In looking through some very old Acts of Parliament not long ago I was
rather surprised to find that in those old times our forefathers drew up
their statutes in very stately English.
In our own times Acts of Parliament frequently violate the simplest
rules of grammar, and are sometimes so unintelligible as to need the
labours of learned judges to find out what they mean!
But it seems that in the great days of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth Acts of
Parliament were often written in resounding periods of solemn
splendour of which the meaning is perfectly clear.
In the twenty-fourth year of the great Henry, the Act denying and
forbidding any jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome in England was passed.
This Act, depriving the Pope of all power in England, marked a
turning-point in history.