592 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion was its fundamental cause. The calling together knights of the 

 shire, representing the class of small land-owners, which preceded on 

 several occasions the calling together deputies from towns, implied 

 the growing importance of this class as one from which money was to 

 be raised ; and, when deputies from towns were summoned to the Par- 

 liament of 1295, the form of summons shows that the motive was to 

 get pecuniary aid from portions of the population which had become 

 relatively considerable and rich. Already the king had on more than 

 one occasion sent special agents to shires and boroughs to obtain 

 subsidies from them for his wars. Already he had assembled pro- 

 vincial councils formed of representatives from cities, boroughs, and 

 market-towns, that he might get from them votes of money. And, 

 when the great Parliament was called together, the reason set forth 

 in the writs was, that wars with Wales, Scotland, and France, were 

 endangering the realm ; the implication being that the necessity for 

 obtaining supplies led to this recognition of the towns as well as the 

 counties. 



So, too, was it in Scotland. The first known occasion on which 

 representatives from burghs entered into political action was when 

 there was urgent need for pecuniary hel}) from all sources namely, 

 "at Cambuskenneth, on the 15th day of July, 1326, when Bruce 

 claimed from his people a revenue to meet the expenses of his glorious 

 war and the necessities of the state, which was granted to the mon- 

 arch by the earls, barons, burgesses, and free tenants, in full Parlia- 

 ment assembled." 



In which cases, while we are again sbown that the obligation is 

 original, and the power derived, we are also shown that it is the 

 increasing mass of those who carry on life by voluntary cooperation 

 instead of compulsory cooperation partly the rural class of small 

 freeholders, and still more the urban class of traders which initiates 

 popular representation. 



Still there remains the question. How does the representative 

 body become separate from the consultative body ? Retaining the 

 primitive character of councils of war, national assemblies are at first 

 mixed. The different "arms," as the estates were called in Spain, 

 form a single body. Knights of the shire, when first summoned, act- 

 ing on behalf of numerous smaller tenants of the king, owing military 

 service, sit and vote with the greater tenants. Standing, as towns 

 originally do, very much in the position of fiefs, those who represent 

 them are not unallied, in legal status, to feudal chiefs ; and, at first 

 assembling with these, in some cases remain united with them, as ap- 

 pears to have been habitually the case in France and Spain. Under 

 what circumstances, then, do the consultative and representative 

 bodies differentiate ? The question is one to which there seems to be 

 no very satisfactory answer. 



