perhaps the immoderate reduction of the antient prerogative may have rendered in fome degree neceffary) the vaft acquifition of force arifing from the riot-act, and the annual expence of a standing army, and the vaft acquifition of perfonal attachment arifing from the magnitude of the national debt, and the manner of levying these yearly millions, that are appropriated to pay the intereft, we fhall find, that the crown has gradually and imperceptibly gained almost as much influence, as it has apparently loft in prerogative."

CHAP.

CHAP. XIII.

OF THE HOUSE OF PEERS.

F the two branches of the legislature I fhall first confider the house of lords, of which Mr. Acherly, in his theoretic plan or directions for the Britannic conftitution,

*

fpeaks thus: "That the house of lords, General end besides their part in the legislature, fhould and fpirit of be invested with, and fhould have, as inter- peers. woven in their conftitution, thefe fpecial powers and privileges, viz. that their right of peerage fhould be deemed a fpecial truft for the whole government; that they fhould have the dernier refort only in all matters of judicature, and the fole judicature of impeachments commenced and profecuted by the commons; and that it fhould be deemed an effential part of that judicature to take cognizances of those impeachments, and to hear and determine the matters therein charged; and the reafon he gave for investing them with the dernier refort was, left illegal judgments in inferior judicatures fhould creep in, and by little and little undermine and change

* Acherly's Brit, Conf. Sec. xii. p. 45.

the

All laws at all times made

of the great

men.

the fundamental form and principles of this conftitution, of which there might be fome danger, in regard the judges would be neceffarily of the king's fole nomination and appointment.

"But in queftions of property, where the claims on either fide shall not be mixed with equity, this ultimate judicature should (without additions to fupply defects) give the fame judgments, as are prefcribed by the strict and pofitive laws in being; because these laws should be every man's birthright, and should have no controuler, nor be controuled by any judicature (except only by that power, which is to be legiflative, in which every man's confent is to be involved;) for if a law and rule of property be made, and a man's cafe fhall not be determined by it, the law and the authority of the makers would be vain and nu gatory.'

In the earliest traces of any legislative acts with the advice paffed in this country, we conftantly find exprefs and unambiguous mention made of the advice and affiftance of the great men (magnates) barons, prelates, archbishops, bishops, vavafours, earls, (comites,) &c. under which names, appellations, and defcriptions fome monarchical and ariftocratical writers have indeed pretended to doubt, whether com

moners

moners were included; but not even the strongest republican writers have ever queftioned or denied, that the firft 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 conftitution, it is curious to confult the opinion of a very determined and ftaunch republican* upon the subject. "An army," fays he, Ariftocracy ne $6 may as well confift of foldiers without of- ceflary for a ficers, or of officers without foldiers, as a commonwealth (especially such 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 last of all in the leading of its armies, which (though there be great divines, great lawyers, great men in all profeffions) seems 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 also that I fhould delineate

*

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

the

common-
wealth,

Of the origin

the aristocrati

cal part of our

conftitution.

The ancient wittenage

motte.

of

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

In our earliest history the great council of the nation under the Saxons, who concurred with the king in paffing laws, was called Wittenagemotte : * 66 a word compounded of Saxon and British, the former part of the word being Saxon, and the latter British. Witta is in Saxon, a wife man (i. e.) a nobleman; Gemot, in the British language, is a council or fynod, fo Wittenagemotte is a council of wife men or noblemen." According to the rude practices and habits of the warlike Saxons, they naturally allowed

Gurdon, vol. i. p. 21.

an