The History of the Origins of Representative Government in Europe

Lecture 21

LECTURE 21 Ofpetitions during the early times ofrepresentative government. ~ Regulations on the subject. ~ Transformation ofthe right ofpetition possessed by the Houses ofParliament into the right ofproposition and initiative. ~ Petitions cease to be addressed to the king, and are presented to Parliament. ~ Origin ofthe right ofinquiry. ~ Necessity for representative government to be complete. ~ Artifices and abuses engendered by the right ofpetition. T.m circumstances which occur at the origin ofan institution are well calculated to make us acquainted with its nature. At such periods, events are simple, and produce themselves spontaneously. No effort has yet been made either to evade them or to change their nature, and the state ofsociety is not sufficiently complicated to render it impossible to attain the object aimed at by any but subtle and indirect means. To say truth, in what does the right of petition consist? It is the right to demand the reparation ofan injury, or to give expression to a desire. Such a demand must naturally be addressed to the power which is capable of satisfYing the desire or repairing the injury-which has authority, and power enough to grant the prayer ofthe petition. Accordingly, in the fourteenth century, all petitions, whether they emanated from the two Houses of Parliament, or from individuals unconnected with those Houses, whether they had reference to general or private interests, were addressed to the king. No one had any idea of petitioning the Houses themselves; the king governed; in him resided both the right and the power to redress public or private grievances, and to satisfY the requirements of the nation . To him the barons, commons, corporations, and citizens applied whenever they had need. The king governed in his council: and of all his councils, the Parliament was the most eminent and the most extensive. In certain cases, the advice and acquiescence ofthe Parliament, as a whole or in part, were necessary to the exercise of the royal authority. The meeting of Parliament was, therefore, the ESSAYS OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND natural opportunity for the presentation of all petitions. It was, as it were, the moment at which the nation and the government met face to face, either to transact in common those affairs which required their concurrence, or to make those reciprocal demands ofwhich they mutually stood in need. Private citizens naturally availed themselves ofthis opportunity for presenting their own petitions , either because the co-operation ofthe great powers ofthe State was necessary to grant their prayers, or because they referred to demands upon which the king was competent to decide alone, but to which his attention would then be more effectually directed, as they might receive support from the patronage ofthe barons or deputies met in council with the king. In all cases, it was to the king in his council, that is to say, to the government itself, that petitions were addressed; and far from the Houses ofParliament , after having received and examined them, referring them to the government for decision, it was the king who, by officers specially appointed for the purpose, received and examined them, and afterwards called the attention of both Houses to those with whose prayers he could not comply without their sanction. All complaints and demands were thus forwarded directly to the power entrusted with the duty of coming to a definitive decision regarding them; and the Houses of Parliament interfered subsequently only in certain cases, and then as a necessary council. Such was the primitive and natural fact. The progress of the representative system, however, completely changed its course and character. We have seen that, in the fourteenth century, petitions were oftwo kinds; first, those drawn up or presented to the king, by one or both Houses, and relating to grievances of a more or less general character; secondly, those addressed to the king by corporations or citizens, and relating to collective or private interests. We have now nothing further to do with the first class ofthese petitions. As far as the Houses ofParliament are concerned, they have become transformed into a right of initiative, more or less efficacious and more or less direct. This right, its importance and its forms, give rise to questions ofan entirely distinct character. At the present day, the complaints or demands addressed by private citizens to the legislative authorities, are alone called by the name ofpetitions. There is now no further question about the right of addressing such demands to the executive power itself-to the government properly so called. No...