ION 
 

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Cornell University Library 
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 The British constitution / 
 
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THE 
 
 BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ET THE TjATB 
 
 AMOS DEAN, LL.D., 
 
 Professor in the Albany Law School. 
 Author op "Histoby of Civilization," " CoatMEftCiAi. Law," Etc. 
 
 KOCHBSTER, N. Y. 
 
 LAWTEES' CO-OPEBATIVE PUBLISH IXG COMPANY. 
 
 1893. 
 
Copyright, 1883, 
 Br AMOS H. DEAN. 
 
 B. B. Akdbews, Printer ant> Rookbindeb. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The British constitution is a subject worthy 
 the most attentive study. The student of polit- 
 ical philosophy will here reap rewards richly 
 compensating for any amount of labor and 
 research. The joint result of Saxon and Nor- 
 man wisdom, it has traveled through its centu- 
 ries of experience, only to continually add 
 strength to its foundations, beauty to its pro- 
 portions, harmony in the action of its different 
 forces, and the still increasing promise of per- 
 petuity in the blessings it confers. It is the 
 largest monument of worldly wisdom which the 
 centuries have to bequeath to us. The science 
 of government itself has little to offer which is 
 not embraced in its past history, or its present 
 organization. No one can contemplate this 
 stupendous and beautiful fabric, standing out in 
 all its colossal proportions, and realize that at 
 least thirty generations of men have been the 
 architects that have reared it upward, story by 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 story, without being deeply impressed with the 
 great truth, that all time-lasting structures can 
 exist and be perpetuated only through those 
 powers and energies which are common to the 
 race, and actually exercised through its organic 
 life. It is thus that the deficiencies of one man, 
 .or one generation, are made good by the excess 
 of power developed through another or others, 
 so that, in the end, institutions are generally the 
 work of the race of man, and not of the 
 individual. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 ;Vnglo-Saxon Institutions, - - 7 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 Charteks of Rights, - • - ■ 24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Origin and Growth op the English Parliament, 38 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 Its Present Workings, - - . - ' 78 
 
The British Oonstitution^. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 The British constitution is to be considered: 
 
 I. In its past history. 
 
 n. In its present workings. 
 
 In its past history our attention will mainly 
 be directed: 
 
 1. To its sources, the Anglo-Saxon institutions, 
 in connection with the modifications introduced 
 by the Norman conquest. 
 
 2. The charters of rights successively wrested 
 from the king by his principal barons. 
 
 3. The origin and growth of the English par- 
 liament, including the successive steps or stages 
 by which the two houses attained their political 
 power, and the principle of representation be- 
 came firmly established. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon institutions were the growth 
 
8 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 of several centuries. Brought there originally 
 by the hardy followers of Hengist and Horsa, 
 they were essentially modified, and new ones 
 originated in consequence of the peculiar posi- 
 tion under which their dominion was established, 
 and the circumstances by which they were 
 always surrounded. They were compelled to 
 sustain themselves among a conquered people, 
 the Britons, and that fact no doubt created new, 
 or greatly modified existing institutions. 
 
 In respect of property and condition, there were 
 three classes. Of these the first were slaves, who 
 were probably mostly or wholly made up of the 
 conquered Britons. The second were ceorls, who 
 were freemen, and formed the bulk of the pop- 
 ulation. The third were eorls or thanes, who 
 formed the nobility or gentry,* the former hav- 
 ing reference to birth, while the latter derived 
 his title through the possession of landed 
 property. It was the ownership of landed 
 property that mainly gave to the Saxon his 
 standing and political rights. There was an 
 aristocracy, but not limited to hereditary descent. 
 It was not the birth, but the acquisition of a 
 
 •Creasy, 40, 41. 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 9 
 
 defined amount of landed property, that trans- 
 formed the ceorl into the thane. 
 
 The lowest and simplest political division 
 among the Saxons was the township,* which 
 had its reeve or elective chief officer, and also 
 four good and lawful men, who with him 
 represented the township in the courts of the 
 hundred and the shire. These were elected by 
 the commonality, who also had the regulation 
 of their own police. If any crime was com- 
 mitted in their district they were bojind to 
 pursue and apprehend the offender. Each town- 
 ship generally had its own local court, which 
 was subordinate to the hundred court, and also 
 to the shire, moot, or county court. These 
 Saxon townships have very generally given way 
 to the Norman manors, and the modern par- 
 ishes. 
 
 The Saxon hundred was a inere territorial 
 division, and was subdivided into tythings. 
 Each hundred had its court, held monthly, and 
 subordinate to the shire or county courts, which 
 were held once a year, and were presided over 
 by a bishop or earl. 
 
 •Creasy 43. 
 
10 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. - 
 
 Independent of the institution of slavery, 
 there were two oppressive customs among the 
 Saxons. One was the system of frank pledge, 
 by which every man was bound to be enrolled 
 in some tytfiing, the members of which being, 
 to a large extent, mutually responsible for each 
 others' good conduct.* The other was that 
 every member of the commonality was bound 
 to place himself in dependence upon some man 
 of I'ank and wealth as his lord. Otherwise he 
 was liable to be slain as an outlaw. The result 
 of this was that many of the ceorls were legally 
 annexed to the lands of their lords, but in other 
 respects were personally free. 
 
 A large proportion of the population was 
 devoted to agriculture. There were, however, 
 some towns that had already acquired import- 
 ance. These were called burghs, fortified 
 places. In these, also, the free Anglo-Saxon 
 spirit was manifested. The citizens elected 
 from their own number their local officers, those 
 necessary for the purposes of municipal govern- 
 ment, at the head of whom was their borough 
 reeve, who presided over their local courts, and 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 11 
 
 in time of war, led the armed citizens to the 
 field. 
 
 The trial by jury is an institution attributed 
 to the Anglo-Saxons, and certainly its rudiments 
 are traceable to Saxon jurisprudence. 
 
 In regard to the government, the constitutions 
 in the several states composing the heptarchy, 
 and subsequently in the united kingdom, appear 
 to have been much the same. 
 
 At the head of the state was the king, but the 
 descent of the crown was irregular. The form 
 of an election seems to have been observed, and 
 a coronation and acceptance by the people 
 necessary.* 
 
 When crowned and received, he was the 
 national executive, and an essential part of its 
 legislature. He received and expended the 
 revenue; was the center and source of all juris- 
 prudence; the chief of the nation's armies;f the 
 head of its landed property; the lord of the free 
 and of all burghs except such as he had granted 
 to others. 
 
 Coexisting with the king, if not anterior, and 
 his elector, was the witenagemote, the great 
 
 ♦Brougham in, 197. -fTurner's Anglo-Saxons, iii, 317. 
 
12 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 council or assembly of the barons, who con- 
 vened together on the summons of the king, and 
 over whom the king himself presided. This 
 great council of witan, or wise men, consisted of 
 nobles, holding land, the superior thanes, arch- 
 bishops, bishops, abbots and priors, and milites,, 
 or those who were afterwards called knights. 
 There was in this council nothing like represen- 
 tation, and hence nothing strictly resembling 
 the modem parliament. It was an independent 
 council, deriving its strength from the individual 
 power of its members, not from their acting in 
 a representative character. The English mon- 
 archy has always had about it this interesting 
 feature, viz: it has been the government of the 
 king in council. Thus from the earliest periods 
 the witan, or wise men, composed the council of 
 the king, and the laws were made in the joint 
 names of both. 
 
 The witan elected the king from among the 
 members of the blood royal; sometimes deposed 
 •him for misconduct; formed the supreme court 
 of justice in civil and criminal cases; and ad- 
 vised the king on questions of war or peace. 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 13 
 
 and also on all important measures of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The regular revenue was chiefly derived from 
 the royal domains, and the direct taxes raised 
 by the witenagemote. 
 
 There was a regular church establishment, 
 and a body of nobles, some of whom were dis- 
 tinguished by their birth, others by their office. 
 
 Thus the Anglo-Saxon government was an 
 aristocratic monarchy, a kind of feudal aristoc- 
 racy, in which the whole political power was 
 shared between the sovereign and the nobles, 
 clerical and lay.* The third estate, the com- 
 mons, had no share whatever in the Anglo- 
 Saxon form of government. 
 
 We are now ready to contemplate the Nor- 
 man. This constitutes the fourth element, 
 foreign in its nature, which enters into the com- 
 position of the English nation. The first in 
 order was the Koman; the second, the Anglo- 
 Saxon; the third, the Dane; and the fourth, the 
 Norman. Each of these successively subdued, 
 and for a time ruled in England. Of these, the 
 
 'Brougham, iii, 202. 
 
14 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Danish was the least fruitful in results, while 
 the Saxon was the most important and the most 
 lasting; and the Norman, the next in order, as 
 regards both its present and future conse- 
 quences. 
 
 The year 1066 was signalized by the over- 
 throw of the Saxon monarch, and the accession 
 of William the Conqueror to the English crown. 
 A few days only transferred him from the Nor- 
 man dukedom to the English throne. 
 
 Normandy was a laige province in France, 
 bordering upon the English channel. A cen- 
 tury and a half had rolled away since the Nor- 
 mans under RoUo, their first duke, had con- 
 quered, and obtained by treaty, this province, 
 which they called Normandy. Here their stern 
 northern nature had become modified and con- 
 siderably changed by the new civilization that 
 surrounded thefti, the new influences under 
 which they were brought, and the circumstances 
 under which they had existed for so long a 
 period of time. Their national character had its 
 bright and dark side. In the first we discern 
 that orderly and intelligent spirit, "which made 
 them establish and preserve in their province a 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 15 
 
 regularity of government, system and law, 
 which contrasted strongly with the anarchy of 
 the rest of France. The Norman had a steady 
 fixity of purpose, a discernment of the necessity 
 of social union and mutual self-sacrifice,* of free 
 will among the individual members of a state 
 for the sake of the common weal. In the sec- 
 ond we perceive in the Norman nobility, pride, 
 statecraft, merciless cruelty, and a coarse con- 
 tempt for the industry, rights, and feelings of 
 all whom they considered the lower classes of 
 mankind." 
 
 The institutions of continental Europe, took 
 their shape, in the outset, from the conquest of 
 the Eoman provinces by the hordes of wander- 
 ing barbarians ; the settlement in those prov- 
 inces ; the new circumstances under which they 
 were pla,Ged ; the new relations arising between 
 the conqueroi"s and the conquered ; and the 
 modifying influence exerted by the institutions 
 of the one over those of the other. The barba- 
 rians brought with them no fixed and determin- 
 ate form of social life,t and on the side of the 
 Romans that life was actually dying of inaniticm. 
 
 •Creasy, 55. 'Gulzot. Representative Government, 2S1. 
 
16 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Hence long disorders arose, the reign of force 
 and dismemberment of sovereignty. 
 
 The Norman conquest of England brought 
 with it no such results. Between the Normans 
 and Saxons existed many points of resemblance. 
 They had the same origin, analogous manners 
 and language, almost identical civilization and 
 warlike spirit. There could not, therefore, be 
 as on the continent, a general and permanent 
 abasement of one race before the other. No- 
 thing short of entire annihilation of the Saxon 
 race could prevent its exerting an active and 
 powerful influence upon the Norman. 
 
 Again, the political institutions of the two, 
 although not identical, were extremely analo- 
 gous.* Absolute pow;er never existed in Eng- 
 land as on the continent. Oppression existed 
 in fact, but was never established by law. 
 
 The Norman and Saxon professed the same 
 religion, and one, too, the Roman Catholic, that 
 everywhere had the same hiei-archy, the same 
 orders of clergy, the same faith and forms of 
 worship. There was this important diflerence 
 which led to fruitful results. On the continent 
 
 •Guizot, 282 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. IT 
 
 the clergy were Romans ; in England, Saxons 
 and Normans. In the former, they were more 
 on the side of kings ; in the latter they assumed 
 a place among the landed aristocracy, and ia 
 the nation. Their political power, in the latter, 
 has always been on the decline. 
 
 It naturally resulted from all this, that each 
 people having institutions analogous to each 
 other, and pressing them forward with an almost 
 equal energy, their coexistence and conflict 
 would serve to modify each other, and to give 
 such modified result a character of greater 
 strength and permanence. 
 
 The institution which marks most strongly 
 the establishment of the Norman in England, 
 was the feudal system. Some traces of this 
 system may be found in Saxon jurisprudence, 
 but its oppressive weight never bore strongly 
 upon the nations previous to the conquest. 
 
 This system was completely established in 
 Normandy. The comparatively small extent of 
 the province ; the establishment there of the 
 conquering Normans over the subject race which 
 they subdued ; the peculiar elements of the 
 Norman character ; all combined to perfect that 
 
18 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 system, and thus give to Normandy whatever of 
 benefit or injury could legitimately be derived 
 from it. William, having had his birth, educa- 
 tion, and experience as a ruler, all within the 
 operations of this system, could not rest quietly 
 until its firm establishment upon English soil. 
 The circumstances, formerly adverted to, which 
 favored its introduction and growth, in the Ro- 
 man provinces on the continent upon the con- 
 quest and settlement of the barbarians, would 
 apply with much gi'eater force to the Norman 
 conquest and settlement in England. The sub- 
 ject races on the continent were incapable of 
 much resistance, and their uprising, under 
 oppression, could be little feared. Hence the 
 feudal system was not driven to expend all its 
 energies in preserving a quiet conquest. 
 
 But the settlement of the Normans, and the 
 preservation of their authority, were to be 
 effected among a people as brave and warlike 
 almost as themselves. Hencp the early intro- 
 duction, and rigorous enforcement, among the 
 Saxons of England, of that system as it then 
 existed in the province of Normandy. The 
 result afforded a full illustration of this fact. 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 19 
 
 On tlie eontiiient, after the. conquest and settle- 
 ment of the biirbiu-ians, we hear very rarely of 
 any insurrections of the original inhabitants. 
 The wars and conflicts were between the con- 
 querors themselves. But in England we find 
 them between the conquerors and the conquered 
 people. 
 
 The results of the establishment of this sys- 
 tem, with all its rigors in England, were two- 
 fold : 
 
 1. The little less than slavery of the labor- 
 ing population. I allude to the state technically 
 termed villeinage. The terms villein, serf, or 
 slave, originally meant nearly the same thing, 
 although the slave always difiered from the 
 other two. 
 
 Some serfs or villeins, termed villeins regard- 
 ant, were annexed to certain lands, passing into • 
 the dominion of heirs or purchasers,' whenever 
 such lands changed owners. Others termed 
 villeins in gross were bought and sold without 
 any reference to land. The latter of these were 
 never very numerous, but at the commencement 
 of the thii'teenth century, the former are sup- 
 posed to have embraced the larger part of 
 
20 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 the laboring agricultural population of Eng- 
 land.* 
 
 Tlie villein was subjected to the following; 
 1. His service was uncertain and indeterminate, 
 depending upon the master. 2. He was liable 
 to beating, imprisonment, and every other kind 
 ot chastisement. 3. He was incapable of any 
 property acquisition. 4. He passed to each suc- 
 cessive owner of the land, like other chattels. 
 5. He might be severed from the land, and sold 
 in gross by a separate deed. 6. This condition 
 descended from parent to child, and thus became 
 inheritable. 
 
 But from this extreme state of degradation, 
 where the Saxon ceorls and the Saxon thralls, or 
 slaves, wei'e reduced to about the same level, we 
 behold a gradual emancipation effected through 
 the wise, strong, humane, liberty-loving provis- 
 ions of the common law of England. A few of 
 its provisions only can be noticed. 
 
 a. An illegitimate child, born in villeinage, 
 being nullius filius,f and having no inheritable 
 blood could not inherit the condition of villein- 
 age. 
 
 •Creasy, 86. tCreasy, 89. 
 
ANGLQ-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 21 
 
 h. A villein remaining unclaimed for a year 
 and a day in any privileged town, was freed 
 from his villeinage. 
 
 c. The lord might at any time disfranchise 
 his villein. 
 
 d. There were many acts of the lord from 
 Avhich the law itself would infer disfranchise- 
 ment whether designed or not. These embraced 
 all those acts by which the lord treated the 
 villein as a freeman. Such as : 1. Vesting in 
 him the ownership of lands. 2. Accepting from 
 him the feudal solemnity of homage. 3. By 
 entering into an obligation under seal with him. 
 4. By pleading with him in an ordinary action. 
 
 The second result which the enforcement of 
 this system disclosed was in the securing more 
 order and regularity, and' the creation of a 
 stronger central power in the monarch, To this 
 latter various things contributed, as : 1. The im- 
 mense wealth of the crown independent of any 
 contributions from its subjects. 2. The readi- 
 ness with which the Saxon part of the popula- 
 tion ever served the king against any of the 
 rebellious Norman barons. 3. The great intel- 
 lectual capacity and energy of the Norman 
 
22 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 kings down to the time of John. 4. A change 
 made by William in the allegiance of the vassals. 
 Previously to the conquest the vassal swore 
 fealty absolutely to his baron.* His oath to the 
 sovereign excepted his duty to his liege lord. 
 As a result to this he was bound to follow the 
 latter in any rebellion against the sovereign. 
 The Conqueror would suffer no divided alle- 
 giance. He required the oath €(f fealty to be 
 made to himself without any reservation or ex- 
 ception, and he forfeited as well the lands of the 
 sub-vassal as those of the vassal himself, if the 
 tenant followed his liege lord in rebellion against 
 the king. 
 
 Thus vievang England at the commencement 
 of the twelfth century, aside from some peculiar 
 laws, customs and institutions of both Saxons 
 and Normans, we have three great facts out of 
 which to work out the problem of English con- 
 stitutional freedom. These were : 1. An en- 
 slaved laboring population, but along with it, 
 the unceasing efforts of the common law, finally 
 successful, at emancipation. 2. A strong body 
 of nobles, bound together by a sense of common 
 
 ♦Broughnni, in, aoii. 
 
ANGLO-SAXON INSTITUTIONS. 23 
 
 danger, and constituting altogether a powerful 
 aristocracy. 3. A strong central power center- 
 ing in the crown ; much sti'onger than anywhere 
 else is found coexisting with feudal institutions. 
 The political power, at this period, is all 
 lodo-ed with the king and the barons. There 
 was then, in a political sense, no people in En- 
 gland. The power exercised by the barons, was 
 partly political and partly proprietary. The 
 latter, however, was very much impaired by the 
 new provision, just noticed, made by the Con- 
 queror, as to fealty. The prospect certainly 
 then was that the English government would 
 settle into an immitigated despotism. 
 
24 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHARTERS OF RIGHTS. 
 
 We are npw ready to glance at the second 
 general point presented for consideration, ^iz. : 
 the charter of rights saccessively wrested from 
 the king by his principal barons 
 
 It has been well remarked by Guizot that 
 "liberties are nothing until they have become 
 rights, positive rights, formally recognized and 
 consecrated.* Rights, even when recognized, 
 are nothing so long as thev are not entrenched 
 within guaranties. And lastly, guaranties are 
 nothing so long as they are not maintained by 
 forces independent of them, in the limit of tlieir 
 rights. Convert liberties into rights, surround 
 rights by guaranties, intrust the keeping of these 
 guaranties to forces capable of maintaining 
 them, such are the successive steps in the pro- 
 gress towards a free government. 
 
 "This progress was exactly realized in En- 
 
 ■'Gulzot, History Represcntatlvii Goverument, 802. 
 
CHARTERS OF RIGHTS. 25 
 
 gland. Liberties first converted themselves into 
 •rights ; when rights were nearly recognized, 
 guaranties were sought for them ; and lastly, 
 these guaranties were placed in the hands of 
 regular powers. In this way a representative 
 system ot government was fonned." 
 
 No inconsiderable a portion of the rights, 
 and guaranties, and even forces that maintain 
 them, embraced in the British constitution, have 
 been wrung reluctantly from the monarch ; have 
 been wrested, sometimes, not without violence, 
 from the proud prerogatives which were claimed 
 to be inherited in the kingly office. This com- 
 menced even with William the Conqueror. 
 
 Although the fear of the Anglo-Saxons served 
 to bind closely together the king and his Nor- 
 man barons, yet the former, constituting the 
 great body of the English population, and strug- 
 gling to preserve their Saxon laws, could not be 
 disregarded with impunity. William felt bound 
 to respect these, and in 1071. gave a charter, 
 giving assurance that these laws should be main- 
 tained. But this was a mere recognition of a 
 right without even the semblance of a guaranty 
 
26 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 to enforce it. The consequence was, that the 
 right recognized was often violated. 
 
 A charter was granted by Henry I, contain- 
 ing a solemn promise to respect all ancient 
 rights. The promises were large and liberal, 
 but they were incessantly violated. 
 
 Stephen, the successor of Henry I, granted 
 two charters to his subjects ; the one confirming 
 the libei'ties granted by Henry I, and the laws 
 of Edward the Confessor ; and the other prom- 
 ising to reform the abuses and exactions of his 
 sheriffs. * 
 
 Even the charter of Henry II, in 1154^ ex- 
 presses nothing more than a recognition of 
 rights, containing no new promise, and no con- 
 cession of guaranties. 
 
 No concession or charter ever proved of 
 much avail until we come to the reign of John, 
 the period of magna charta, in 1215. Here, a 
 number of things combined together to produce 
 a result, one of the most momeirtous anywhere 
 recorded. 
 
 a. The title of John to the crown was defect- 
 ive, Arthur, the son of an elder brother, being 
 
 *Gulzot, History Representative Government, 305. 
 
CHAKTEKfS OF KIGHTS. 27 
 
 the real heir, and who is supposed to have been 
 murdered by John. 
 
 1). The heentious acts and cruelties of John 
 had rendered him an object of hatred, loathing, 
 and deep aversion to the English barons. 
 
 e. The loss of Normandy deprived English 
 barons of their Norman homes, and rendered 
 them more purely English. The Norman and 
 Saxon hereafter are found amal2:amatinsr togeth- 
 er, and instead of mutual hostility a union is 
 gradually forming between them. 
 
 J. There was as yet no standing army, the 
 raising of forces still depending upon the prin- 
 ciples embraced in the feudal system. 
 
 e. Stephen de Langton, both cardinal and 
 primate, was an Englishman, having English 
 sympathies, and heartily united with the En- 
 glish barons in their struggle with the crown. 
 
 f. The existence of the commons, the people, 
 began to be an established fact in England. The 
 barons were the first to make this discoveiy, and 
 to invoke their aid against the tyrant. Besides, 
 as they demanded .concessions from the king, 
 they were also willing to make like concessions 
 
28 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 to their own vassals, so that the feudal fetters 
 bound with far less severity. 
 
 g. The character of John, his dissimulation, 
 rashness and pusillanimity, his treachery and 
 weakness, all conspired to render him just the 
 very king, to all appearances, sent for the pur- 
 pose of grantincc the great charter. 
 
 After various negotiations and acts of hostil- 
 ity between the king and barons, the parties 
 finally met on the 19th June, 1215, on the plain 
 of Runnymede, a grassy plain of about one 
 hundred and sixty acres, on the south bank 
 of the Thames, between Staines and Windsor. 
 Here was wrested from John, magna charta, the 
 great charter of English rights, devoted almost 
 exclusively to the settlement of the rights, and 
 confirmation of the privileges claimed by the 
 laity. 
 
 This charter seems to have been the first 
 document establishing a distinction between the 
 greater and lesser barons,* and the higher and 
 loAver clergy, leading to the fact of separation 
 between the two houses of parliament. It also 
 determines, with great accuracy, what had been 
 
 ♦Gulzot, Rcpresontatlve Government, 314. 
 
CHAKTEKS OF KIGHTS. 29 
 
 obscure and ambiguous in the feudal laws, mod- 
 ifying and mollifying, to a great extent, their 
 operation. It fixes the amount of relief ; it pro- 
 vides that, with certain trifling exceptions, no 
 escuage, or extraordinary aid, shall be imposed 
 except by the national council of the kingdom, 
 thus furnishing the germ of the principle that 
 no tax shall be imposed without the consent of 
 those who are taxed, or their representatives. 
 
 The barons by no means limited their de- 
 mands to the obtaining of privileges for them- 
 selves. Almost all the immunities granted to 
 them, with respect to the king, the vassals 
 obtained with respect to their lords. 
 
 Very important provisions were introduced 
 regulating the administration of justice. 
 
 By article thirty-nine, it is provided: "No 
 freeman shall be arrested or imprisoned, or dis- 
 possessed of his tenement, or outlawed, or ex- 
 iled, or in anywise proceeded against ; we will 
 not place or cause to be placed, hands upon him, 
 unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by 
 the law of the land." 
 
 And by article forty : "Justice shall not be 
 sold, refused or delayed to anyone. " 
 
30 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 It makes the kin^ grant and assure to the 
 city of London, as well as to all the other cities, 
 boroughs, towns, and harbors, the possession of 
 their ancient customs and liberties. 
 
 It provides for holding the general council of 
 the kingdom concerning the assessment of aids, 
 as follows: "We shall cause to bo summoned 
 the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and the 
 greater barons of the realm, singly by our 
 letters. And furthermore we shall cause to be 
 summoned generally by our sherifi's and bailiffs, 
 all others who hold of us in chief, for a certain 
 day, that is to say, forty days before their meet- 
 ing at least, and to a certain place ; and in all 
 letters of such summons we will declare the 
 cause of such summons. 
 
 It also provides that all merchants shall have 
 full and free liberty of entering England, of 
 leaving it, of remaining there, and of traveling 
 there by land and by water; to. buy and to sell 
 without being subject to any oppression accord- 
 ing to the ancient and common usages. 
 
 The foregoing embrace the principal pro- 
 visions contained in the great charter. They 
 are, thus far, nothing but promises, concessions 
 
CHARTERS 01=' KIOHTS. 31 
 
 of rights. The barons, however, hud now seeif 
 sufficient to be satisfied that, without adequate 
 guaranties, there could be nothing to insure the 
 performance of these promises. They accord- 
 ingly provided the following as such guai-auty, 
 viz: the election by them of twenty -five out of 
 their own number, who should be charged to 
 exercise all vigilance, that the provisions of the 
 charter may be carried into effect, their powers 
 to be unlimited. Their duties were the follow- 
 ing: In case the enactments of the charter were 
 violated by the king in the smallest particular,* 
 they should denounce the abuse, before the 
 king, and demand that it be instantly checked. 
 If the king fail to comply with this demand, 
 then the barons were vested with the right, 
 forty days after the issuing of the summons, to 
 prosecute the king, to deprive him of his lands 
 and castles until the abuse should be reformed 
 to their satisfaction. 
 
 This was undoubtedly as complete a guaranty 
 as the spirit of that age required, or its compre- 
 hension could understand. The great defect 
 was, the want of constitutional forces to enforce 
 
 *Gnizot, Representative Government, 315, 316. 
 
32 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 its observance. The only forces it provided 
 were a civil war, a resort to physical force. 
 This was in harmony with the spirit of the age. 
 The embodiment of political- force in the consti- 
 tution itself, and its quiet, peaceful production 
 of effects without' a resort to the calamities of 
 war, had not then entered the conceptions of 
 men. But even this forcible guaranty was of 
 great value, as it centralized the feudal aristoc- 
 racy by organizing the council of barons. 
 
 John afterwards procured the great charter to 
 be annulled by the pope, Innocent III, and the 
 barons excommunicated; but Archbishop Lang- 
 ton refused to pronounce the sentence. John 
 had scarcely got his army on foot when he was 
 called away by death. 
 
 The evil of relying upon physical force, a 
 civil war, to secure the observance of guaran- 
 ties, was soon perceived and strongly felt. Even 
 under the reign of John's successor, Henry III, 
 efforts were made for other securities than force. 
 In the early part of it. a new charter was 
 granted, corresponding mainly with that granted 
 by John, but in it the right of resistance by 
 
CHARTERS OF RIGHTS. 33 
 
 armed force, in case the king should violate his 
 promises, Avas not included. 
 
 Repeated violations of the charter took place, 
 and in order to obviate these the expedient was 
 adopted of appointing twelve knights in each 
 count}-, who should inquire what, according to 
 ancient usages, were the rights of the king and 
 the liberties of his subjects. 
 
 Henry, on coming of age, revoked all the 
 charters he had grJmted. This gave rise to 
 great discontents, and these to new confirmations 
 of charters, which were again violated. Civil 
 Avar Avas noAv declared. Rebellion occuiTed; but 
 its aim now was less to obtain the reneAval of 
 charters than to found practical guaranties of 
 recognized rights. The result was a general 
 renewal of the charters, granted on the 14th 
 March, 1264. This Avas little other than a 
 ti'eaty of peace between the king and the 
 barons. 
 
 The struggle continued Avith unabated force 
 
 imder Edward I ; but neither party appealed to 
 
 arms. The day of physical force had, for the 
 
 present gone by. The contest was continued, 
 
 C 
 
34 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 but its theatre was changed. So long as mate- 
 rial forces were looked to for the enforce- 
 ment of guaranties, it is clear that the higher 
 triumph of political forces peacefully accomplish- 
 ing their results through the constitution, can 
 never take place. Both parties cannot fail in 
 time to grow weary of a constant resort to 
 physical force. It impoverishes and destroys 
 without leaving any equivalent. The spirit it 
 engenders is only one of hatred and hostilit}'. 
 Its mission, therefore, is well and wisely lim- 
 ited. 
 
 Edward was a conqueror and much engaged 
 in wars. The prosecution of tliese required 
 large sums of money, to obtain which he did 
 not scruple to adopt violent and arbitrary 
 measures. This resulted in complaints and dis- 
 satisfaction. During his absence on the con- 
 tinent, his representative in England, the prince 
 regent, assembled a parliament in October, 
 1297. There a general confirmation of the 
 charters, with several additions, was demanded, 
 which the prince regent granted, and Edward 
 some time after sanctioned. On his return to 
 England, the barons demanded that, in his own 
 
CHARTERS OF RIGHTS. 35 
 
 person, he should confirm them. After consid- 
 erable evasion, he finally granted a new confirm- 
 ation, but with a restrictive clause which really- 
 annulled the grant. 
 
 This raised against him a storm of public 
 opinion which threatened a resort to force. 
 Being severely pressed, he finally convoked a 
 parliament m March, 1300, at which he con- 
 firmed, without any restrictions, all the 'conces- 
 sions he had already made, superadding to them 
 new guaranties. These latter principally con- 
 sisted in the provision that the charters should 
 be publicly read in the county courts four times 
 every year,* and that there should be elected in 
 each county court, from among the knights of 
 the court, three justices, sworn to receive all 
 complaints of infractions of the charters, and 
 to pronounce pendlties against the offenders. 
 
 So also in a parliament held in 1301, Edwarc^ 
 again confirmed the charters. 
 
 These repeated oaths of confirmation hung 
 heavy upon the conscience of, Edward. They 
 subjected him to a restraint which he but illy 
 endured. Towards the close of the year 1304, 
 
 •Guizot, Kepresentatlve Government, 329. 
 
36 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 he applied to Pope Clement V, for a release 
 from these oaths. By a bull, dated January 5, 
 1305, the pontiff declared that all the promises 
 and concessions made by Edward were abro- 
 gated, null and void. 
 
 This bull he, for a long time, kept secret, 
 resorting to secret manceuvres to overthrow the 
 charters. But it was now too late. Almost 
 a century had elapsed since the great charter 
 had been wrested from king John on the plains 
 of RunnjaKiede. Since that time almost a con- 
 stant warfare had been kept up between the 
 king on the one side, and the barons and grow- 
 ing power of the commons on the other. This 
 had been waged on battle-fields and in parlia- 
 mentary discussions. The eye of the nation 
 had seen the one, and the ear of the nation 
 drank in the other, until a public opinion began 
 to be formed, before which, in the absence of 
 large standing armies, monarchs , themselves 
 were becoming impotent. Hence, the confirma- 
 tion by Edward in 1301, was the last confirmation 
 over made. The right which it proclaimed 
 was definitely recognized. From that period the 
 charters, notwithstanding all attacks made upon 
 
CHARTERS OF RIGHTS. 37 
 
 them have remained as the immovable basis of 
 public right in England.* 
 
 We now close the consideration of that part 
 of the British constitution derived from charters. 
 The rights thus acquired have not come up from 
 the people, and been by them maintained, but 
 they have come down from the throne, through 
 the agency of the barons. They have been 
 wrested by force, physical and mf)ral, from that 
 which at one period, concentrated all political 
 power, the crown. England owes much, if 
 not all, her constitutional freedom and power 
 to the stern integrity, inflexible purposes, 
 and steady onward progress of her baronial 
 aristocracy. And we shall presently find that 
 the same power so efficient in wresting rights 
 under the form of concessions from the crown, 
 constitutes, in the working of the constitution, 
 that element of conservatism, strength and 
 stability, that afibrds the promise of perpetual 
 endurance. 
 
 *Guizot, Representative Government, 330. 
 
38 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 ORIGIN ^ND GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH PAELIA- 
 MENT. 
 
 We now proceed to the third branch of in- 
 quiry relating to England's constitutional history, 
 viz: the origin and growth of the English par- 
 liament, including the successive steps or stages 
 by which the two houses attained their political 
 power, and the principle of representation 
 became iirmlj' established. 
 
 This assumes directly the contrary position 
 from that just considered. That assumed that 
 all political power centered in the crown, and 
 that all rights were nothing more than con- 
 cessions from prerogative. This, that the peo- 
 ple were the great source of power, and that all 
 authority legitimatel}' came from them. The 
 first brings power from above; the second sum- 
 mons it from below. The point at M'hich they 
 meet is the central, focal one, around which 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 39 
 
 revolves the forces that together compose the 
 British constitution. 
 
 It is essential here to understand the diflFerent 
 functions of that general power which governs 
 society. 
 
 First, we have the legislative, which imposes 
 rules and laws upon the mass of society, and 
 even upon the executive power. It is in its 
 legislative capacity that the sovereignty of the 
 state receives its highest development.* 
 
 But the law-making power can be of little 
 effect without that necessary accompaniment, 
 the law-executing power. Next, therefore, 
 appears the executive, and this takes the daily 
 oversight of the general business of society, 
 war, peace, revenue, general execution of the 
 laws. 
 
 But this law-executing power must be guided 
 aright in its action. Hence the necessity of the 
 judicial, which ascertains the law, defines it, 
 puts lipon it a construction, applies it to the 
 many purposes of business and life, and adjusts 
 all matters of private interest bet ween, individ- 
 uals and the state and its citizens. 
 
 •Gulzot, Representative Government, 888. 
 
40 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 In addition to these is the administi'ative 
 power, which is charged under its own responsi- 
 bility, with the duty of regulating matters 
 which cannot be anticipated and provided for by 
 any general .laws. 
 
 The centralization of these four powers, and 
 their union in one man creates a despotism. 
 Their separation, and distribution in such a 
 manner as that they shall severally operate as 
 mutual restraints and checks upon each other, 
 creates a free government. It is in their union 
 and their separate action that we find most of 
 the distinctive differences between the monarchi- 
 cal governments of the continent, and the mixed, 
 free government of great Britain. 
 
 On the continent centralization has destroyed 
 all localization, absorbed all local powers, and 
 resulted in a more or less strongly unqualified 
 absolutism. 
 
 In England, fortunately, local powers have 
 never been destroyed. They have been pre- 
 served through a thousand vicissitudes. They 
 have been harmoniously developed, have regu- 
 lated and defined their own action. The central 
 government, as we now behold it, has been a 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 41 
 
 gradual emanation from them. Its formation 
 has had a commencement, a progress, a history, 
 all I'eplete witli interest and instruction. 
 
 The Saxons, as we have seen, had their witen- 
 agemote, or council of wise men, who were 
 advisers of the king. The first Norman kings 
 had their council of barons, an assembly of 
 nobles who treated of afitiirs of state or assisted 
 the king in the adminstration of justice. The 
 legislative and judicial povTOrs were united, and 
 belonged to this assembly. The ancient usage 
 was that the nobles should meet at Christmas 
 either for a celebration or deliberation concern- 
 ing the affairs of the kingdom. They were 
 occupied in legislation, ecclesiastical affairs, 
 questions of peace and war, imposition of taxes, 
 or other matters of government. 
 
 As to the constitution of these assemblies it 
 
 Avas undoubtedly feudal, and composed of the 
 
 king's vassals, who owed him service both at 
 
 court and in war. But these could not all have 
 
 attended, as the vassals of William I exceeded 
 
 six hundred in number. There is here no trace 
 
 of election or representation. Under the first 
 
 Norman .kings two forces composed the govern- 
 2* 
 
i2 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ment: royalty and the council of barons. The 
 history of England's chartered rights reveals 
 the strussle between these two forces. It was 
 during the continuance of this struggle that the 
 commons commenced rising into importance. 
 The fact that, more than any other, proves the 
 rise of the commons, is the introduction of 
 county deputies into parliament. 
 
 The first clear trace of this is in 1214, in the 
 assembly convoked by John at Oxford. Some 
 writs then issued, ordered that the followers of the 
 barons should present themselves at Oxford with- 
 out arms,* and enjoined besides that the sheriffs 
 should send to Oxford four approved knights from 
 each county "in order to consider, with us, the 
 affairs of our kingdom." Here, for the first time, 
 is representation, that is, the admission of certain 
 individuals, who should appear and act in the 
 name of all. The object undoubtedly was to 
 attach the knights to the royal interest in the 
 contest with the barons. The same struggle and 
 policy ran through the reign of Henry HI. 
 
 Forty years later, in 1254, in convoking an 
 extraordinary parliament in London, Henry III 
 
 *CiuIzot, History tJepresentattve Government, 353. 
 
THE ENGLISH PAKLIAMENT. 43 
 
 addressed a writ to the sheriffs enjoining them 
 to cause two knights to be elected in the qonnty 
 courts " in the stead of each and all of them,"* 
 to deliberate on the aid to be granted to the 
 king. Here is real representation. It is the 
 entrance of the commons into parliament in the 
 persons of the two knights who repi'esent 
 them. 
 
 Ten years later still, in 1264, a parliament 
 was convoked to consist of peers, county depu- 
 ties, and also borough deputies, thus giving it 
 the extent it has since preserved. 
 
 The difference between county and town or 
 borough deputies was, that the former came in 
 right of being the immediate vassals of the 
 king, while the latter came not upon any prin- 
 ciple of right, but depended entirely upon 
 isolated facts bearing no relation to one another. 
 No general principle was invoked applying to 
 all towns and boroughs. The grant of repre- 
 sentatives to one did not involve any similar 
 concession to another, f or others. Here, thus 
 early, we discern the radical vice in the electoral 
 system of England, which gave rise to the rot- 
 
 'fGuIzot, History Representative Government, 366. t Idem, 355, 
 
44 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ten borough system, so much complained of un- 
 til the passage of the reform bill in 1821. " It 
 arose from the privilege first conferred upon 
 boroughs or towns, which finally ripened into 
 rishts. The borough changed sometimes, al- 
 most totally disappeared in the progress of time. 
 But the ri^ht to send representatives still re- 
 mained, and hence, in some cases, where the 
 entire borough was owned by one individual, 
 he alone was entitled to send the representative. 
 At the same time other places had grown u}) 
 into importance where no such right existed. 
 Thus the representation of boroughs grew to 
 be, in the extremest degree, unequal. 
 
 The regular parliaments embodying the 
 principle of representation, having found their 
 origin in the troublous times of John and 
 Henry II, became more thoroughly formed and 
 consolidated during the reign of Edward I. 
 
 Two kinds of parliament appear during this 
 reign ; the one composed only of the liigher 
 barons, the other of deputies from counties and 
 boroughs. The attributes of these were almost 
 identical, the same powers being often exercised 
 by each. The first mentioned met much more 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. i5 
 
 frequently, the last only upon extraordinary 
 occasions, when some genei-al impost was to be 
 obtained from the freeholdei'S. 
 
 In 1295, a complete parliament was convoked 
 at Westminster, the writs being addressed to 
 the bishops and archbishops, ordering them to 
 cause a certain number of deputies for the chap- 
 ters and for the clerg}"^ to be nominated,* also 
 summoning tbrty-nine earls or barons individ- 
 ually, and also enjoining the sheriifs to cause 
 two knights to be elected for each county, and 
 two deputies for each borough in the county. 
 
 This parliament, at its meeting, was divided 
 into two houses, one containing lay representa- 
 tives, the other ecclesiastical ; their place of 
 meeting: and votes being distinct. 
 
 In the beginning of the fourteenth century 
 the parliament already rested on a fixed basis. 
 It was composed 
 
 a. Of earls or lay barons which the king 
 convened individually. Along with these were 
 the principal functionaries of the king, such as 
 the judges and members of the privy council. 
 
 h. Of archbishops, bishops, abbots, and pri- 
 
 •Gulzot, Representative Government, 3T2. 
 
46 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 ors, also summoned individually-* In regard 
 to both these, and the earls or barons, no law or 
 precedent defined who should be summoned. 
 The king acted arbitrarily in this respect, sum- 
 moning Avhoever he pleased. It had not yet 
 settled into an hereditary right. 
 
 c. Of deputies, from the knights or freehold- 
 ers of the counties. Here we meet with repre- 
 sentation. The convocation of these deputies 
 was more certain as it resulted from the right 
 of every immediate vassal to a seat in the 
 general assembly ; and regular, because the 
 county courts, whence they originated, were, 
 all over England, composed of the same ele- 
 ments, and possessed of the same interests, con- 
 stituting a uniform and identical whole, each be- 
 ing equally entitled to the privilege of repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 d. Of deputies from cities, towns and bor- 
 oughs. There was he^re no certainty or regular- 
 ity. The admission of deputies from one cit}'' 
 or town did not involve their admission from 
 another, or even from, the same at a future time. 
 The number of town and borough deputies was 
 
 * Gulzot, History of Representative Government, 874. 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. i7 
 
 not fixed, but determined arbitrarily by tiie 
 king. But the convocation of two for eacli 
 county, and as many for each borough, finally 
 passed into a rule. Neither the convocation of 
 county nor borough deputies was originally a 
 public necessity, but it became such when con- 
 sent in all matters of impost was recognized as 
 a right. 
 
 Who were the electors in the counties and 
 boroughs, and. what was the manner of election? 
 In regard to the former, two facts present them- 
 selves.* 
 
 a. The direct vassals of the king who, on 
 account of their inferior importance, ceased to 
 attend the general assembly ; naturally made it 
 their business to attend the county courts. 
 
 h. The great body of freeholders also attend- 
 ed the same courts, and the one became merged 
 in the other, both exercising the same rights. 
 This general assembly of freeholders, having 
 local as well as general matters to attend to, fell 
 into the habit of appointing some one or more 
 of its members, to attend to their local or 
 general business. 
 
 • Gulzot, Eepreeentatlve Government, 379. 
 
4-8 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The boroughs have a different history. It 
 w.'is not there the freeholder ' but the citizen, 
 who controlled its operations. It was the citi- 
 zens who managed the affairs of the borough in 
 virtue of their charter, upon whom devolved the 
 riglit of naming its representatives. 
 
 The electoral rights, were therefore, entirely 
 different in the counties and boroughs. In the 
 former being regular they have adapted them- 
 selves to all the vicissitudes of property, and 
 have becoriie proportionally extended, while in 
 the boroughs, until the late parliamentary re- 
 form, they have remained unaltered. The 
 mode of -election was by open voting, which 
 l^ecame perpetuated. 
 
 The true principle of representation in re- 
 lation to counties and boroughs was originally 
 carried into parliament.* The representatives 
 of each entering there remained distinct. Those 
 of the boroughs never deliberated with those of 
 the counties: etlch treated Avith the government 
 as to those affairs alone which interested itself , 
 consenting on its own account to the imposition 
 of taxes on its own constituency. 
 
 '(iiiizot. Kepreseut.itlve Uovernment, 393. 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 4:9 
 
 In process of time, however, this became 
 changed,' the county and borough members be- 
 coming united into one single assembly.* To- 
 wards the middle of the fourteenth century the 
 parliament was divided Jnto two houses, one 
 the house of lords, in which the great barons 
 were individually summoned ; the other that of 
 the commons, comprising all the elected repre- 
 sentatives of counties and boroughs. 
 
 This was an important result, and one that 
 has fixed the destiny of England. Had the rep- 
 resentatives of the counties and boroughs con- 
 tinued to remain separate in their meeting, in 
 their interests, and in their action, the power of 
 the commons would have been divided, and 
 thus necessarily weakened, and by , creating 
 divisions between the two, the king, in con- 
 junction with the lords, might easily have over- 
 come them. But the representatives of the 
 countijes and boroughs having the same origin , 
 appeaj'ing in parliament by virtue of the same 
 title, election ; each alike in having in charge 
 certa,jn local interests, which were often identi- 
 cal ;! by forming with each other a union so inti- 
 
 'Gulzot, Representative Government, 419. +iaein, 422. 
 
 D 3 
 
50 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 mate as to form constituent parts of the same 
 assembly, acquired for themselves such com- 
 bined and concentrated power as to render 
 them a co-ordinate branch of the English govern- 
 ment, and vest in them the political supremacy 
 which their real importance demanded. Thus, 
 while the great barons, composing thie house 
 of lords, constituted the chief council of the 
 king, and engaged in public affairs in a perma- 
 nent manner by reason of their personal im- 
 portance, the representatives of the counties 
 and boroughs, clothed with a power not per- 
 sonal but representative, interfering in public 
 affairs only from time to time and in certain 
 particular cases, were enabled by their combi- 
 nation and united action, to exert an influence, 
 little less than controlling, in the administration 
 of the government. 
 
 The great lever through which the commons 
 rose into power, and ultimately compelled that 
 power to be recognized by the crown, was in 
 the grant of supplies. When once the point 
 was conceded, that the only road to the pockets 
 of the people lay through the house of commons; 
 that their vote alone could replenish an exhaust- 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 51 
 
 ed treasury ; they acquired a constitutional im- 
 portance which cannot well be overestimated. 
 This right, although early conceded, yet ' they 
 were long in fully acquiring. But in the early 
 part of the fourteenth century we find them 
 possessed of so much strength in the exercise of 
 it as to venture upon the annexation of condi- 
 tions. In 1309 when granting to Edward II a 
 twentieth part of their movable goods, they ex- 
 pressly attached the condition that " the king 
 should take into consideration, and should 
 grant them the redress of certain grievances of 
 which they had to complain." 
 
 In 1322 a statute was passed declaring that 
 " thenceforward all laws respecting the estate 
 of the crown, or of the realm and people, must 
 be treated, accorded and established in parlia- 
 ment by the king,* by and with the assent of 
 the prelates, earls, barons, commonalty of the 
 realm." This amounts, thus early, to a clear 
 recognition of the commonalty as a co-ordinate 
 branch of the government, and of its right to 
 interfere in legislation, and all great public 
 affairs. 
 
 *6ulzot, Bepresentatlve Goveramcnt, 451. 
 
52 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 In perfect accordance with the principle thus 
 early embraced in this statute, we find the 
 action of the government. In 1328, a treaty of 
 peace was made with Scotland, which was con- 
 cluded with the consent of the parliament.* In 
 13-31, Edward III consulted the parliament on 
 the question of peace or war with France. In 
 1336, it urged the king to declare war against 
 Scotland. In 134:1, the parliament pressed Ed- 
 w^ard III to continue the war in France, and 
 furnished him with large subsidies. In 1343, 
 the parliament was convoked to examine and 
 advise what had best be done in the existing 
 state of afiairs. In 1361, peace with France' 
 having been concluded, the parliament was con- 
 voked, and the treaty was submitted to its in- 
 spection, and received its approval. In 1368, 
 the negotiations with Scotland were submitted 
 to the consideration of the parliament. Ih 
 1369, the king consulted the parliament as to 
 whether he should recommence the war with 
 France, because of the non-observance of the 
 conditions of the last treaty ; and the parlia- 
 ment advised him to do so, and voted subsidies. 
 
 •Creasy, 218, 219. 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 63 
 
 These facts are all valuable as showing the 
 constant practice of intervention by the com- 
 mons in important national afikirs at this early 
 pei'iod, and dm-ing the strong reign of Edward 
 
 ni. 
 
 Another fact which it becomes important 
 here to notice is the right of petition, its 
 essence, origin and history. Its essence is a 
 right to demand the reparation of an injury, or 
 to express a desire. In the fourteenth century 
 gll petitions were addressed to the king. He 
 governed, and possessed both the right and the 
 power to redress grievances. But he governed 
 in his council, the most eminent and extensive 
 of which was the parliament. The regular 
 practice was, that the king, by officers specially 
 appointed for that purpose, received and ex- 
 amined all petitions, and afterwards called the 
 attention of both houses to those with whose 
 prayers he could not comply without their sanc- 
 tion. The interference of the houses of parlia- 
 ment was, therefore, only in certain cases, and 
 then as a necessary council. All propositions 
 in either house took the form of petitions to the 
 king for his order, assent, or edict, which thus 
 
54 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 had the force of law ; and at the close of each 
 session, the clerks in chancery reduced the 
 whole to a form of statutes. Thus, in its origin, 
 the houses of parliament, and more especially 
 that of the commons, were themselves the great 
 public petitioner. 
 
 When the house of commoiis had achieved 
 the position of a co-ordinate branch of the gov- 
 ernment, and acquired the possession of power 
 as such, the right of petition to the two houses 
 of parliament became regarded as a natural con- 
 sequence of the right of petition to the king. 
 
 The importance of this consists principally 
 in the creation of new avenues to the introduc- 
 tion of business. Formerly the government 
 brought forward the questions which gave rise 
 to the discussions in the two houses. Now the 
 right of petition introduces a new initiative, and 
 the humblest citizen, who forms no part of the 
 public power, can, nevertheless, through the ex- 
 ercise of that right, introduce a subject of dis- 
 cussion, and thus set that power in motion. 
 
 It was during the long half century reign of 
 Edward III that the parliament acquired much 
 of its present constitution. We have already 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 55 
 
 seen the numerous instances of its intervention 
 in the affairs of government. Another fact 
 characterizing this reign is the great regularitj 
 with which the parliament was corfvoked. Dur- 
 ing his reign there were forty-eight sessions, 
 nearly one session in each year. It passed acts 
 providing for the regularity of its own convo- 
 cation, and also to insure the security of its de- 
 liberations. 
 
 Ao^ain, it is during this reim that we hear 
 for the first time of the parliament being di- 
 vided into two houses ;* and quite at the end of 
 the same reign, in 1377, the parliamentary rolls 
 first make mention of the speaker of the house 
 of commons. 
 
 / Another important fact to be noticed during 
 this reign is the voting of taxes. Many in- 
 stances occur of the imposition of arbitrary and 
 illegal imposts, but the perseverance of the 
 commons, in the maintenance of their exclusive 
 right of, taxation was steady and continuous. 
 They, in two cases, even extended it beyond the 
 concession of subsidies. In 13iO, the parlia- 
 ment appointed certain persons to receive the 
 
 *Gutzot, Ueprosentatlvc Government, -178. 
 
56 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 accounts of the tax-collectors, and required 
 them to give security for the payment of all 
 they received. This is interesting as containing 
 the germ of a right subsequently asserted and 
 maintained, of demanding an account of the 
 national expenditures. The first step in that 
 direction was taken by making sure of the fideli- 
 ty of the receipts. lu 1354, the parliament, in 
 granting a tax on wool, annexed to it a condi- 
 tion that the money so raised should be devoted 
 to the war then carried on. This presents us 
 with the rudiment of another parliamentary 
 right, that of the appropriation of the public 
 funds. The parliament appear during this 
 reign tO have participated generally in legisla- 
 tion. This is evident from the form of the 
 statutes passed. 
 
 Besides taking an active part in things re- 
 lating to wars and foreign affairs, the interfer- 
 ence of parliament in the internal administration 
 of the country was no less strongly marked. 
 In 1342, the commons, profiting by an exhaust- 
 ed treasury, presented to the king two petitions. 
 
 " That certain by commission may hear the 
 account of those who have received wools. 
 
THE ENGLISH PAKLIAMENT. 57 
 
 moneys, or other aid for the king, and that the 
 same may be enrolled in the chancery." This, 
 with some slight modification, was granted. 
 
 •'That the chancellor and other officers of 
 state may be chosen in open parliament, and at 
 the same time be openly sworn to observe the 
 laws of the land and magna charta." This also 
 was granted with some modification. These, 
 with their modifications, were immediately con- 
 verted into statutes. Here again we find the 
 rudiments of ministerial responsibility to parlia- 
 ment ; the claim to exercise some influence over 
 the choice of ministers, and also to hold them 
 responsible for their conduct. 
 
 Thus the long reign of Edward III saw the 
 English parliament established on a permanent 
 basis. It has undergone but little real alteration 
 since, only its functions have become better 
 defined. 
 
 The power of the commons also increased 
 under Richard II, so that at the accession of 
 Henry IV, it might.be said of the three follow- 
 ing points, that the first was ' decided in their 
 favor ; the second admitted in principle, and tiie 
 
58 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 third confirmed by frequent exercise. These 
 were : 
 
 a. That they alone could grant taxes. 
 
 S. That all laws enacted must be with their 
 consent. 
 
 c. That the administration of government 
 was subject to their inspection and control. 
 
 During the domination of the house of Lan- 
 caster, the parliament also made some progress. 
 The want of a clear title in the princes of that 
 house probably exerted an influence on the ex- 
 tent of their prerogative claims. The parlia- 
 ment exercised with much opposition : * 
 
 a. The voting of taxes. 
 
 5. The appropriation of the subsidies. 
 
 c. The investigation of the public accounts. 
 
 d. Intervention in the legislature. 
 
 e. Impeachment of the great officers of the 
 crown. 
 
 Two additional rights were also claimed, and 
 quite a progress made towards their complete 
 recognition under the Lancastrian princes. 
 These were: 
 
 a. Liberty of speech to the members. 
 
 •Gulzot, Representative Government, 510. 
 
THE ENGLISH PAELIAMKNT. 59 
 
 h. The inviolability of the members, their 
 freedom from arrest. 
 
 In 1407, in a debate as to which house should 
 have the exclusive right to introduce bills for 
 the raising of taxes, it was finally settled : * 
 
 a. That such right should belong exclusively 
 to the commons. 
 
 i. That it was the right of both houses that 
 the king should take no cognizance of the sub- 
 ject of their deliberations until they had come to 
 a decision upon it, and could lay it before him as 
 the desire of the lords and commons in parlia- 
 ment assembled. 
 
 It was at this epoch that the lodgment of the 
 ultimate judicial power was settled. That power 
 originally resided in the entire parliament. At 
 the suggestion of the commons in 1399, it was 
 declared to. belong exclusively to the house of 
 lords. 
 
 During the reign of Henry VI, an act was 
 passed limiting the right of franchise, f and 
 enacting that for the future, knights of the shire 
 shall be chosen by people dwelling and resident 
 in the counties, whereof every one of them shall 
 
 •Gufzot, Repreaentattve bovernment, 514. tCreasy, 231. 
 
60 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 have free land or tenement to the value of forty 
 shillings, by the year at least, above all charges. 
 Two years later was passed an act requiring the 
 voter's freehold to be situate in the county for 
 which he votes, and these contain essentially the 
 basis for voting which has ever since been acted 
 upon. During this long reign of Henry VI the 
 power of parliament advanced, and almost ab- 
 sorbed the entire government. 
 
 During the century that occurred between 
 Kichard II and Richard III, there was a great 
 diminution of England's feudal aristocracy. 
 This was the era of sanguinary wars between 
 the partisans of the houses of York and Lancas- 
 ter ; between the white and red roses. Many of 
 the great barons of England fell on the battle- 
 field, and others were stripped of a great part 
 or the whole, of their resources. Thus that 
 sturdy baronial power that wrested magna 
 charta from king John, no longer existed. It 
 was broken down, and royalty had little to fear 
 of opposition from that quarter. 
 
 The commons, it is true, had acquired many 
 constitutional rights and privileges of great 
 value. But they also had been wasted by civil 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 61 
 
 war; and besides, as against the crown, they 
 were accustomed to follow the lead of the 
 barons, and were not, therefore, in a condition 
 to take their place in a struggle with royalty. 
 
 These were the circumstances under which 
 the house of Tudor, in the person of Henry VII, 
 acquired the crown of 1485. With an aristoc- 
 racy so depressed, and well near annihilated, 
 and with commons unaccustomed to take the 
 lead in contests with the crown, and also 
 laboring under great depression, we may nat- 
 urally expect to see royalty again in the ascend- 
 ant. We are not disappointed. The Tudors 
 reigned with more absolute authority than their 
 predecessors. Their better title to th^ crown, 
 together with the circumstances just alluded to, 
 enabled them to do this. 
 
 We find, therefore, Henry VHI, the success- 
 or of Henry VH, performing many acts which 
 mark the worst of tyrants, and during his reign 
 some parliamentary acts were passed of a gen- 
 eral character which appear to be wide devia- 
 tions from any previous action. Of these we 
 have : 
 
 a. An act passed in 1629, releasing the king 
 
62 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 from all debts he had contracted six years be- 
 fore, although his securities had in many case? 
 passed into the hands of third persons who had 
 purchased them for valuable considerations.* 
 
 5. That empowering the king, on' attaining 
 the age of twenty-four years, to repeal all acts of 
 parliament made while he was under that age. 
 
 c. That declaring the proclamations of the 
 king in council, if made under pain of fine and 
 imprisonment, to have the force of statutes, pro- 
 vided they affected no one's property or life, and 
 violated no existing law, and authorizing the 
 king by proclamation to make any opinion 
 , heretical, and anaexing death as the penalty of 
 holding them. 
 
 These were each one, acts which disgraced 
 the English parliament, and indicated the dispo- 
 sition to lay the liberties of the English nation 
 at the foot of the throne. And what was worse, 
 the oppression of the Tudors, although it was in 
 fact less severe than that of many of the Plan- 
 tiigenets, was nevertheless exercised upon sys- 
 tem. Under them, royaltj^ laid claim to a 
 primitive independent sovereignt3^ The powera 
 
 *Brougham, tii, 254. 
 
THK ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 63 
 
 of the prerogative were asserted as matter of 
 right to have a legal supremacy. Under its 
 fearful shadow, royalty declared itself absolute 
 and superior to all laws. 
 
 What this might have led to a century earlier 
 it might be difficult to say, but the sixteenth 
 century broke upon England and Europe with a 
 new light. The spirit of industry was abroad. 
 It penetrated every, department. Agriculture, 
 the mechanic arts, manufactures, commerce, with 
 all their stirring activities, pervaded the hearts 
 of men. To carry all these out required the ex- 
 ercise of bold, daring and free minds. The 
 habits of the age, therefore, were all in direct 
 hostility to the exorbitant claims of preroga- 
 tive. 
 
 The result of this industrial activity was to 
 accumulate wealth. Property lost'its fixedness. 
 It really changed hands, even baronial property 
 could not stand against the spirit of the age. 
 Landed property became divided, and .between 
 division and transfer the old feudiil nobility 
 wasted away. Persons who had acquired pi-op- 
 erty by trade began to rise to distinction . At 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century the 
 
04 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 high nobility, composing the house of lords, did 
 noi equal in wealth the house of commons.* 
 
 There was something more than this new 
 spirit and change of property, accompanied by 
 change of circumstances. There was inaugurat- 
 ed a new march of mind. The mind claimed its 
 prerogative as well as the king. Thought was 
 free, bold and searching in its character. The 
 principles of the Puritans were taking root ii 
 the soil of England. Political liberty could not 
 long be divorced from those who were willing to 
 sacrifice all for liberty of conscience. 
 
 Again, we are to consider that under the 
 reign of the Tudors there were numerous con- 
 cessions to the importance of parliament. This 
 body under the Plantagenets had been a means 
 of resistance, a guaranty of private rights, but 
 under the Tudors it was an instrument of gov- 
 ernment, of general policy. While, therefore, 
 as in the very acts we have cited, it was the tool 
 of royalty, yet even by that means its impor- 
 tance became greatly increased. 
 
 The reign of the Tudors lasted a little over 
 
 a century, and ended with that of Elizabeth, 
 
 \ 
 
 •Gulzot, 303. 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 65 
 
 about the close of the sixteenth century. At 
 this period the free institutions of England ma}- 
 be said to consist : 
 
 a . Of maxims, principles of liberty, acknowl- 
 edged in written documents.* 
 
 J. Of precedents, examples of liberty, which 
 were scattered over their previous history. 
 
 c. Of particular local institutions, such as 
 trial by jury, right of holding public meetings, 
 of bearing arms, etc. 
 
 d. Of the parliament, now more nebessarj' to 
 the kings than ever, as their independent re\e- 
 nues, crown domains, and feudal rights, having 
 disappeared, they had become dependent on 
 their parliaments for their household expenses. 
 
 The house of Stuart succeeded to the crown 
 in the person of James I, about the commence- 
 ment of the seventeenth century. And then 
 begain the real contest between the crown and 
 the parliament, which ended in the triumph of 
 the latter. The mutterings of the tempest were 
 heard during the reign of James, but it w^as 
 rather a discussion of principles. He claimed 
 absolute power as a birthright. His conduct 
 
 •Gulzpt, 305. 
 
 E 3* 
 
6C THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 was fickle, weak and wavering, while the com- 
 mons were firm and steady. 
 
 But under the second Stuart, Charles I, came 
 the decisive conflict between the commons and 
 the king, between free inquiry and pure mon- 
 archy. In the progress of the revolution three 
 parties were very clearly developed. These 
 were : * 
 
 a. The pure monarchy party, whose princi- 
 ples were entirely monarchical, but who advo- 
 cated legal reform. 
 
 }>. The political revolutionary party, who 
 deemed the ancient guaranties insufficient, and 
 sought to place the preponderence of power in 
 the house of commons. 
 
 c. The republican party, wtio went for a rad- 
 ical change in the government, who sought to 
 overthrow the old forms, and establish new 
 ones ; who wished to extend the power of the 
 two houses, particularly of the commons, by 
 giving to it the nomination of the great officers 
 of state, and the supreme direction of affiiirs in 
 general. ' Of these three, as is usual in revolu- 
 tions, the last, which was the most radical, and 
 
 ■KJulzot, 308-0. 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 67 
 
 animated with the most enthusiasm, was in the 
 end triumphant. 
 
 The first act of warfare on the part of 
 Charles was the imprisonment of members of 
 parliament fqr words spoken in debate.* But 
 the house compelled him to release them by re- 
 fusing to proceed to business until their release. 
 Next he dissolved the parliament, but this only- 
 led to the election of another still more hostile. 
 Another dissolution led to a third parliament, 
 and it was from this that the famous petition of 
 right proceeded, which constitutes one of the 
 pillars upon which reposes the English constitu- 
 tion. By this, the parliament compelled the 
 king to declare illegal the requisition of loans 
 without parliamentary sanction, or the billeting 
 of soldiers upon subjects, or commitment with- 
 out legal process, or procedure by martial law. 
 But when, in addition, they required him to 
 give up the right of levying tonnage and poimd- 
 age, he again dissolved the parliament and im- 
 prisoned the opposition leaders. 
 
 But to reign without a parliament was impos- 
 sible, and another was sunmioned. This turned 
 
 •Brougham, m, 373. 
 
68 THE 13KITIS1I CONSTITUTION 
 
 out to be what is termed the long parliament, 
 which survived the king. This parliament 
 passed a bill to secure the calling of parliaments 
 every thr^e years ; prohibited their dissolution 
 by the king until after a session of fifty days ; 
 declared illegal all levies of customs and imposts 
 without consent of parliament ; and fqrever 
 abolished the star chamber and high commission 
 courts, depriving the privy council of all juris- 
 diction in criminal n^atters. They also passed 
 an act to prevent a dissolution without their own 
 consent, which, of itself, changed the entire 
 constitution. 
 
 This parliament contiijued its session for 
 eighteen years. Under its rule, war was waged 
 against the king, who was ultimately taken, 
 tried and executed. It abolished royalty, de- 
 clared it treason to give any one the title of king 
 without act of parliament, set aside the house of 
 lords, thus leaving the whole power, legislative 
 and executive, vested in the commons. 
 
 This parliament was succeeded by one of 
 Oliver Cromwell's selection, called Barebone's" 
 pai'liament, which, showing some disposition to- 
 wards independence in the exercise of its pow- 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 69 
 
 ers, was dissolved, and the protectorate pro- 
 claimed. The government was now little other 
 than a military despotism. The real power all 
 centered in the protector, Oliver Cromwell. He 
 well knew the necessity of governing by a par- 
 liament, and endeavored to do so, but failed to 
 get together one that would long satisfy his 
 wishes. He had recourse, for this purpose, to 
 all the various parties. He tried the religious 
 enthusiasts, the republican, the presbyterians, 
 and the officers of the army. He got together 
 and dissolved four parliaments, each one having 
 endeavored to wrest from him the authority 
 which he exercised, and to rule in its turn. 
 
 He finally reigned alone, the governmfent he 
 inaugurated being little other than a military 
 despotism. But every measure of his was con- 
 ceived in wisdom, prosecuted with energy, and 
 crowned with success. His rule, although des- 
 potic, was one of the most important in the En- 
 glish annals. 
 
 On the death of Cromwell, his colossal pow- 
 ei', the exercise of which had, depended upon his 
 own personal energy, disappeared at once, and 
 thereupon, in 1660, the nation welcomed back 
 
70 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 the house of Stuart, in the person of Charles II, 
 the brother of Charles I. The revolution had 
 taught at least three truths : 
 
 a. That the king could never again separate 
 himself from the parliament. That the two 
 must reign together, neither one being com- 
 petent to reign alone. 
 
 5. That the house of commons was the 
 stronger branch of the parliament. 
 
 c. That Protestantism had achieved a com- 
 plete and definite ascendancy in England. 
 
 Some important acts date their origin from 
 the reign of Charles II. Two of these are 
 Avorthy of note. The first was to prevent the 
 legislature being overawed, and their votes 
 coerced by riotous and seditious mobs, under 
 the guise of petitioners. 
 
 The second was the celebrated habeas corpus 
 act, which prescribed a remedy, prompt and 
 efliicacious, in all cases of arbitrary imprison- 
 ment, without process of law. It brought im- 
 mediately before the judge, the prisoner, with 
 the cause, if any, of his detention, and in case 
 the imprisonment was illegal, discharged him. 
 
 But the reign of Charles presents a great 
 
THE ENGLISH PAKLIAMENT. 71 
 
 contrast with that of Cromwell. He began with 
 Lord Clarendon as prime minister, who repre- 
 sented the pure monarchy party. Next we have 
 what was termed the cabal ministry, formed of 
 profligates and libertines,* whose government, 
 although evincing practical skill in its manage- 
 ment, and considerable intelligence and liberal- 
 ity, was, nevertheless, profoundly selfish and 
 immoral. The nation rebelled against this gov- 
 ernment of profligates. 
 
 A new ministry was formed, a national one ; 
 but that, with a corrupt king and court, could 
 not gain possession of the moral force of the 
 country. Charles, now having tired all .parties, 
 commenced a career of absolute power. But in 
 the midst of it he was called away, and the 
 crown descended upon the third Stuart brother, 
 James II. 
 
 James, with his court-party, his power of 
 patronage, his supple judges, and his subserv- 
 ient crown lawyers, succeeded in tearing away 
 many of the bari-iers of the constitution, "and in 
 so extending the prerogative, as to create an ab- 
 solute monarchy. And yet, while seemingly 
 
 ♦Gufzot, 3)6, 317, 318. 
 
72 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 having every political power at his disposal, the 
 short period of a single week was sufficient to 
 make him a throrieless, crownless wanderer. 
 This extraordinary result was, in great part, due 
 to foreign politics. 
 
 The two great powers that were then divid- 
 ing Europe between them in their conflicts were 
 Louis XIV, and William, Prince of Orange. 
 The former represented the Catholic and mo- 
 narchical principles, the latter the Protestant and 
 liberal. England, through her two kings, Charles 
 II and James II, had been, for the most part, 
 unknown to herself, subserving the interests of 
 Louis XIV. William was the nephew, and had 
 married Mary the daughter of James I. He 
 was both a statesman and a soldier. The En- 
 glish nation sympathized with him and his large, 
 free, protestant principles. The revolution of 
 1088, occun-ed, which, almost without blood- 
 shed, placed ^Villianl and Mary upon the En- 
 glish throne. 
 
 A new parliament was assembled, which 
 declared that King James had abdicated, and 
 that the throne was vacant. Then followed the 
 act of settlement liy which, the throne being 
 
THE ENGI-ISH I'AKLIAMENT. Y3 
 
 decUired vacant, and Junies and his children be- 
 ing set aside, the succession to the crown was 
 settled : 1. Upon William and Mar}\ 2. Upon 
 their death without descendants upon Anne, also 
 a daughter of James I, and by a subsequent act. 
 3. Upon her death without descendants, then it 
 was limited to the descendants of James I's 
 daughter, Sophia, \vho had married the Elector 
 Palatine of Hanover. 
 
 This was, in every aspect of the case, a revo- 
 lution. It changed the entire order of succession. 
 James had never abdicated. Expulsion is not 
 abdication. Then his descendants wore set aside. 
 It presents a clear example of a whole people, 
 the commons taking the lead, rising against the 
 head of the government, or at least a co-ordinate 
 branch of it, expelling that head or branch and 
 changing the entire order of succession, and that 
 f)rder of succession has ever since been followed. 
 William and Mary, and Anne, successively died 
 without leaving any descendants. Then came 
 in tlie house of Brunswick, in the person of 
 George I, the grandson of James I, and son of 
 the Elector Palatine. Ever since 1689 the king 
 of England has only been such by virtue of this 
 
 4 
 
74 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 act of settlement. However other kings may- 
 claim to reign by divine right, the king of En- 
 gland clearly can not. He reigns by virtue of an 
 act of parliament. It is important to notice that 
 the power of the people is the real source from 
 "which England's king can claim the exercise of 
 any authority. Any other conclusion would 
 render the English government a government 
 de facto, and not de jure, for the last one hun- 
 dred and ninety years. 
 
 Along with the act of settlement, and consti- 
 tuting a part of it, was also a bill of rights, 
 which reasserted in clear, strong terms, all those 
 great cardinal truths and principles in govern- 
 ments which the commons and generally the 
 peers also, had been contending for ever since 
 the grant of the great charter. Among these 
 were the declaration that there existed no power, 
 without consent of parliament, to suspend or 
 dispense with laws or their execution ; or to levy 
 money for or to the use of the crown by pre- 
 tense and prerogative. That the right of peti- 
 tion should be enjoyed unimpaired. That with- 
 out consent of parliament, no standing army 
 should be raised or kept in the kingdom in time 
 
THE ENGLISH PARLIAMENT. 75 
 
 of peace. That Protestant subjects may have 
 arms for their defense. That elections of mem- 
 bers of parliament shall be free. That freedom 
 of speech and debate shall not be impeached or 
 questioned out of parliament. That excessive 
 bail shall not be required, or excessive fines im- 
 posed, or cruel or unusual punishment inflicted. 
 That jurors may be duly impaneled and returned, 
 and those passing upon high treason be free- 
 holders, and that for redress of grievances, par- 
 liaments be held frequently. 
 
 The provision in regard to a standing army 
 has rendered it necessary to pass acts axmually 
 since that time, authorizing the keeping on foot 
 a defined number of troops,* and giving the 
 crown the power of exercising martial law over 
 them. So, also, in regard to the revenue, since 
 the reign of William and Mary, the practice of 
 the commons has been, not to vote the crown 
 certain large sums of revenue, to be subject to 
 its application, but to appropriate specific parts 
 of the revenue to specific purposes of govern- 
 inent. 
 
 The revolution of 1688 closes the long line of 
 
 ♦Creasy, 293. 
 
76 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 contests between king and parliament. For 
 about seven hundred years those contests had 
 been going on. As a general fact, both the com- 
 mons and the nobility had been found fighting 
 together the great battles of constitutional free- 
 dom. As another general fact, although meet- 
 ing with occasional reverses, they had always 
 been ultimately successful. Always temperate 
 in their claims, wise in their means, steady and 
 energetic in their course of action, they had 
 always proved faithful to the great trusts con- 
 fided to them ; and as the last crowning evidence 
 of their triumph, had bestowed the English 
 crown upon two of their own selection, pre- 
 scribed the direction it should take, and annexed 
 the proper limitations to the exercise of its 
 power. Since that period, the English constitu- 
 tion has moved on uninterruptedly, its workings 
 eliciting the admiration of all thinking men 
 whei-ever they might ))e found. The reform bill 
 of 1832 was called for by the great changes 
 which time had \vrought in the borough sys- 
 tem.* By it, fifty-six boroughs were wholly dis- 
 franchised, and thirty-one partially. Forty-three 
 
 •Crcnsy, 312. 
 
THE ENGLISH PAKLIAJIENT. 77 
 
 new ones were created, twenty-two of which 
 return two members, and the remainder one 
 member each. By these salutary changes, and 
 others relating to property qualifications for 
 voting, the power of the crown, and of the differ- 
 ent members composing the aristocracy, has 
 been very much diminished in procuring the 
 election of members, while the middle classes 
 have risen to greater importance, and become 
 vested with a larger proportion of political 
 power. Thus greater equality is given to the 
 principle of representation, and its more perfect 
 results produced. 
 
78 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ITS PKESENT WORKINGS. 
 
 Having traced the history of the British 
 constitution : 1st. In its sources. 2d. In its char- 
 ters. 3d. In the origin and growth of that great 
 national council which ultimately became its 
 parliament, we are now prepared to examine its 
 present workings. 
 
 In speaking, however, of the British consti- 
 tution we are not to understand that, as in the 
 United States, and in the different States, there 
 is anj'^ written instrument which arranges and 
 defines its different powers. England's constitu- 
 tion, like her common law, is unwritten. It is the 
 gradual growth of centuries. Both that and the 
 common law have been so many developments of 
 human reason in its most practical forms ; as the 
 necessities of human progress, and the exigencies 
 of advancing society have from time to time 
 demanded. In America, the written constitu- 
 tion is the fundamental law in subjection to 
 
ITS I'RESEXT WOUKINGS. 79- 
 
 which all legislation takes place. In Great 
 Britain the great charter, the petition of right, 
 the declaration of rights, and certain great prin- 
 ciples acknowledged as lying at the foundation 
 of all governmental action, altogether constitute 
 what may be termed the British constitution. 
 Although, therefore, the king and parliament 
 are onmipotent ; and an act which receives the 
 sanction of both lords and commons, and the 
 assent of the king, becomes in form a valid and 
 binding statute ; yet, if it contravenes any of 
 those great principles, and thus sins against the 
 genius and spirit of the government, it is uncon- 
 stitutional and void. 
 
 The following are the points to be kept in 
 view in the working of the British constitution: 
 
 1. The distribution of political power in ref- 
 erence to localization and centralization. 
 
 2. The co-ordinate branches of which the 
 central power is composed. 
 
 3. The powers lodged in each. 
 
 4. The checks which each one is capable of 
 exercising against the others. 
 
 1. The distribution of political power in ref- 
 erence to localization and centralization. We 
 
80 TH>i: BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 have noticed the contests between royalty and the 
 commons as the feudal ai-istocrac}^ declined, and 
 in most governments the ultimate triumph of roj-- 
 alty attended Ijy a more or less complete central- 
 ization. The establishment and exercise of pure 
 royalty is consistent only with a high degree of 
 centralization. 
 
 By this term is meant a government proceed- 
 ing entirely from the central power. It is not 
 necessarily a despotism, or a monarchy. An 
 aristocracy, or any other form of government, 
 in Avhich all political power centers in one com- 
 mon head, whether in a cabinet or a general 
 council, is a centralized government. Not 'onl\' 
 is the political power felt and exercised through 
 the whole society, but all the officials, also, arc 
 appointed by, and derive all their power from, 
 the same source. The most intensely centi'al- 
 ized government is the severest despotism. In 
 such, no local power exists to counteract the 
 exercise of the central power. 
 
 On the other hand, the exercise of well de- 
 fined local powers is an important, perhaps 
 an essential, element in the composition of a free 
 government. They operate as a most salutary 
 
ITS PKESliNT WORKINGS. 81 
 
 check upon the unrestrained oppressive action oi 
 the central power. They essentially modify it 
 in its exercise, and within constitutional and 
 well defined limits, are in the highest degree 
 beneficial. In this country the political power 
 exercised in the school districts, the towns, vil- 
 lages, cities, and counties, aflFords a salutary 
 modification to that exercised by the State ; and, 
 higher still, that possessed by the State, to that 
 exercised by the United States. 
 
 In England local power was early in asserting 
 its claims. It was bequeathed to western En- 
 rope by the German races. Among the Saxons 
 each local district had, in local matters, the gov- 
 ernment of itself. The county court, so early 
 established in England, so purely local in its ofl5- 
 cers and jurisdiction, so independent in its sphere 
 of action, has contributed largely to restrain the 
 action of the central power. 
 
 The object, however, is not alone to resti-ain, 
 or even to modify. It is to devolve upon local - 
 authorities the exercise of those powers that are- 
 purely of a local character, and affecting ..Ideal 
 objects. The relief of the poor, the repair of 
 roads and bridges, the preservation of the peace, 
 
82 THE HKITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 the administration of justice, and a multitude of 
 other local acts are effected through these means. 
 Among these are also included the judicial and 
 administrative powers confided to justices of the 
 peace, and the executive power exercised by the 
 sheriff. The county courts, with a few excep 
 tions, must try all causes not exceeding £20. 
 
 '■ There are almost innumerable other 
 spheres of political action, each comparatively 
 humble and limited in itself, but collectively, of 
 infinite importance, on iiccount of the universal- 
 ity of their operation,* and the daily and hourly 
 duties 9,nd interests of every man's life which 
 they affect. Every pai'ish has its vestry ; that is 
 to say, an assembly, where the inhabitants of 
 a parish meet together for the dispatch of the 
 affairs and business of the parish. Every borough 
 has its town council, every poor law union has its 
 board of guardians. Each of these is a deliber- 
 ative, a legislative, and a taxing body. In each 
 of these, the elections of various functionaries 
 ai'e conducted ; and many of them are them- 
 selves representative bodies, varied and renewed 
 by general annual elections." 
 
 •Creasy, 323 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 83 
 
 In the election and service of these local offi- 
 cials, generally two facts strike us : 
 
 1. The electors of all such are required to 
 have some property qualification.* 
 
 2. With few exceptions, the local authorities^ 
 both in town and county, receive no salary. It 
 is understood to be every man's duty to aid in 
 the maintaining of good order, and in sustaining 
 the social economy of the district in which he 
 resides. 
 
 Several results flow from these local organi- 
 zations : 
 
 1. It is a government within a government, 
 both in its administrative and judicial functions. 
 
 2. It afibrds opportunities to ambitious as- 
 pirants, to expend, on a small scale, those 
 energies which would otherwise be unemployed, 
 or exert. a hurtful influence. 
 
 3. It gives opportunities to boisterous spirits, 
 to expend themselves without harm, and thus 
 operates as a safety valve to conduct away 
 innocently, what might otherwise produce ex- 
 plosion and destruction. 
 
 4. It serves as a school in which are con- 
 
 •Creasy, 339 
 
84 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 stitntly kept in training, those who may ulti- 
 mately be transferred to higher spheres of use- 
 fulness, and display themselves on the nation's 
 theatre. 
 
 5. It keeps alive and nourishes in the homes 
 of the English people that knowledge of politi- 
 cal transactions, and those feelings of freedom 
 and independence that impart such strength and 
 power to the English character. 
 
 6. It affords ready facilities to organization, 
 and aggressive resistance to all tyrannical ex- 
 ercise of power. 
 
 7. It constitutes so many independent cen- 
 tres in which are discussed the proceedings of 
 the central power, and so many distinct trib- 
 unals sitting in judgment upon such proceed- 
 ings. 
 
 S. It is, therefore, the one principal source 
 of that public opinion, which in England is so 
 omnipotent on all political questions. 
 
 9. It is a development of that self-governing 
 spirit of the English people which enables them 
 to administer correctives to misgovernment, and 
 even to contii|ue on their accustoined course, 
 when by the resignation of the ministry, the 
 
ITS PRESENT WOKKINGS. 85 
 
 machinery of the central government stands 
 still. 
 
 These several local administrations are di- 
 rectly connected with the general government 
 by their representation in the house of com- 
 mons. This leads to the consideration of the 
 elections to that house. 
 
 The reform bill of 1832, as we have already 
 seen, corrected many of the evils growing out 
 of the old rotten borough system. There is 
 still, however, by no means an equality of rep- 
 resentation of the commons in parliament. But 
 the approach towards it is so considerable, the 
 rotten boroughs so many of them disfranchised, 
 and the base of representation so widened, 
 that the power of the crown in procuring the 
 election of members, and thus controlling the 
 action of parliament, is very much diminished. 
 
 Another fact we have also to notice, and 
 that is, the property qualification necessary to 
 constitute an elector. The right of voting for 
 borciugh representation is limited to the house- 
 holder who takes and resides in a ten pound 
 house, while that of voting for a county repre- 
 sentative requires only a forty shilling freehold. 
 
86 THE BKITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The practical result of this has. been that in the 
 general election of 1852, it is estimated that 
 something moi*e than oi^e man in every five in 
 England and Wales exercised the elective fran- 
 chise.* The number elected and composing 
 the house of commons amounts to the large 
 number of 658. But of this number there are 
 seldom over five-sixths who attend, f 
 
 The central power in Great Britain, in its ex- 
 ecutive, legislative, administrative, and ultimate 
 judicial functions, is exercised through the king, 
 lords and commons. These are the great co-or- 
 dinate branches of the government. It is in 
 the powers lodged in each of these respectively, 
 and the checks which eacli is capable of exer- 
 cising against the others, that we are to find the 
 solution of the problem so long sought for, and 
 here for the first time found, how it is possible 
 to confer powers and energies of unlimited ex- 
 tent, and yet throw around them such safe- 
 guards as entirely to protect human freedom 
 from the severity of their exercise. 
 
 Of these co-ordinate branches, the crown may 
 well claim the first place. The crown is su- 
 
 •Creasy, 317 tBrougliair,, III, 317 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 87 
 
 prerae. Its wearer and owner is an essential 
 part of the sovereign legislative power. It is 
 the king who issues his writs to the sheriffs of 
 the different counties, commanding them to 
 cause a return of members to parliament. That 
 body convenes in obedience to his call. He is 
 the nation's chief mao-istrato and all other mas;- 
 istrates act by his commission. 
 
 With the king is lodged the executive 
 power. As executive he has the appointing 
 power. In each county he appoints : 
 
 1. The lord-lieutenant, who represents the 
 sovereign in his rights and powers as chief of 
 the old common law military force of each 
 county.* 
 
 2. The sheriff, who is the civil executive offi- 
 cer of the county. 
 
 3. The justices of the peace, who are 
 charged with the performance of both judicial 
 and administrative duties. All these we have 
 just mentioned act without pay.f 
 
 He also appoints to all offices in the army 
 and navy. He has the entire disposition, as 
 commander in chief, of all those forces. 
 
 •Creasy, 328. tidem, 332. 
 
88 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 He is also externally, in dealings with other 
 states, the visible representative of the majesty 
 of the state. He exercises the sole prerogative 
 of making war or peace. He enters into, and 
 carries on, all negotiations, and fdrms. all alli- 
 ances. In judicial matters he has ever been 
 regarded as the fountain of justice. He superin- 
 tends the administration of the civil and criminal 
 law, and confirms, or remits all sentences. 
 
 His first business, upon receiving the crown, 
 is to surround himself by constitutional and re- 
 sponsible advisers. These carry on the entire 
 administration in the name of the sovereign. 
 They are about fifteen in number, and are call- 
 ed ministers of state. They are privy council- 
 lors, and together form the cabinet.* The chief 
 is the first lord of the treasury, called by way 
 of distinction the premier, or prime minister. 
 
 Another important cabinet officer is the 
 chancellor of the exchequer, who is charged 
 with the finances of the empire. There are also 
 four secretaries of state, the home, foreign, 
 colonial, and war. 
 
 Another member of the cabinet is the lord 
 
 ^Creasy, 327. 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 89 
 
 chancellor, who is intrusted with the great seal, 
 and is the keeper of the king's conscience. 
 
 Theoretically all the members of the cabinet 
 may be selected by the king from among any 
 of his subjects. 
 
 But practically his choice is quite limited. 
 His ministers can only conduct the government 
 and rule through majorities in parliament. 
 They must, therefore, belong to the party 
 which is dominant in parliament. They nmst' 
 be, at least several of them, members of parlia- 
 ment, and gifted with powers adequate to se- 
 curing majorities there. The moment the min- 
 istry are outvoted in parliament, they have no 
 other alternative than to resign. Another cabi- 
 net must be formed, composed the moi"e gen- 
 erally I)y those of the opposite party, who in 
 their turn, must keep with them the parlia- 
 mentary majority. 
 
 The parliament, exclusive of the crown, con- 
 sists of two houses, the lords and commons. 
 The latter is elective, and its power reposes on 
 the representative system. When a new par- 
 liament is to be summoned, a writ, imder the 
 great seal, is issued to the sheriff of each 
 
90 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 county,* requiring him to cause tlie election of 
 the county representatives, and also of those of 
 each city and borough within his shire that re- 
 turns members. The sheriif then issues his pre- 
 cepts to the head of each of these municipal 
 constituencies, who return the same to him 
 with the names of the persons elected, of all 
 which a general return is made to the lord chan- 
 cellor. 
 
 ft 
 
 The lords, composing the upper liouse, con- 
 stitute a permanent branch of the legislature, 
 subject to little fluctuations or changes. They 
 sit in their own right,f but may be considered 
 as representing their powerful families and im- 
 mediate connections, as also all the great lanfl 
 owners in the country. The house of lords con- 
 sists of peers, both spiritual and temporal. The 
 prelates, equally with the barons, are entitled to 
 sit in the house, the former by virtue of the 
 sees which they respectively hold. 
 
 The crown possesses a prerogative, in refer- 
 ence to the house of lords, which may be some- 
 what dangerous in its exercise. This relates to 
 the power of creating peers to an unlimited ex- 
 
 *Creasy, S30. t Brougham, III, 304. 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 91 
 
 tent. This may, and indeed on several occa- 
 sions has been exercised to influence the proceed- 
 ings in parliament.* The sudden creation of 
 twelve peers in the reign of queen Anne carried 
 a question of importance in the house of lords. 
 So it would be possible to carry any question 
 through that house, by the creation of a neces- 
 sary number of new peers. That necessity, 
 however, could only arise where tlie king and 
 commons were on one side and the upper house 
 on the other. The passage of the reform bill of 
 1832 came very near requiring the exercise of 
 this extraordinary prerogative. It has, how- 
 ever, never been exercised to the injury of the 
 country. 
 
 The commons alone possess, or rather exer- 
 cise, the right of originating supply bills, or 
 any involving the necessity of taxation. The 
 upper house has newer abandoned its claim to 
 originate and alter money bills, as well as the 
 lower ; but in practice the right has never been 
 there asserted, the commons alone having origi- 
 nated every measure of supply. As the lords 
 originate no money bills, so they exercise no 
 
 •Brougham, III, S07. 
 
92 THK BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 power to alter or amend those sent up from 
 the commons,* but either wholly accept or re- 
 ject them. This all important instrument of 
 power and remedial agent, the commons keep 
 exclusively to themselves. 
 
 Theie is also another point on which the 
 commons claim the exclusive right of originating 
 measures, f and that relates to the election of its 
 own members. They assert this as an inherent 
 right, and also as inalienable, maintaining that 
 the house cannot convey it to any other body. . 
 
 The laws are administered by the different 
 courts, and with the exception of the judges in 
 the ecclesiastical courts, and some other trifling 
 exceptions,:}: the crown has the exclusive power 
 of appointing all the judges. Their tenure is 
 for life or during good behavior. They are ir- 
 removable except b}^ a joint address of the two 
 houses of parliament, and as this requires, in 
 addition, the assent of the crown, i.t is practical- 
 ly a statute, having the concurrence of the 
 whole three branches of the legislature. Thus 
 the common law judges, although named b}' the 
 
 •Brougham, III, 305. tiaem, SOC. Hdem, 310. 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 93 
 
 crown, are, nevertheless, independent in the 
 tenure of their office. 
 
 The lord chancellor, who has only civil juris- 
 diction, and who as keeper of the great seal, 
 and the king's conscience, forms a member of 
 the cabinet,* holds his place only during plea- 
 sure, but the other equity judges, the master of 
 the rolls, the vice chancellors, and the masters 
 in chancery, all hold their offices during life or 
 good behavior. 
 
 To guard still further the purity of the 
 bench, the judges are disabled from sitting in 
 the house of commons. 
 
 "Thus" says Lord Brougham, "the judicial 
 power, pure and unsullied, calmly exercised 
 amidst the uproar of contending parties by men 
 removed above all contamination of faction, 
 all participation in either its fury or its delu- 
 sions, held alike independent of the crown, the 
 parliament and the nuiltitude, and only to be 
 shaken by the misconduct of those who wield it, 
 forms a mighty zone which girds our social 
 pyramid round about, connecting the loftier 
 
 •Brougham, III, 371. 
 
94 THK BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 and narrower, with the humbler and broader 
 regions of the structure, binding the whole 
 together, and repressing alike the encroach- 
 ments and the petulance of any of its parts. " 
 
 AYith the commons alone lies the power of 
 impeachment, but that body has no power to 
 try it. Its trial is liefore the lK)Use of lords, 
 and its ultimate decision rests with that body. 
 And so other judicial powers rest with the 
 house of lords. It is the court of last resort, of 
 ultimate appellate jurisdiction in all cases of law 
 and equity from the whole united kingdom. 
 This house always contains peers who fill, or 
 have filled, the highest statif)ns in both courts of 
 law and equity. These are conunonly called 
 the law lords, and practically it is those who 
 have the entire decision of the cases brought 
 before the liouse. 
 
 Thus of tiie three estates of British realm 
 we ha\'e : 
 
 1. The crown, which, whatever may in for- 
 mer times have been claimed of its existing by 
 divine right, hy the grace of God, can certainly, 
 since the act of settlement in 1689. lay claim to 
 no higher warrant thim the joint will of the 
 
ITS PRESENT WOKlvINGS. 95 
 
 aristocracy and people of England. In this we 
 have centered the executive power a large pro- 
 portion of the administrative, which is exercised 
 through the ministry composing the cabinet. 
 
 The crown is also a necessary element in the 
 composition of the legislative power. No act ot 
 parliament can claim the force of a law before 
 it receives the sanction of the crown. It has 
 thus a veto upon all the legislation of the lords 
 and commons. 
 
 The Idng's person is inviolable. No legal 
 proceeding can be instituted against him. The 
 received maxim is, that the "king can done 
 wrong." But the kiiig only acts through his 
 constitutional advisers, his ministers. And al- 
 though he is not responsible yet they are ; and 
 through them his admuiistration is made ac- 
 countable. 
 
 2. The house of commons, a representative 
 body, standing in the place, and wielding the 
 political powers of the people of Great Britain. 
 Their function is chiefly legislative. They may 
 originate every legislative measure. They 
 must originate all supply bills, requiring the 
 necessity of taxation. They have also the 
 
96 THE BKITISil CONSTITUTION. 
 
 power of impeachinent. They are the changing 
 element. 
 
 3. The house of lords, the permanent ele- 
 meint in British legislation. Its habits, interests, 
 prejudices, all tend to render it a conservative 
 body. It stands between the crown and the 
 people, ready to throw its weight into either 
 scale that may be required to adjust aright the 
 balance. 
 
 In the individuals composing this body, is to 
 be found the highest style of culture ; the most 
 illustrious rank united with vast possessions, 
 and when to these are added great capacity, en- 
 larged statesmanlike views, a power of origin- 
 ating all legislative measures except money 
 bills, and the highest judicial power in the na- 
 tion, we must recognize in it an estate in the 
 highest degree important in the British constitu- 
 tion. These three together compose the pai'lia- 
 ment, "that parliament of Great Britain, 
 which," says Edmund Burke, "sits at the head 
 of her extensive empire in two capacities, one, 
 as the local legislation of this island, providing 
 for all things at home, immediately, and by no 
 other instrument than the executive power. The 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 97 
 
 other, and, I think, her nobler capacity, is what 
 I call her imperial character, in which, as fi*om 
 the tjj^j'one of heaven, she superintends al^ the 
 several inferior legislatures, and guides and 
 controls them without annihilatipg any." 
 
 The judicial exists independent of i;he legis- 
 lative and executive, charged with functions, of 
 all others perhaps the most necessary for the 
 preservation of the state, the administration of 
 the law ; and looked to in times of storm and 
 peril as the ultimate conservative power in the 
 state. 
 
 A brief allusion to the evils to be guarded 
 against, and the checks which the constitution 
 provides as the safeguards against their occur- 
 rence, is all that now remains for our considera- 
 tion. 
 
 These evils are threefold: 
 
 1. The subversion of the upper and lower 
 houses resulting in the supremacy of the king, 
 the establishment of a despotism. 
 
 2. The subversion of the crown and the com- 
 mons, and the supremacy of the lords •, the es- 
 tablishment of an aristocracy. 
 
 3. The subversion of the crown and the 
 'G 5 
 
96 THE BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 lords; and the supremacy of the commons ; the 
 establishment of a democracy. 
 
 To comprehend fully the force of the checks 
 by which each and all these evils may be con- 
 stitutionally averted, we must understand that' 
 acts ' of parliament constitute the fundamental 
 law of the British empire. That they are om- 
 nipotent, and are to Great Britain what both 
 constitutional and legislative provisions are to 
 us. We must also understand further that no 
 act of parliament can be deemed complete, and 
 have conceded to it the force of law unless it 
 has received the assents of the three estates, the 
 king, lords, and commons. Now let us proceed 
 to inquire what checks each one of these three 
 co-ordinate branches has upon the others ; what 
 means of defence the constitution has placed in 
 the power of each, so that that integrity of each 
 can be fully preserved. 
 ■ The crown is amply provided: 
 
 1. By its large executive and administrative 
 powers'; its power of appointments, its com- 
 juand of all armies and navies. 
 
 2. By its power of increasing the house of 
 lords by the creation of new peers, thus, if 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. , ©9 
 
 necess^iy, giving the Upper hQuse a preponder- 
 ance over the lower. 
 
 3. By its veto, thus arresting and destroying 
 in its progress towards maturity every act 
 vvfhich it deems essentially prejudicial to itself, 
 or to the country, although it may have passed, 
 and received the sanction of both, houses. 
 
 4. By its power of proroguing or dissolving 
 parliament at any moment vvhen it deems that 
 the public exigencies so require. 
 
 The house of lords is sufficiently protected: 
 
 1. By the immense personal influence of its 
 members, arising from their great wealth, com- 
 manding talents, and powerful connections. 
 
 2. By its constituting the high court of im- 
 peachments, and the highest appellate court in 
 the realm. 
 
 3. By its constitutional negative, or veto, 
 which it may iniei'pose upon any and a,ll acts 
 which come up before it from the house of com- 
 mons. 
 
 It must be admitted, how,eyer,.that the house 
 of lords has a less amount of constitutional 
 power, can put into operation less effective 
 
100 THE, BRITISH CONSTITUTION. 
 
 checfa that are purely constitutional, than 
 either one or the otfeer co-ordinate branches. 
 The commons are amply protected: 
 
 1. By their power of impeaching every mem- 
 ber of the 'king's cabinet. 
 
 2. By the negative,' or veto power, which 
 they can put upon every act wbich comes up 
 before them. This is now considered only in 
 reference to their own protettidn. 
 
 3. By their power of changing the entire 
 policy of the crown, and compelling it to adopt 
 a different policy, or to resort to the hazardous 
 measure of dissolving the parliament, by voting 
 down any government measure, thus leaving 
 the ministers in the minority, and compelling a 
 change in the cabinet, or stopping the wheels ot 
 government until such change shall be made. 
 
 4. By refusing all supplies to carry on the 
 government until all the grievances they com- 
 plain of shall be redressed. 
 
 In full view of the gradual growth of the 
 British constitution ; of its localizing and cen- 
 tralizing forces; of the arrangement of its co-or- 
 dinate branches; df the powers assigned to each 
 branch ; and of" the strong checks possessed by 
 
ITS PRESENT WORKINGS. 101 
 
 each as against the others; it may be safely pro- 
 nounced that of all efforts hitherto made by the 
 race in so creating and arranging the political 
 forces that enter into the governmental element 
 as to secure their greatest harmony of action, 
 no other ever devised has evinced such deep 
 sagacity, such profound forecast,- and such 
 wealth of wisdom. To it must come tlie great 
 statesmen of all countries, and of all times, to 
 stxidy the science of government. Under 
 its strong guaranties repose in perfect safety 
 those indomitable forces that in all quarters of 
 the world are swaying the sceptre of universal 
 empire ; that colossal power whose morning 
 drum-beat, following the course of the sun, and 
 keeping company with the hours, encircles the 
 globe daily with the martial airs of England. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Anglo Saxon, burghs, 10; churcli establishment, 13; classes 
 of people, 8; government, 11, 12; institutions, 7; polit- 
 ical divisions, 9; revenue, 13; townships, 9 
 
 Assemblies, Norman, 41. 
 
 Barebones Parliament, 68. 
 
 Barons, Council of, among the Normans, 41. • 
 
 Bill of Rights, 74. 
 
 British Constitution, checks to evils, 98 ; evils of, 97 ; mag- 
 na charta, 26-32; new charter by Henry III., 32; 
 points in its workings, 79 ; steps in its growth, 24; un- 
 written, 78. 
 
 British guarantees wrested from the king, 24. 
 
 Brunswick, house of 73. 
 
 Cabal, ministry, 71. 
 
 Cabinet, the, 88. 
 
 Central power, how exefcised, 86. 
 
 C'eorls, or freemen 8. 
 
 Chancellor, vice, tenure of office, 93. 
 
 aiarlesl.,66, 67. 
 
 Charles II.. 70. 
 
 Charters, by Henry 1,26; by Henry II., 26 ; by Henry 
 III, 32; by Stephen, 26; by William, 25; confirmed 
 by Edward, 35; established, 37. 
 
 Civil War, 32. 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, prime minister, 71. 
 
 Clement V., 36. 
 
 Commons, consulted in national affairs, 53; elections to, 85; 
 first rise into importance, 43 ; functions of, 95 ; how 
 protected, 100 ; no equality of representation in, 85 ; 
 powers of, 50. 57, 91, 92, 94. 
 
 (103) 
 
INDEX. 103 
 
 Crown, the, amply protected, 98, 99; cabinet of, 88; its 
 
 powers, 87 ; prerogative of, 90. 
 
 Beputies, county and borough, 43 
 
 Edward I., 34r-36. 
 
 Edward III., 54, 55. 
 
 Electors in counties and boroughs, 48. 
 
 England, common law in, 20; condition in twelfth century, 
 oo 
 
 Feudal Aristocracy, 61. 
 
 Feudalism, its results, 19, 
 
 Free Government, nature of, 39. 
 
 Free Institutions, under the Tudors, 65. 
 
 Government administrated by, 94, 95; centralized, 80; 
 charters, 26-28 ; checks to the evils of, 98 ; executive, 
 39; free local powers essential to, 81; growth of, 35; in 
 the twelfth century, 12; judicial, 39; legislative, 39; 
 of the Anglo Saxons, 11, 12; powers of, 40. 
 
 Habeas Corpus Act, 70. 
 
 Henry yill., absolute, 61. 
 
 Industry, influence of, Q3\ 
 
 James I. , 66. 
 
 James II., 71. 
 
 John I., 32, 33. 
 
 Judges, how apjiointed, 92. 
 
 Judicial functions, 97. 
 
 King, among Anglo Saxons, 11 ; reigns by act of Parlia- 
 ment, 74. 
 
 Langfon, Archbishop, 33. 
 
 Local Powers, connected with general government, 81-85; 
 election and service of officials, 82. 
 
 Long Parliament, acts of, 68. 
 
 Lord Chancellor, 89-93. 
 
 Lords, House of, consists of, 90; court of last resort, 94; 
 how protected, 98, 99: position, 95. 
 
 Magna Charta, 35-38 ; defect of, 32 ; provisions of, 36, 37. 
 
 Master of the Rolls, 93. 
 
104 INDEX,. 
 
 Nonnandy, feudalism' in, 17 j .situation of. 14. 
 
 Normans, introduce feudalism, 18 ; tlieir cliaracter, 14. 
 
 Oxford, assembly at, 42. 
 
 Parliament, acquires much of its present constitution, 54 ; 
 assumption of, 38 ; barebones, 68 ; called by Edward 
 I., 44; composition of, 45, 46, 89; convoked by* Henry 
 III., 43; contests with the king closed, 76 ; legislative 
 rights of, 53. 55, 56; long, acts of, 68 ; of 1395, 45; of 
 1688, 73; origin of, 44; revolutionary, 73; union of 
 town and county representative.?, 49. 
 
 Parties, under Charles 1, 66; 
 
 Petition, importance of, 54; right of, 53. 
 
 Property, qualifications, 85. 
 
 Rotten borough system oiigin, 44. 
 
 Royalty, in the ascen'dant, 61. 
 
 Runnymede, assembly at, 28. 
 
 Saxon, hundred, 9. 
 
 Slaves, 8. 
 
 Speaker of the House of Commons, 55. 
 
 Thanes, 8 
 
 Township, as a political division, 9. 
 
 Trial, by jury, 11. 
 
 Tudors, their reign, 61-68. 
 
 Vassals, 22. 
 
 Villeinage. 19. 
 
 William III. of Orange, 72. 
 
 William Rufus, 14, 22, 25. 
 
 Witenagemote, of the Anglo Saxons, 11, 13, 41.