39) Magna Carta

Magna Carta, or Great Charter, was the charter of English liberties extracted by the barons from King John in 1215 under the threat of civil war. The Exchequer had been emptied by huge expenditure on the Crusades and the loss of Normandy to the French, when John began taxing the church severely - much to the annoyance of the barons and church leaders. The Archbishop of Canterbury was at the forefront in demanding a grant of liberties from the king which became the 'Articles of the Barons', from which Magna Carta was drafted. It was sealed by John at Runnymede on June 15th 1215.

Magna Carta contained nine groups of clauses, of which the first three dealt with the rights of the church, of royal tenants, and of sub-tenants. Another group provided for the rights of towns, trade and merchants, and a large group of clauses concerned the reform of law and justice. Lastly, and very significantly, other clauses bound the king not seriously to infringe the charter. If he did, a council of 25 barons were permitted to wage war against him.

Magna Carta became the statement of basic principles of the law rather than the code itself.

The Magna Carta marked a turning point in world history. Until the 13th century in England, European rulers were absolute monarchs. With absolute rule came absolute power; these rulers had the power to do and order anything they chose. The end of absolute power in Britain came with the revolutionary Magna Carta, which established a set of laws that not even the king could violate. The same laws that applied to the lowest class of society applied to everyone, even to the royal family. The Magna Carta was a major first step toward the democracies of today, governments in which there are no monarchs but rather self-governing citizens.

40) Analyze the climate and population of the bi

The temperate, maritime climate of the British Isles can be summed up as one of mild winters, cool summers, and rainfall at all times of the year. However, a study of the day-by-day weather shows such a variation in temperature, rainfall, wind and sunshine, that it is often said that the British Isles have no climate, but only experience weather.

In July the main features of temperature are governed by the position of the British Isles in mid-latitudes. The warmest areas are in the South (London 18*C), whereas the north of Scotland is coolest (Wick 13*C).

Places inland have higher temperatures than coastal areas in summer. The sea warms up more slowly than the land, thus in July the land is usually warmer than the sea.

The west coast is a little cooler in summer than places further east, because the British Isles lie in the belt of variable westerly winds.

In winter, the sea loses its heat more slowly than the land surface. The warming effect of the on-shore westerly winds is made much greater by the presence of the North Atlantic Drift. This warm ocean current originates from the Gulf Stream Drift off the east coast of the U.S.A. and flows off the west and south coasts of the British Isles.

It is believed that at the end of the 11th century the population of Britain was about two million. At the end of the 17th century the population of England and Wales was about five and a half million, and that of Scotland was about one million.

Censuses of the people of Great Britain have been taken regularly every ten years since 1801, with the exception of 1941, because of the war. The census of 1971 showed a population in the United Kingdom of about 54 million; nowadays it is over 60 million people. There are fourteen other countries in the world with more people.