What I
really need help with is something that I find very interesting yet difficult for me to grasp and understand. As a steadholder, Honor has so much power over her steading. She is god. She is not Tester. But she is god. Her steading has to obey her every command that she may give. Although she cannot give a command that breaks any laws of the Constitution. This makes me wonder. Had Honor not stopped the crowd that was moving towards Solomon Marchant to exact justice when he called her a harlot in public, could she have been held responsible for his death if she didn't stop them?
It might remind you of a matter pending in our court system now, but I do not want anyone influenced by those very different circumstances. Nor do I want to inject current politics into this discussion. What if instead she ordered them to kill him, would they have been subject to charges for committing murder right along with Honor, or would just Honor be charged alone? On Earth even an officer is not shielded from punishment if he follows an order he knows is wrong. So, the excuse of “my superior made me do it” will not protect a soldier from facing charges. But a steadholder has much more power over their subjects. So in that regard, I am unsure about the law.
Her steading only has one city now, but it will have others.
Truth be told I didn't realize that steadings were larger than a single city. Mind boggling.I can see a time when Harrington Steading will be among the largest Steadings if not
the largest steading, because of the opportunity of advancement alone. And the opportunities. Men and women are truly equal in Harrington Steading.
Honor makes local law which might be different from laws in other steadings. In fact, we know from text that Harrington Steading’s laws
are different. Honor's laws are much more fair to her citizens than any other.
Harrington Steading's laws are much more progressive and forgiving, especially to women. As one would expect. It sort of reminds me of the difference between the laws of a city here on Earth and the laws on a reservation. Gambling and casinos may be unlawful in most American cities but are lawful on a reservation, even though the city the reservation is in does not allow gambling.
But I digress. It all just seems so odd and so many questions arise. Is someone from another steading allowed to even walk in another steading? I think Steadings are exactly like cities on any other planet in that respect or the protestors would never have entered the city. Are visitors legally bound to follow the laws of the steading they are visiting, or are they bound by the laws of their own steading? I don't think visitors have to get permission to enter another steading? Does their steadholder even allow them to visit another steading? I am sure a steadholder can forbid its citizens to visit another steading. A steadholder might feel that Harrington Steading will corrupt the values of his citizens. But what if they do anyway?
Can they be forcefully extradited from that steading by another steadholder if it ever comes up? Can Honor deny it and declare her steading as a safe haven from various charges for various reasons? Like, say, a particularly brutal steadholder who simply wishes to punish women for reasons that are unacceptable to Honor. IOW, can a citizen run to Harrington Steading and seek asylum?
I am uncertain about the structure of authority of various entities on the planet. It is unclear to mine eyes. Specifically, can someone help me with this line from the passage included below:
“At this moment, since the Steading has only a single city, no municipal police forces have been organized,” he said. “For now, the Harrington Steadholder’s Guard is charged with all police functions.
Does the municipal police force represent the laws of the planet as a whole? The notion of a police force on Earth? I think so, but I am uncertain.
Howard Clinkscales wrote:“Obviously, my work is cut out for me,” he said dryly. His lips twitched at her smothered chuckle, but then he straightened his shoulders.
“At this moment, since the Steading has only a single city, no municipal police forces have been organized,” he said. “For now, the Harrington Steadholder’s Guard is charged with all police functions. In time, as additional municipalities grow and spread, their individual police forces will be responsible for enforcing local law while the Guard falls back to enforcing Steading law.
“As Steadholder Harrington, you command the entire Guard, which can be enlarged to whatever extent the Steading requires. The Mayhew Steadholder’s Guard, for example, has a roster strength of over seven thousand. At the moment, the Harrington Guard is at only about four hundred.”
Honored nodded, her expression serious, and even as she listened, she castigated herself for not having already paid more attention to Clinkscales’ memos on this subject.
“Although you command the entire Guard, there are significant legal constraints on the orders you can give it. Once upon a time, every armsman in a steading’s guard was answerable solely to its steadholder in his own person, but that was before the Civil War and Benjamin the Great’s Constitution. Now, although a steading’s police force is still known as the ‘Steadholder’s Guard,’ there are strict constitutional limits on the orders a steadholder may legitimately give to its members. Within a steading’s guard, however, a steadholder is entitled to a personal guard, a force of not more than fifty armsmen, which is answerable solely to him. Or to her. To whose armsmen he—or she—can legally give any order which doesn’t violate the Constitution. And from whose armsmen the security detail Grayson law requires accompany him—or her—at all times is drawn. The oaths of the other armsmen in any steading guard are sworn first to the Constitution and only then to the steadholder they serve. The oaths of your personal armsmen are sworn solely to you.”
Honor looked at him for a moment, then at the twelve men standing behind him. A part of her—a large part of her—shied away from the very notion that anyone might swear an oath which gave her such unbridled authority over them. If she understood Clinkscales correctly, and she was fairly certain she did, what he was saying was that she could give those men any order she chose, and they would be duty bound to obey it. In one way, that was no different from the authority that came with her commission as a Queen’s officer, but in another, it was totally different. As an officer of the Crown, she stood in a chain of command, of authority, which ran from the most junior passed midshipwoman all the way to the Queen herself. On Grayson—in Harrington—she was the Crown, and in an odd way, the notion of accepting “her” armsmens’ personal oath of fealty drove that home as her own oath to Benjamin Mayhew had not.
“And there’s no way I can get out of this, right?” she asked, only half-whimsically.
“No, My Lady. There’s not.”
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The artist formerly known as cthia.
Now I can talk in the third person.