Parliament. Scene in the House of Lords on the occasion of the opening of Parliament by the Kins. On the left is the 

 bar of the House, at which the Speaker and members of the Commons attend to hear the Speech from the Throne 



swamped, the council ; the lower 

 clergy went off to convocation ; 

 and the knights of the shire and 

 burgesses united to form the House 

 of Commons. In time the separate 

 work of these two groups, Lords 

 and Commons, grew more impor- 

 tant than their joint work in com- 

 mon session. 



More unfortunate from the point 

 of view of understanding the origin 

 and history of parliament has been 

 the removal of the law-courts from 

 Westminster Hall to the Strand, 

 and the consequent severance in 

 the public mind of what was 

 originally a single institution. 

 Lawyers themselves are seldom 

 aware that a judge of the High 

 Court of Justice is called " My 

 Lord " because historically he is a 

 Lord of the high court of Parlia- 

 ment, or that when they talk of the 

 chancery " side " they refer to a 

 side of Westminster Hall which 

 was part of that palace, where the 

 judges also sat in more intimate 

 session in the parliament chamber. 

 Change in Functions 



The kernel of this change 

 was the conversion of individual 

 petitions, which are matters for 

 judicial redress, into the common 

 petition, which requires legislation 

 and political action, and this de- 

 velopment, which, more than any- 

 thing else, created the House of 

 Commons, also determined the 

 functions of parliament. Parlia- 

 mentary petitions were more and 

 more referred to the council and 



by the council to chancery, the 

 star chamber, and others of its 

 departments ; and with the loss 

 of this business parliaments grew 

 more infrequent towards the close 

 of the Middle Ages. Attendance 

 was shirked both by Lords and 

 Commons, and it was not until the 

 growth of political intelligence 

 followed on the Renaissance, 

 localism expanded into nation- 

 alism, and the Tudors were com- 

 pelled by their break with the 

 Church to rely on parliament, that 

 the ebbing tide of parliamentary 

 activity was turned into its 

 broader modern channels. 



It was nursed by Henry VIII, 

 grew fractious under Elizabeth, and 

 rebelled against the Stuarts. That 

 war against the Stuarts was the 

 best testimony to the fostering care 

 of the Tudors. for no parliament in 

 the Middle Ages could ever have 

 waged a war against the crown. 

 But under Henry VIII a parlia- 

 ment, instead of being a matter of 

 two or three weeks, sat for seven 

 years, and during such periods 

 acquired a solidarity, a self-know- 

 ledge, a tradition, a body of rules 

 and customs, and a mastery of 

 politics such as it had never pos- 

 sessed before. The Rolls of Parlia- 

 ment kept by the crown are super- 

 seded by the Journals kept by the 

 Houses themselves ; Henry VIII's 

 habit of doing everything by par- 

 liament created the impression 

 that nothing could be done without 

 parliament ; and it developed a 



will of its own, denying the crown 

 all sorts of control it had exerted 

 before, and eventually establishing 

 its claim to be the superior power. 

 The Revolution of 1688 asserted 

 the responsibility of the executive 

 to parliament, but not till 1832 

 was the responsibility of parlia- 

 ment to the people fully recog- 

 nized, and that recognition led to 

 the supremacy of the House of 

 Commons, which was completed 

 by the Parliament Act of 1911. 



Parliament is now legally the 

 sovereign body in the constitution, 

 though politically it obeys the will 

 of the constituencies, and is some- 

 times threatened with the uncon- 

 stitutional alternative of " direct 

 action." It makes and unmakes 

 laws, retains or turns out minis- 

 tries, and directly or indirectly con- 

 trols the whole of British policy. 

 Unlike most modern legislatures, 

 and particularly that of the United 

 States, it is bound by no written 

 constitution and hampered by no 

 " separation of powers." 

 Scope of Powers 



It can alter the most funda- 

 mental law with the same expedi- 

 tion and machinery as it passes or 

 repeals a tramway Act ; and no 

 fixed terms of office, either for 

 legisiature or executive, prohibit 

 the solution of disputes between 

 them by a dissolution of the legis- 

 lature or an ejection of the 

 executive. On the other hand the 

 elasticity of the system subjects 

 parliament to manipulation ; it 



