Husting
A husting originally referred to a native Germanic governing assembly, the thing. By metonymy, the term may now refer to any event (such as debates or speeches) during an election campaign where one or more of the candidates are present.
Development of the term
The origin of the term comes from the
The use of husting to mean a "temporary platform for political speeches" had developed by the year 1719, as an extension of the meaning of the Court of Husting, which was held at a platform at the Guildhall in the City of London, and presided over by the lord mayor, sheriff, and aldermen.[1][2]
By the middle of the 19th century, the term hustings came to refer to the election campaigning process.[1]
18th and 19th century practice
Britain
In Britain, a similar practice prevailed in
An individual parliamentary constituency might have several separate hustings.[5] Initially, many constituencies had only a single hustings as the polling place,[6] but the Reform Act 1832 required that a separate hustings exist for every 600 electors.[6][7] The 1832 act also slightly extended the franchise, expanding the percentage of the population eligible to vote from about 5% to 7%, and furthering the notions of representation.[6] Although ineligible to vote, historians have noted that women and unenfranchised men took part in "looking on"—the "active participation of non-electors in the rituals of the nomination and the hustings."[8]
The
Canada
In pre-
Elsewhere
In Virginia, the Corporation or Hustings Courts were formerly lower-level state courts.[13][14] However, a reorganization of state courts that took effect on July 1, 1973, abolished these and other courts, replacing them with a streamlined Virginia Circuit Court system.[13]
Modern usage
The plural term (e.g., "on the hustings") is used to mean the campaign trail in current Canadian[15] and British usage.[16][17][18]
See also
References
- ^ a b c hustings (n.), Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 14 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 9.
- ^ Smith, Henry Stooks (1973). The Parliaments of England. Political Reference Publications.
- ^ Angus Hawkins, Victorian Political Culture: "Habits of Heart and Mind" (Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 286.
- ^ a b James Vernon, Modern Britain, 1750 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2017), p. 525.
- ^ a b c Matthew Roberts, Political Movements in Urban England, 1832–1914 (Bloomsbury Publishing: 2008).
- ^ Edwin F. Ackerman, Origins of the Mass Party: Dispossession and the Party-Form in Mexico and Bolivia in Comparative Perspective (Oxford University Press: 2021), p. 123.
- ^ Angus Hawkins, Victorian Political Culture: "Habits of Heart and Mind" (Oxford University Press, 2015), p. 162.
- ^ Jon Lawrence, Electing Our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair (Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 45–48.
- ^ Jon Lawrence, Electing Our Masters: The Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 46.
- ^ George Neil Emery, Elections in Oxford County, 1837-1875: A Case Study of Democracy in Canada West and Early Ontario (University of Toronto Press, 2012), pp. xii, 24, 50.
- ^ George Neil Emery, Elections in Oxford County, 1837-1875: A Case Study of Democracy in Canada West and Early Ontario (University of Toronto Press, 2012), p. 24.
- ^ United States Bureau of the Census(1975), p. 33.
- ^ Harry M. Ward, Public Executions in Richmond, Virginia: A History, 1782–1907 (McFarland: 2012), 10, 15.
- ^ See for example, Little talk on the hustings of Canada's role in Libya, The Globe and Mail March 30, 2011.
- ^ Hustle on the hustings, The Guardian (May 5, 2004).
- ^ Paul Daley, What makes a great political speech? Let's talk about oratory, my fellow citizens, The Guardian (May 19, 2022).
- ^ See for example Reid, Mandu (12 June 2018). "I'm standing up to the far right in Lewisham – because Labour isn't". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
Running for parliament is a steep learning curve, full of challenges, and this week brought the most personal one yet: whether to attend a hustings where far-right characters who have brought their vile agenda to my south London constituency would be on the same platform.
(emphasis added)