The EUROPEAN LEGISLATURES. 155 



the formidable and frequent demands made to the Norman 

 princes for the reftoration of the Saxon laws ; the regard paid 

 by magna charta to the rights of the commons, as much as of 

 the peerage ; the facility with which deputies from the lefTer 

 freeholders were admitted into parliament, fo that no cotempo- 

 rary hiftorians take any notice of the event ; the numerous 

 veftiges of an ancient equality of ranks among thofe who may 

 juftly be termed the warrior caft of the nation * ; the privi- 

 leges of the noblefle on the continent, and the fpirit of the 

 common law in England, fo favourable to the rights of the 

 commons and adverfe to feudal ufurpation : Thefe are a few of 

 the particulars which, I think, have never received any fatisfac- 

 tory explanation on the fyftem of thofe authors who hold, that 

 all our inftitutions are to be confidered as originating in feudal 

 times. 



PART II. 



S E c T I O N II. Of the deliberative Body in the Anglo-Saxon and 

 Scoff i/h Diets ; and whether or not they contained Reprefentatives 

 of Towns. 



""* H E R E are two points in the hypothecs maintained in the 

 * preceding feclion that feem to demand feparate confidera- 

 tion. Thefe are the members afcribed to the deliberative body 

 in the European diets in general, and in the wittenagemot in 

 particular ; and the denial of any reprefentation having belong- 

 ed to the commons in the Gothic ages. 



u 2 As 



* THUS, in Scotland, where the greater and lefTer barons fat together in one houfe 

 of parliament, we find commoners holding the higheft offices in the ftate, and fitting 

 along with peers in juries and in trials in parliament. 



