... this was carried out, such as upper class control of the legislative process in parliament, reflected in legislation that mostly 'concerned offences against property', and in the actual prosecution process in which he suggests the judge, jury and character witnesses were largely drawn from the upper classes 2. The small ruling elite had therefore placed themselves in a position from which they could further control the process and thus the population at large. Hay also sees ideology as 'crucial in sustaining the hegemony of the English ruling class'3. In this process he sees 'three aspects of the law as ideology: majesty, justice and mercy'4. Eighteenth century England differed from other European states as it lacked a police force. Hay suggests the reason for this was that the gentry were not willing to permit, or perhaps to risk, power being taken out of their hands. They remembered 'the pretensions of the ...

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