ftances, which created the expediency, or called forth the neceffity of making them. If the present system of representation be compared with the practices and ufages in chufing and returning members of parliament, from the first traces of a national convention, even down to the last century, it will appear to be a fyftem of the most complete liberty and reedom. I have before shewn, that the perfons fummoned to the ancient Saxon wittenagemotes partook rather more of the nature of our present peers, than of our prefent members of the house of commons. But in order to reconcile our minds more to the present fyftem, or state of representation in parliament, we should coolly and impartially compare the customs, ufages, and forms of chufing and returning the reprefentatives or delegates of the nation to parliament, in the days of our ancestors, even with the most barefaced venality or fyftematic corruption of fome modern boroughs; and we shall neceffarily conclude, that the freedom, with which the nation now returns their delegates or trustees to parliament, will bear no degree of comparison with the ancient modes and ufages. of electing the reprefentatives of the commons in parliament. In Different fum mons to the peers and to the commoners. In the first place, the very commiffion, or purpose of the delegation of the commoners, was formerly widely different from What it now is. * When the commons were regularly called to parliament by Edw. I. the fummons to them was only ad audiendum, & faciendum, & confentiendum; whereas the fummons to bishops and barons was, de arduis negotiis regni tractaturi & confilium impenfuri. The commons were not confulted in ftate affairs, about peace or war, or making of laws; their business being only to confent to laws made by the kings and barons, and to confent to aids and fubfidies, and fuch like, ad babendum commune confilium regni de auxiliis affidendis. The firft part of the writ to the commons is to confent to fuch ordinances as the peers fhall make; the next part of the writ is to hear and do what the king fhall further require of them; this is the substance of the ancient writs." So that "the balance and measure of power in the government was in Edward the Firft's time in the king, church, and nobility, to the propor * Gurdon, vol. i. p. 211. who quotes, Parl. Antiq. 24. 84. Parl. Sum. 7. 4 Inftit. 10. Parl. Sum. Preface. Rel. Spelm. 64. Filmer, 127. 136. Journal, 18. James, 195. † Gurdon, vol. ii. 278. tion of above two thirds of the landed intereft, and not one-third in the commons, down to Henry the Seventh's time. The strength and power of the nation before lay in the aristocratical part." For even in the very fame century it appears, that the commoners had no part nor share in paffing that law, which confirmed or acknowledged their own rights and liberties. For in the great charter of king John it is faid, * « Imprimis conceffiffe Deo & bác prefenti chartá noftrà confirmaffe pro nobis & heredibus in perpetuum, &c. And, ifta funt capitula, quæ barones petunt & dominus rex concedit, fignata figillo Johannis regis. From which it appears, that the commons, or democratical part of the nation, had no part nor fhare in paffing this famous charter. And in more ancient times, the lords of the great feignories were properly the only constituent members of the parliaments, or national conventions of thofe days. The loweft degree of members of the Confeffor's parliament were fuch, as had knights dependent on them in their friburgh, foke, or feignory, and these great men represented themselves, and alfo the * Wilkins, 356, 367. Brady's Appendix, 126. Tit. Hon. 702. + Gurdon, vol. i, 210. knights The commons no fhare in had anciently paffing laws. The progreffive confequence of knights and freemen of their feignories. The theaw, or under thane, that was a dependent upon the great thane, was not a member of the Saxon parliament, being represented there by his chief, his thane, as the Norman vavafor or knight, that held of a great baron in mean tenure, was not a member of the Norman parliament, he being represented there by his great baron, of whom he held." The original right of representation therefore arose out of the actual poffeffion of property, and not from any confent, vote, or election of the individuals of the community. It is curious to obferve and attend to the the commoners. progreffion of confequence and importance, which the commoners acquired in the state. "In the feventeenth of king John, A. D. 1215, the barons obtained a confirmation of ancient liberties, and new privileges, and for the more firm establishing them, it was conceded by the king, that the barons fhould choose twenty-five of their own body to have power over all judges, justices, and ministers, to see the great charters obferved; but as yet no * Gurdon, vol. i. 214, who quotes Rel. Spel. 63, 64. Brady, 617. Rot. Paten. 42 H. III. Somner's Dictionary, voce Unnan. Parlm. Sum. 3. Brady, 649. Parl. Sum. 7. reprefentatives 1 representatives of the generality of the commons in parliament. "By king John's charter the great barons were to have particular fummons, and the reft of the tenants in capite were to be fummoned in general by the fheriffs; fo many fmall tenancies being made by king Stephen and king John, that the tenants in capite made the parliament too tumultuous and numerous, wherefore the fheriffs returned proxies for them, but not for the freeholders in general; for fuch as held freely of the great barons were by them reprefented, they taking care fented by the of their tenants interest in parliament. The common people were represented in parlia ment by their chief lords, of whom they held. "In the thirty-fecond of Henry III. anno Dom. 1258, in the parliament of Oxford it was agreed, that twelve perfons fhould be chofen to represent the commons in parliament; but thofe elected were bishops, great barons, and tenants in capite, as were the patrons of the Roman plebeians chofen out of the patricians. These representatives of the commons were chosen by virtue of the conftitutions of Oxford, which both king and barons fwore to obferve; but these constitutions were foon dropt. "This king in confideration of fubfidies Ff made Formerly the people repre lords. |