234 RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE CONSTITUTION. formed nation, discuss and determine the laws and policy likely to make communities great and happy; whoever is capable of comprehending all the effects of such institutions with all their possible improvements upon the mind and genius of a people,—is sacredly bound to speak with reverential gratitude of the authors of the Great Charter. To have produced it, to have preserved it, to have matured it, constitute the immortal claim of England upon the esteem of mankind. Her Bacons and Shakspeares, her Miltons and Newtons, with all the truth which they have revealed, and all the generous virtue which they have inspired, are of inferior value when compared with the subjection of men and their rulers to the principles of justice, if, indeed, it be not more true that these mighty spirits could not have been formed except under equal laws, nor roused to full activity without the influence of that spirit which the Great Charter breathed over their forefathers."* *Mackintosh," Hist. Eng.," vol. i. p. 221. CHAPTER XIV. Progress of the Constitution during the Reigns of the ten last Plantagenet Kings.—Growing Importance of the House of Commons.—Qualifications of Members and Electors.-Prerogatives of the Crown.-State of the Population.-Jurors.-Boroughs.Number of Electors. It has been shown in the preceding pages that the thirteenth century saw the commencement of our nationality, and that during it the great foundations of our constitution were laid. But it would be ignorant rashness to assert that the organization of our institutions was complete even at the time of the death of Edward I., A.D. 1307. What was said of the Roman Constitution by two of its greatest statesmen, and written by another, may with equal truth be averred of the English,- that no one man and no one age sufficed for its full production.* But its kindly growth went rapidly on during the reigns of the later Plantagenets; and the historian of the last centuries of the middle ages,† traces with pride and pleasure * "Tum Lælius, nunc fit illud Catonis certius, nec temporis unius, nec hominis esse constitutionem reipublicæ." Cicero De Republica, lib. ii. 21. See throughout the 3rd part of the 8th chapter of Hallam's "Middle Ages," and the valuable supplemental notes to the last edition. The student may also examine with great advantage the seven last lec the increase and systemization of the power of the House of Commons in asserting and maintaining the exclusive right of taxation; in making the grant of supplies dependent on the redress of grievances; in directing and checking the public expenditure; in establishing the necessity of the concurrence of both Houses of Parliament in all legislation; in securing the people against illegal ordinances and interpolations of the statutes; in inquiring into abuses; in controlling the royal administration; in impeaching and bringing to punishment bad ministers and other great offenders against the laws and liberties of the land; and in defining and upholding their own immunities and privileges. The limits of this work will only permit the citation here of a few proofs of the progress of our constitution. during this time. More elaborate treatises must be referred to for full information. In the second year of Edward II.'s reign we find the Commons, when applied to for a grant of money to the Crown, making it "upon condition that the king should take advice and grant redress upon certain articles wherein they are aggrieved. They complain that they are not governed as they ought to be, especially as to the articles of the Great Charter."* In 1322 a statute was passed, declaring that "the matters to be established for the estate of the king and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, should be treated, accorded, and established in parliament, by the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty of the realm, tures of the 2nd part of M. Guizot's "History of Represen tative Government." according as had been before accustomed." Mr. Hallam well observes that "this statute not only establishes, by a legislative declaration, the present constitution of parliament, but recognises it as already standing upon a custom of some length of time."* During Edward III.'s long and active reign, the wars in which that sovereign was almost continually engaged, kept him dependent on his parliament for supplies of money; and the power of the Commons was thereby materially augmented, notwithstanding the high abilities of Edward, and his fondness for his royal prerogatives. The king was continually attempting to raise money by arbitrary and illegal imposts; but the Commons never ceased to remonstrate against such acts, and to insist on the fundamental right of there being no taxation without consent. The complete and permanent division of parliament into two Houses, as at present, is admitted by all writers to have been established in this reign, if not earlier. The Commons have now formed themselves into a body or estate of the realm, distinct from the estate of the prelates and abbots, or spiritual peers, distinct from the estate of the temporal peers, distinct from the Crown, but comprehending all the rest of the free human beings that live in the land. A distinct House of Parliament represents this estate of the Commons, and is now generally (and with substantial, though not literal accuracy) spoken of as being itself that which it represents; as the Commons of the realm. The leading feature of our constitutional history is no longer a conflict between the king and the barons, wherein the Commons, as auxiliaries of the barons, play a mere "Constitutional History of England," vol. i. p. 5. secondary part. That conflict has, to a great extent, ceased. The reign of Edward III. presents to us the aspect of the baronial aristocracy grouped round the throne, while the Commons are the party of progress. Not that the nobles of England have given up their high station of protectors of the liberties of England. On great emergencies, especially in the reign of Richard II., we shall see them acting in unison with the Commons in the national cause. But, as a general rule, it is the Lower House of Parliament that now supports the struggle for constitutional rights and for the advancement of popular power. "The Commons do not, indeed, aspire to snatch the supreme power from the hands of the king and the barons; they would not have strength enough to do so, nor do they entertain any thought of it; but they resist every encroachment upon those rights which they are beginning to know and to appreciate; they have acquired a consciousness of their own importance, and know that all public affairs properly fall under their cognizance. Finally, either by their petitions, or by their debates in reference to taxation, they are daily obtaining a larger share in the government, exercise control over affairs which, fifty years before, they never heard mentioned, and become, in a word, an integral and almost indispensable part of the great national council, and of the entire political machine."* It is also observable, that the Commons, during this reign, in their opposition to the royal power, do not attack the king himself, but they lay all blame upon his ministers, and begin to "assert and popularize the prin *Guizot's " History of Re- ii. lect. 22. presentative Government," part |