Parliament ought to be free. (g) That the freedom of speech, and debates or proceedings in Parliament, ought not to be impeached or questioned in any court or place out of Parlia ment. (io) That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments in flicted. (I I) That jurors ought to be duly empanelled and re turned, and jurors which pass upon men in trials for high treason ought to be free-holders. (12) That all grants and promises of fines and forfeitures of particular persons before conviction are illegal and void. (13) And that for redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving of the laws, Parlia ment ought to be held frequently. And they do claim, demand, and insist upon all and singular the premises, as their undoubted rights and liberties." The further provisions of the act were concerned with the settlement of the Crown upon the Prince and Princess of Orange, with the exception of Section 12, which negatived the right of dispensation by non obstante' to or of any statute or nay part thereof, unless a dispensation be allowed in the statute itself or by bill or bills to be passed during the then session of Parliament.
The Bill of Rights introduced no new principle into the English constitution ; it was merely a declaration of the law as it stood. In the United States, the main provisions of the Bill of Rights, so far as they are applicable, have been adopted both in the constitution of the United States and in the state constitutions.