The commons were not for. merly interested about ftate affairs. our prefent members of the house of commons, whence it is evident beyond question, that the nation and its interefts are more compleatly reprefented and attended to at present, than they formerly were. "It was formerly counted to be a fundamental error in our parliamentary conftitution, that the citizens and burgeffes of the houfe of commons fo much out-number the knights of fhires, who reprefent the landed intereft, which was fo enlarged in Henry VII. and Henry VIII.'s time, as for the commons to overbalance in property both king, church, and lords. The greateft part of the citizens and burgeffes before Henry VII.'s time were esteemed very good members of the commons, if they were fo fagacious, as to move fomething in the houfe, that might tend to the advancement of the trade of the city or borough they reprefented, as the maritime boroughs, fhipping, navigation, and foreign commerce; the Suffolk boroughs, the intereft of the clothing trade; the citizens of Norwich, that of worfted fufs; the Cornish boroughs, that of the ftannaries; and it was not locked upon as any part of their bufinefs in parliament to fearch into the ARCANA imperii, * Gurdon on Parliament, vol. ii. p. 354. that that being in all ancient times, and fo late as Henry VII.'s time looked upon to be the province of the king and lords, for at that time citizens and burgeffes were refient of cities and boroughs, and not country gentlemen of great landed intereft, "In Henry VII.'s time and Henry VIII.'s, minifters of ftate, officers of the revenue, and other courtiers, found an account in creeping through boroughs into the house of commons, and to make room for them, the boroughs from one hundred and twentyfix (the number in the latter end of Henry VIII.'s time) is near doubled, by reviving dormant rights and privileges claimed by ancient boroughs after they had been obfolete for fome centuries." The members for many ancient boroughs were both chofen and returned by the lords, and fometimes by the ladies of the manors or boroughs; which was certainly a groffer deviation from the freedom of election; than any ufage or cuftom, under which returns are at this day made for the most corrupt boroughs. * Thus in the 14th and 18th of queen Eliz. Dame Mary Packington, the widow of Sir John Packington, made return of burgeffes in these words, viz. "Know ye, that I Mary Packington, &c. have chofen, named, and appointed my trusty and wellbeloved Thomas Lichfield and George Burden, efqrs. to be my burgeffes for my faid borough of Aylesbury, &c." It was anciently the practice for the crown to fummon pro re nata, the most flourishing towns to fend reprefentatives to parliament; but this difcretionary prerogative of the crown has been long fince difufed. As fome towns however formerly encreafed in trade and grew populous, they were admitted to the right of fending deputies or representatives to parliament; thus the number of the house of commons encreased, as I have already fpe-. cified; but the deferted boroughs continued the privilege or right of fending members to parliament, though fome of them finding it burthenfome to maintain their members, as was the ufage of those days, by their own petition were eased of the expence, and at the fame time loft their right of fending representatives or members to parliament. For various reafons the number of the house of commons has been encreased from three hundred, about which number it was fup pofed pofed to be in Fortefcue's time, to more than five hundred, exclufive of the members of Scotland. From the change in the policy, manners, and customs of the kingdom, the * Fort. de Laud. Leg. Ang. c. xviii. p. 35. This great man fays, "The ftatutes of England are produced quite in another manner, not enacted by the fole will of the prince, but with the concurrent confent of the whole kingdom by their reprefentatives in parliament. So that it is morally impoffible, but that they are and must be calculated for the good of the people, and they muft needs be full of wisdom and prudence, fince they are the refult not of one man's wisdom only, or an hundred, but such an assembly as the Roman fenate was of old, more than three hundred select perfons." Under correction, I beg leave to fuggeft, that Judge Blakiston and most other writers upon the rights of the commons, as Prynne, Petit, Selden, &c. have mistaken and misrepresented this pafsage of Fortescue; the error may have proceeded from attending to the English verfion of this refpectable author, which I have copied above. The bare statement of the original words, dum nedum principis voluntate, fed totius regni affenfu ipfa conduntur, will, I think, fufficiently prove, that in mentioning the number three hundred, he included the lords Spiritual and temporal, as well as the commons, without whose consent no act of parliament could then pass, any more than at prefent. His affimilation of them alfo to the Roman fenators, who were not the chofen delegates or reprefentatives of the people, ftrengthens my fuggeftion; and the affertion of Mr. Gurdon, that learned investigator of the old parliamentary inftitutions, that the number of the house of commons was but one hundred and twenty-fix at the latter end of Hen. VIII.'s reign, seems to place the matter out of all doubt. Whence the idea of property in boroughs right or duty of sending representatives to had |