1215, in these terms:- 66 We reprove and absolutely condemn such a treaty; we forbid the King to pay any regard to it, and we forbid the Barons as well as their accomplices, under pain of anathema, to require its observance. 'We declare the said Charter to be radically null and void, as well as all its obligations and consequences." But Archbishop Langton refused to promulgate the decree of Rome, whereupon fresh disturbances again ensued. The King, with the aid of foreign mercenaries, took up arms agains the Barons, while the Barons on their side called in the assistance of French troops, and invited a French Prince to accept the English crown; but the timely death of the King brought matters to a final issue and terminated the civil wars.

During the following reign of Henry III. the Great Charter was renewed five times ;-on some occasions the ceremony took place at the close of a great national council-sometimes after violent civil wars. In 1227, Henry having attained his majority, was induced probably by some of his ministers, who for the most part were foreigners, and who paid but little regard to English laws, to revoke not only the Great Charter, but also the Charter of the Forests which he himself had granted, on the ground that he had yielded them at a time when he had no free command of his person or of his seal. But the Barons peremptorily demanded a reconfirmation; and whenever these charters were violated the Barons sought to obtain further concessions from the King in addition to those already existing in the charters which had been infringed. In 1253, sentence of excommunication was solemnly denounced against whomsoever should violate the royal charters at the end of the ceremony the prelates threw down their smoking torches and uttered a terrible anathema against all who should incur the sentence; and the King promised "so help him God, he would not violate any of these things, as he was a true man, a Christian, a Knight, and a crowned and anointed King!" Not content with this

promise, however, the Barons subsequently constrained the King to ordain that twice in each year, at the festivals of Easter and Michaelmas, the two charters should be read in the County Court House in the presence of all the people; that the Sheriffs, Judges, and Seneschals of the King, and of his Lords, should swear to observe the same, and that the citizens should be dispensed from obeying any magistrate who had not satisfied this obligation.

Our next inquiries will be directed to the origin of the Representative System-which may perhaps be termed the Complement of the Great Charter, and without which the provisions of the latter could never have been carried out in practice. We have already seen by what strenuous and unwearied exertions the Barons succeeded in laying the foundations of the English Constitution. But the fabric still remains to be erected, and centuries have to elapse before the structure will be complete. As yet the Third Estate of the realm-the corner-stone of the building-has not been laid. Power and authority are still exclusively in the hands of a privileged class; and the great body of the People have no voice in the councils of the nation, or in the direction of public affairs. They are governed it may be by just and equitable laws, but in making those laws they have had no share. The taxes and imposts to which they are subjected are levied without their consent. A grievance is felt and it is expedient to find a remedy-which is eventually discovered in the Commons Representatives, who in theory at least are the organs of the popular voice.

At what period then, and under what circumstances, was the Commons' House of Representatives first called into existence? This question, strange to say, is involved in a little obscurity; for although the Commons may represent in a measure the collective wisdom of the nation, yet, unlike the famous god

dess, they did not spring at a single bound full-formed and many-gifted from the brain of their great parent-the English people. On the contrary, their birth and origin were very obscure. Indeed the Deputies who were first returned to Parliament were scarcely "representatives" in any sense of the term, for they possessed no legislative powers or authority whatever at the outset. Those Deputies who were called together from time to time by Henry III., were limited in their functions to "inquiring into grievances and delivering their inquisition into Parliament," in which character they seem to have acted the part of Commissioners, rather than of popular representatives. We cannot, therefore, regard such functionaries as members of the legislative body, for they lacked the dignity and essential attributes of Deputies properly so called. This subject has indeed given rise to various learned disquisitions-into the merits of which we cannot here enter. Nor will it be necessary for our purpose to make any special note of the famous "Provisions of Oxford," or of the irregular proceedings connected with the insurrection of Simon de Montfort. Passing on, however, to the reign of Edward I., we shall probably be right in fixing the origin of the Representative System in the 22nd year of that King.

The main object for which Deputies were first summoned was to grant supplies. The King required a subsidy, and he accordingly issued Writs to the several towns, counties, and boroughs throughout the kingdom, directing his sheriffs to return from each two Deputies, "cum plenâ potestate pro se et totâ communitate predicta ad consulendum et consentiendum pro se et communitate illa his quæ comites, barones et proceres prædicti concorditer ordinaverint in præmissis." In the 28th of Edward I., the Knights or Deputies are directed to be sent plena potestate audiendi et faciendi quæ ibidem ordinari contigerint pro communi commodo," which shows how rapidly their powers increased.

cum

So far as we can learn these Deputies were

elected in all cases by the freeholders exclusively, and they were summoned to Parliament once or twice in each year for the purposes above named: sometimes by the King's direction the same members were again returned, and sometimes new members were chosen. At first, we are told, they occupied the lower end of the chamber in which the Barons and other magnates sat, but they did not mingle or vote in common with the Peers. They assisted as spectators, without any voice in the deliberations, but with the right of assenting to, though it would seem not of dissenting from, what had been done by the Lords of Parliament. Perhaps indeed the chief, if not the sole function of the early Deputies, was to consent to the taxes that had been imposed upon their constituents. And therefore we cannot wonder that the worthy burgesses and freeholders of those days did not at first fully appreciate the advantages of the representative system. So far from hailing it as a boon or privilege, we find that some boroughs considered it a burden, and that the electors neglected and even refused to send Deputies to Parliament, on the ground of their own poverty and consequent inability to defray the expenses of their representatives. And here it may be proper to observe that in early times, and even down to a comparatively modern period, the members of the Lower House received pay for their services—on a scale more or less liberal according to circumstances: in more recent times the honour and dignity attached to this office have been considered an adequate recompense for the duties which pertain to it.

In the reign of Edward I. was passed the famous statute, ever memorable in our constitutional annals, which enacted that, "No tax should be levied without the joint consent of the Lords and Commons"-a statute of so much importance that to it is chiefly owing the great influence which the House of Commons acquired in subsequent times.

Ever since the reign of Edward II., the Lords and

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Commons have occupied separate chambers; the precise date, however, of their separation has not been determined by historical writers. But from that period downwards the power and influence of the Lower House of Parliament have continued to increase, until it may fairly be said now to have become predominant in all State affairs. This must be undoubtedly attributed to financial considerations in the first place, and secondly to the growth of a wealthy and enlightened middle class, who by their intelligence, commercial enterprise and industry have been the chief means of raising this country-so far, at least, as its vast material and pecuniary resources are concerned to that degree of preeminence which it now holds amongst the kingdoms and empires of the whole civilised world. To the Commons belonged, moreover, the exclusive right of initiating all money bills, of granting subsidies, both ordinary and extraordinary, and of imposing taxes. Hence it was, as we have said, that they acquired so much influence almost from the outset, and that they soon grew weary of the barren privilege of taxing themselves and their constituents. No doubt they felt a noble ambition stirring within them, and urging them on to higher deeds than any they had yet achieved in a senatorial point of view. Mute and inglorious had been their functions during the reign of the First Edward, for we are told that they "had not even the right of remonstrating" against any law; but so much did a sense of their own dignity and importance, and of their fitness for better things, grow upon them in the space of a few years, that under Edward II. they granted the King the twenty-fifth penny of their goods, upon condition that the King should take advice and grant redress upon certain matters wherein they were aggrieved." Amongst other grievances, they complained of not being governed according to the Articles of the Great Charter, and then proceeded to give a catalogue of their troubles, which the King promised to remedy.