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Lecture 13
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LECTURE 13 Progress ofthe Parliament under the reign ofEdward I ~ Frequent holding ofParliament. ~ Different composition ofParliaments. ~ Deputiesfrom the counties andtowns were not alwayspresent. __, Discretionarypowerofthe king in the convocation ofbarons. ~ The varying number ofcounty and borough deputies. GREAT political institutions generally originate under feeble and incapable princes; in the midst ofthe troubles which arise in their reign, they are extorted from them. They are consolidated under more able princes, who know how to recognize the necessity for them, and to understand the advantages which they may derive from them. This was the case in England under Henry III. and Edward I. Henry, who was entirely deficient in firmness, allowed, although quite against his inclination , all the concessions which were demanded ofhim to escape from his hands; his son, who was able and energetic, instead ofsetting himselfto destroy the institutions which his father had permitted to come into being, made himself master of them, and turned them to his own advantage. Edward I. would not perhaps have allowed them to begin in his reign; but finding them in vigorous existence, he accepted them as they were, and instead ofdreading or dispersing the new Parliament, he availed himself of it as an instrument to serve and strengthen a power which he exercised with intelligence. It was by the aid ofthe Parliament that Edward I. conferred, so to speak, a national character upon his wars and conquests-enterprises which might perhaps have excited his people against him, if he had reigned alone, and acted at once without public support and public control. Two kinds of Parliament appeared under Edward I. The one kind was composed only of the higher barons, and seemed to form the grand council of the king; in the other, deputies from counties and boroughs had a seat. No legal and fixed distinction existed between these assemblies; their attributes were almost identical, and they often exercised the same powers. However , the meetings of those Parliaments which were composed only of the 313 ESSAYS OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND higher barons were very frequent; they took place regularly four times a year. The other Parliaments, on the contrary, were only convened on extraordinary occasions, and when it was necessary to obtain from the freeholders, either of the counties or ofthe towns and boroughs, some general impost. This, however, was not the only motive which could lead to the convocation of this last mentioned assembly, which, in truth, alone deserves the name of Parliament. Whenever business arose of so great importance that the concurrence of a great number of interests was judged necessary, the great Parliament was assembled, and by this cause its range of deliberation became more extended, and it assumed a greater consistency. We may infer the moral force which the Parliament had already acquired at this period, by the political maxims which were generally admitted. Robert ofWinchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking to the Pope on behalf of the king and his barons, addressed to him this remarkable sentiment: "It is the custom ofthe kingdom ofEnglandthat, in matters which regardthe state ofthat kingdom , the advice ofallthose interested in the matter shouldbe consulted"* There is no need that we should take this principle in its most rigorous application; it is not the fact that all those who were interested in these matters were consulted about them; but the sentiment is still a witness ofthe progress which had already been made by the ideas ofa free and public government. This progress is still further attested by the answer which Edward himself made to the clergy, who demanded of him the repeal of a statute designed to restrain the accumulation of property in mortmain: "This statute," said he, "had been made by the advice ofhis barons, and consequently it could not be recalled without their advice."-t In this case, also, the principle was very far from being strictly observed, and Edward himself , in rz8r, on his own authority, altered several ofthe statutes which had been passed in 1278 by the Parliament at Gloucester. Nothing therefore was more irregular and uncertain than the rights ofthe public and the forms ofgovernment at this period. Principles were professed which were only very partially carried into practice, and which were often entirely neglected. But in the midst ofthis apparent disorder, great institutions were gradually being formed; the innovations of the preceding reign became habits, and these habits, sanctioned by time, became necessities. Thus rights were established. As to the distinction which I have just made between...