414 A. D. T264. 



laws, which difpofed of their lives and properties. The earl of Leiccfler, 

 having got the king into his hands, nov/ fummoned in his name the 

 prelates and nobles of his own party, and added to them a vaft number 

 of abbats, priors, and deans, a clafs of people among whom he had 

 great intereft. He alfo ordered the fhirrefs to caufe two knights out of 

 every county to attend, and fent letters to the cities of York and Lin- 

 coln, to the burghs, and to the Cinque ports, deliring them to fend two 

 members each. [F^dera, V. i, p. 802.] We are not told in what man- 

 ner the members were chofen. 



1265, January — Thus were the commons introduced into parliament : 

 but there is no further mention of any members being fummoned from 

 cities or burghs till the year 1283 *> after which they appear to have 

 been frequently called, and at length formed a conftituent part of every 

 parliament, though even then a regular fucceflion of reprefentatives was 

 not kept up in every city and town ; for the fhirrefs often negledled de- 

 firing them to make their eledions : and the negled, whether occafioned 

 by accident or defign in the king or the fhirrefs, was thankfully ac- 

 knowleged as a gracious indulgence by thofe communities, who were 

 thereby exempted from paying the falaries of their members ; for then, 

 and during many ages after, the reprefentatives were paid by thofe whom 

 they reprefented. So very different were their ideas and pradice from 

 thofe of the prefent age. The commons long continited to have very 

 little influence on the legiflative body, and, indeed, were confidered as 

 mere petitioners. A6ls were pafled, and even money levied, without, 

 and againfh, their confent till the fecond year of Henry V, when it was 

 determined, that no law fliould be enaded contrary to the petition of 

 the commons, the king preferving his prerogative of aflent or difl^ent. 

 Though their rights, after being thus in fome degree defined, were often 

 infringed, they, notwithflanding, continued to grow up into flrength, 

 efpecially during the contefts between the houfes of York and Lancafler, 

 which, however fatal to individuals, tended to raife the great body of 

 the people to their due place in the conftitution. But it was not till ' 

 commerce and manufactures conferred importance upon towns, and 

 opulence upon individuals, that the house of commons attained the 

 weight and dignity, which ought to belong to the representatives of 



A FKEE PEOPLE f . 



It would be improper to neglecl: noticing a pompous defcription of 

 the profperity and commerce of England, which Mathew of Wcftminfter 

 (/>. 396) introduces in the charader of a perfon lamenting ' in an ele- 

 ' gant ftile' the %Tiileries of the country occafioned by the civil war. 

 * O England,' fays he, ' formerly glorious, illuftrious, and exalted among 



* Brady appears to have never feen the funinionfes in 1283. He <lfites the firfl appearance of 

 citizens and burgcfTes in parliament in 1295. [Treatife of burghs, p. 25.] 



t See Rujfhcad's Preface to the Statutes at large, and the authorities thdrc (I'lutedl 



