of this obscurity, the Magna Charta of Henry III. omits the following clause which is in the Magna Charta of King John, "that no scutage shall be imposed on the people unless by the consent of the commune consilium of the realm (8)."

The first writ of summons to elect and send knights and burgesses to parliament, was issued 49 Hen. III., before which there are no memorials or evidences of any such writ (9).

It must be confessed, however, that these deputies of the people were not at first possessed of any consider33 able authority: they were far from enjoying those extensive privileges which, in these days, constitute the house of commons a collateral part of the government; they were in those times called up only to provide for the wants of the king, and approve of the resolutions taken by him, and the assembly of the lords (g). But it was nevertheless a great point gained to have obtained the right of uttering their complaints, assembled in a body and in a legal way; to have acquired, in

(8) See post, Chap. 9. See also Blackstone's History of the Charters.-EDITOR.

(9) Prynne's Parl. Writs.-EDITOR.

(g) The end mentioned in the summons sent to the lords was, de arduis negotiis regni tractaturi et consilium impensuri; the requisition sent to the commons was, ad faciendum et consentiendum. The power enjoyed by the latter was even inferior to what they might have expected from the summons sent to them. "In most of the ancient statutes they are not so much as named; and in several, even when they are mentioned, they are distinguished as petitioners merely, the assent of the lords being expressed in contradistinction to the request of the commons.”—See on this subject the Preface to the Collection of the Statutes at Large, by Ruffhead, and the authorities quoted therein.

stead of the dangerous resource of insurrections, a lawful and regular means of influencing the motions of the government, and thenceforth to have become a part of it. Whatever disadvantage might attend the station at first allotted to the representatives of the people, it was soon to be compensated by the preponderance the people necessarily acquire, when they are enabled to 34 act and move with method, and especially with concert (h).

And indeed this privilege of naming representatives, insignificant as it might then appear, presently manifested itself by the most considerable effects. In spite of his reluctance, and after many evasions unworthy of so great a king, Edward was obliged to confirm the Great Charter; he even confirmed it eleven times in the course of his reign. It was moreover enacted, that whatever should be done contrary to it should be null and void; that it should be read twice a year in the cathedrals; and that the penalty of excommunication should be denounced against any one who should presume to violate it (¿).

At length he converted into an established law a 35 privilege of which the English had hitherto had only a

(h) France had, indeed, also her assemblies of the general estates of the kingdom, in the same manner as England had her parliament; but then it was only the deputies of the towns within the particular domain of the crown, that is, for a very small part of the nation, who, under the name of the third estate, were admitted in those estates; and it is easy to conceive that they acquired no great influence in an assembly of sovereigns who gave the law to their lord paramount. Hence, when these disappeared, the maxim became immediately established-The will of the king is the will of th law in old French, Que veut le roy, si veut la loy.

(i) Confirmationes Chartarum, cap. 2, 3, 4.

36

precarious enjoyment; and, in the Statute de Tallagio non concedendo, he decreed, that no tax should be laid, nor impost levied, without the joint consent of the lords and commons (k) :· :- a most important statute this, which, in conjunction with Magna Charta, forms the basis of the English constitution. If from the latter the English are to date the origin of their liberty, from the former they are to date the establishment of it; and as the Great Charter was the bulwark that protected the freedom of individuals, so was the statute in question the engine which protected the charter itself, and by the help of which the people were thenceforth to make legal conquests over the authority of the

crown.

This is the period at which we must stop, in order to contemplate the different prospect which the rest of Europe then presented.

The efficient causes of slavery were daily operating and gaining strength: the independence of the nobles on the one hand, the ignorance and weakness of the people on the other, continued to be extreme; the feudal government still continued to diffuse oppression and misery, and such was the confusion of it, that it even took away all hopes of amendment.

France, still bleeding from the extravagance of a nobility, incessantly engaged in groundless wars, either with each other or with the king, was again desolated

(1) "Nullum tallagium vel auxilium, per nos, vel hæredes nostros, in regno nostro ponatur seu levetur, sine voluntate et assensu Archiepiscoporum, Episcoporum, Comitum, Baronum, Militum, Burgensium, et aliorum liberorum hominum de regno nostro." Stat. an. 24 Ed. 1.-See the Editor's note on B. 2, Cap. 15, p. 338.

by the tyranny of that same nobility, haughtily jealous

of their liberty, or rather of their anarchy (1). The people, oppressed by those who ought to have guided and protected them, loaded with insults by those who existed by their labour, revolted on all sides. But their tumultuous insurrections had scarcely any other object than that of giving vent to the anguish with 37 which their hearts were filled. They had no thoughts of entering into a general combination; still less of changing the form of the government, and laying a regular plan of public liberty.

Having never extended their views beyond the fields they cultivated, they had no conception of those different ranks and orders of men, of those distinct and opposite privileges and prerogatives, which are all necessary ingredients of a free constitution. Hitherto confined to the same round of rustic employments, they little thought of that complicated fabric, which the more informed themselves cannot but with difficulty comprehend, when, by a concurrence of favourable circumstances, the structure has at length been reared, and stands displayed to their view.

In their simplicity, they saw no other remedy for the national evils than the general establishment of the regal power, that is, of the authority of one common

(7) Not content with oppression, they added insult. "When the gentry," says Mezeray, "pillaged and committed exactions on the peasantry, they called the poor sufferer, in derision, Jaques bonhomme, (goodman James). This gave rise to a furious sedition, which was called the Jaquerie. It began at Beauvais in the year 1357, extending itself into most of the provinces of France, and was not appeased but by the destruction of part of those unhappy victims, thousands of whom were slaughtered."

uncontrolled master; and only longed for that time, which, while it gratified their revenge, would mitigate their sufferings, and reduce to the same level both the oppressors and the oppressed.

The nobility, on the other hand, bent solely on the 38 enjoyment of a momentary independence, irrecoverably lost the affection of the only men who might in time support them; and, equally regardless of the dictates of humanity and of prudence, they did not perceive the gradual and continual advances of the royal authority, which was soon to overwhelm them all. Already were Normandy, Anjou, Languedoc, and Touraine united to the crown; Dauphiné, Champagne, and part of Guienne, were soon to follow. France was doomed at length to see the reign of Louis XI.; to see her General Estates first beecom useless, and be afterwards abolished (10).

It was the destiny of Spain also to behold her several

(10) For a state to be powerful, the people must either enjoy a liberty founded on the laws, or the regal authority must be fixed beyond all opposition. In France, the people were slaves till the reign of Philip Augustus; the noblemen were tyrants till the reign of Louis the Eleventh; and the kings, always employed in maintaining their authority against their vassals, had neither leisure to think about the happiness of their subjects, nor the power of making them happy. Voltaire says, that Louis XI. did a great deal for the regal power, but nothing for the happiness or glory of the nation.

Louis, like the other monarchs of Europe, at the close of the fifteenth century, was better enabled to obtain supremacy by reason of his being more enlightened than his nobles: he abolished the States General, Ferdinand of Spain laid a train for the destruction of the Cortes, and Henry VII. would have abolished the English parliament. Henry VIII. obtained such supremacy, as to compel the parliament to pass a statute whereby his proclamations ad the effect of acts of parliament.—EDITOR.