moners were included; but not even the
strongest republican writers have ever quef-
tioned or denied, that the first orders and
ranks of men, or the nobility and dignified
clergy were regularly fummoned to parlia-
ment. Notwithstanding the prefent rage
against the aristocratic part of our confti-
tution, it is curious to confult the opinion
of a very determined and ftaunch republican
upon the subject.
"An army," fays he,

*

may as well confift of foldiers without officers, or of officers without foldiers, as a commonwealth (especially fuch a one as is capable of greatnefs) confift of a people without gentry, or of a gentry without a people. There is fomething first in the making of a commonwealth; then in the governing of it; and laft of all in the leading of its armies, which (though there be great divines, great lawyers, great men in all profeffions) feems to be peculiar only to the genius of a gentleman.”

In explaining and accounting for the ariftocratical part of our conftitution, it may be expected, that I fhould trace not only the fource and origin of this branch of the legiflature, but alfo that I fhould delineate

James Harrington, the celebrated author of Oceana. Vid. Tolland's Anglia libera, p. 59.

Ariftocracy ne ceflary for a

common

wealth.

Of the origin of

the aristocrati

cal part of our

conftitution.

The ancient witterlage

motta

wish

the different degrees, dignities, and deno-
minations, by which it was formerly known
and distinguished. To do this fatisfactorily
will require a longer digreffion than the in-
tent and purport of this publication will ad-
mit of. Such of my readers, as may
to acquire a more particular knowledge of
this fubject, will receive the moft fatisfac-
tory information from the first volume of
the learned Mr. Gurdon's hiftory of the high
court of parliament. Suffice it for me to
obferve, that our prefent ariftocracy is much
altered from what it formerly was, both in
its relative and abfolute rights, privileges,
powers, and duties.

In our earliest hiftory the great coun-
cil of the nation under the Saxons, who
concurred with the king in paffing laws, was
called Wittenagemotte: a word com-
pounded of Saxon and Britifh, the former
part of the word being Saxon, and the latter
British. Witta is in Saxon, a wife man (i. c.)
a nobleman; Gemot, in the British language,
is a council or fynod, fo Wittenagemotte is a
council of wife men or noblemen."

Ac

cording to the rude practices and habits of the warlike Saxons, they naturally allowed

• Gurdon, vol. i. p. 21.

an

an exclusive fuperiority of knowledge or wifdom to fuch, as had acquired the then rare advantages of education, which were only enjoyed by the clergy, and fome of the most opulent and powerful individuals of the community. They annexed not this attribute of wisdom to these national counsellors, as a native and hereditary prerogative in the fenfe, in which fome modern illuminators speak in derifion of hereditary wife men and counfellors; but they prefumed very justly, that in the general average of men's intellectual faculties or talents, a fuperiority or preeminence of wisdom muft neceffarily attend the advantages of cultivation and improvement. The general diffufion of knowledge through all ranks of people in the prefent age, has happily rendered this ancient diftinction imperceptible to the prefent generation.

There are obvious reafons, why formerly the representatives or delegates of the nation were not, as they now are, divided into two feparate bodies; for it is very evident, that the original spirit or principle of representation in this community was grounded upon the poffeffion of property, not upon the numbers of individuals. The Britons called their

• Gurdon on Parliament, page 15.

councils

councils Kifrithin, which in the British language imports to debate and treat upon matters to be taken into confideration for the public weal. The members of their councils were their Edlins, which were of royal or princely race, and the governors of districts or lords of villages: the hufbandmen, and all the common people, were esteemed no more than fervants, had no intereft in land, being removeable at the will of their lord, they being villeins to their lords, were not adWhy copyhol. mitted to fit in council." Whence a copyholder, who by holding of the lord of the manor retains fomething of this ancient tenure, is not even at this day qualified to vote for a member of parliament.

ders not qualified to vote.

The original
Saxon arifto-

racy.

This principle of reprefenting the landed property of the nation continued, after the whole fyftem of landed property was altered. For the Saxons undertook the conqueft of this country upon a joint engagement to divide the conquered lands proportionably amongst the leaders, as they had contributed their respective quotas to the enterprize. The joint undertakers, who were

Or Ethelings, hence Edgar Etheling meant Edgar of the blood royal, or kingly race.

+ Gurdon on Parliament, p. 23.

at

at first by the Latin authors termed capitanei, as having a capital or original right in the fhares of the Britons lands; and thefe capitanei were not only fharers with the kings in the conquered lands, but alfo in the administration of the government, being members of the king's great council, and therein had a deliberative authority in confenting to laws and the highest matters of ftate; they alfo had a judicial authority, being the fupreme court of judicature of the nation."

* « These colleagues, and their defcendants, Original nobiwere the Saxon nobles, that were members of lity arofe from

the great councils, the fuitors of the court of the grand feigniory of the kingdom, all nobility at that time arifing from poffeffion." In these ancient days, the ariftocratical part of the community were known or diftinguished only from the reft of the community, by rights, privileges, and prerogatives attached to the property they poffeffed; and as the greatest of these confifted in their enjoying a fhare in the legiflature, it is unfair to conclude, that the commonalty or democratical part of the community were not formerly reprefented in parliament; for the perfons, who at that time reprefented the whole

* Gurdon on Parliament, p. 163.

nation,

property.