(m. A. W. Clifton, Esq.)

1261 Le Despencer, Baroness

Mary F. E. Boscawen

1822 1831

(Viscountess Falmouth).

1313 Willoughby de Eresby, Baroness

C. E. Heathcote - Drummond - Wil- 1809

1871

Warton Hall, Lytham.

Col. Hon. E. E. T. Boscawen Mereworth Castle, Maidstone. Lord Aveland.

Grimsthorpe, Bourne.

loughby.

1681 Nairne, Baroness 1437 Rothes, Countess of.

E. J. M. Fitzmaurice

1819 1874

Marquess of Lansdowne.

Meiklour House, Perth.

(Dow. Marchioness of Lansdowne). Mary Elizabeth Haworth-Leslie (m. M. E. Haworth, Esq.)

1811 1886

Lord Leslie and Ballen breich. Leslie House, Fifeshire.

678

Lincoln

Edward King, D.D.

1829

1885

Principal of Cuddesdon; Canon of Christ C. Riseholme, Lincoln. Church, Oxford; Regius Professor

of Pastoral Theology, 1873-85.

HISTORY.

In the Sovereign and the three estates of the realm-viz., the Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons, is vested supreme legislative authority in this country. The growth of the power of the House of Commons-the third estateis a prominent feature in our history from the reign of Henry III. downwards,

In early Saxon times, the Witenagemót (general council or assembly of wise men) exercised many of the functions which were afterwards assumed by Parliament. This assembly was not called together on Royal warrant, but met of its own accord. Every freeman possessed the right of taking part in its deliberations, although the expense of attending from a distance practically limited the exercise of the privilege to the richer nobility and the higher ecclesiastics. The Witenagemót in theory elected the king. It had a voice in the determination of war and peace, and in general matters of State policy. It acted as a court of appeal, and it is interesting to note that its authority appears to have been necessary for the imposition of extraordinary taxation.

After the Conquest, the Witenagemót gave place to the Great Council of the Realm, first summoned in 1070, and attended by twelve representatives from every county. This was no longer a meeting of the ordinary freemen, but representation was based on land tenure, and the Council became a court of the vassals of the Crown, composed of bishops, abbots, earls, barons and knights, who held land directly from the king. Under the first Norman kings the authority of the Great Council was limited. It still indeed discussed questions of foreign and general policy, and enjoyed a certain legislative authority, but it had no power to join in taxation; and although its "Counsel and Consent" was necessary in matters of fiscal as well as of political importance, its functions seem to have become almost nominal. In the reign of Henry II. (A.D. 1154 to 1189), its authority was considerably extended, and about this time it began to be summoned regularly, and the Commons were admitted to its deliberations. Although it engaged in the discussion of taxation, yet the Crown resolutely maintained that the sole right to levy taxes on the subject was vested in the Sovereign. During the troubled times of John's reign, however, the authority of the Great Council increased rapidly, and in 1215, in Magna Charta, its constitution was more clearly defined and its powers over taxation were first formally recognised, by the enactment

that no burthen beyond the customary feudal aids might be imposed, "save by the Common Council of the Realm."

There was as yet but one assembly, but it is to be noticed that in Magna Charta, for the first time, an important distinction was made between the " greater" and the "lesser " barons; the former, it was enacted, should be summoned to the Council personally by special writ, but the latter were to be called together by a general writ addressed to the sheriffs. In this, according to Mr. Freeman, lay the germ of popular representation.

Up to this time the towns had enjoyed comparative immunity from taxation, but their growing importance, and the increasing wealth of the mercantile class, which was not represented in the Great Council, made it desirable, as a means of making taxation more efficient, that the towns should be brought into contact with the central authority. Accordingly, in 1265, Simon de Montfort, in the king's name, summoned a parliament at Westminster, and besides requiring the attendance of two knights from every shire, he ordered the return of two citizens or burgesses from each town. The Parliament of 1265, therefore, was the first distinct foundation of a system of popular repre

sentation.

During the reigns of the first three Edwards the assembly was in a period of transition, and at the close of the reign of Edward III. the division into Lords and Commons had become apparent. In that reign it was the practice for the prelates, with the clergy, to consult by themselves: the nobles by themselves: and the knights and burgesses by themselves: but sending the result of their deliberations collectively to the king. The clergy and baronagethe official and hereditary element gradually became an upper Assembly, while the union of the knights of the shire with the burgesses became known as the "Commons." Under the strong-willed Tudor dynasty the Commons displayed little independence (although they refused to accede to some of the demands of Henry VIII.), and it was not till the accession of the House of Stuart that the long struggle between the Sovereign and the Parliament began. By making the granting of supplies contingent upon the redress of grievances, the House of Commons during the Stuart dynasty was able to greatly extend and consolidate its authority. The unyielding disposition of Charles I. led him to attempt to govern without a Parliament, and his growing necessities drove him to many illegal