The essay examines the right to petition from the revolutions of the 17th century to the start of the age of reform. It shows that, by legislating for a right to petition the monarch, the revolution of 1688 appeared to resolve some of the uncertainty about the right to petition that had been apparent since the 1640s, but failed to confirm a right to petition parliament and left considerable ambiguities about the legitimacy of popular pressure exerted in this way. Throughout the 18th century, the right to petition parliament, and hence to exert popular pressure on it, thus remained contested. Indeed, a history of the points of conflict in Georgian Britain could be written through a study of petitioning controversies. Government supporters asserted the supremacy of formal parliamentary representation over informal representation of the popular voice through petitions and frequently sought to curtail, limit and emasculate any right to petition, and even, in 1795, to ban public petitioning altogether. Such attacks, nevertheless, provoked strong responses: claims to popular sovereignty over parliament, to natural rights, and to the notion that the right to petition was part of a set of interlinking rights of free speech and assembly. The 18th‐century arguments were also played out with explicit reference to 17th‐century ones, with the 1689 settlement in particular, providing a key reference point.

中文翻译：

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“最低自由度”：请愿议会的权利，1640-1800

这篇文章考察了从 17 世纪革命到改革时代开始的请愿权。它表明，1688 年的革命通过立法赋予君主请愿权，似乎解决了自 1640 年代以来明显存在的关于请愿权的一些不确定性，但未能确认向议会请愿的权利，并留下了相当大的影响。以这种方式施加的民众压力的合法性存在歧义。在整个 18 世纪，向议会请愿并因此对其施加民众压力的权利一直存在争议。事实上，格鲁吉亚英国冲突点的历史可以通过对请愿争议的研究来书写。政府支持者通过请愿声称正式的议会代表优于非正式的民众声音代表，并经常试图削减、限制和剥夺任何请愿权，甚至在 1795 年完全禁止公众请愿。然而，这些攻击激起了强烈的反应：声称对议会的人民主权、自然权利以及请愿权是一系列相互关联的言论自由和集会权利的一部分的观念。18 世纪的争论也明确参考了 17 世纪的争论，特别是 1689 年的定居点，提供了一个关键的参考点。尽管如此，还是激起了强烈的反应：对议会的人民主权、自然权利以及请愿权是一系列相互关联的言论和集会自由权利的一部分的主张。18 世纪的争论也明确参考了 17 世纪的争论，特别是 1689 年的定居点，提供了一个关键的参考点。尽管如此，还是激起了强烈的反应：对议会的人民主权、自然权利以及请愿权是一系列相互关联的言论和集会自由权利的一部分的主张。18 世纪的争论也明确参考了 17 世纪的争论，特别是 1689 年的定居点，提供了一个关键的参考点。