426 POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



grew into prosperous towns, had been formed of serfs and 

 artizans to whom various privileges, including those of self- 

 government, were given by royal charter. With 

 which examples must be joined the example familiar to all. 

 For in England it was during the struggle between king and 

 barons, when the factions were nearly balanced, and when 

 the town-populations had been by trade so far increased that 

 their aid was important, that they came to play a noticeable 

 part, first as allies in war and afterwards as sharers in govern 

 ment. It cannot be doubted that when summoning to the 

 parliament of 1265, not only knights of the shire but also 

 deputies from cities and boroughs, Simon of Montfort was 

 prompted by the desire to strengthen himself against the 

 royal party supported by the Pope. And whether he sought 

 thus to increase his adherents, or to obtain larger pecuniary 

 means, or both, the implication equally is that the urban 

 populations had become a relatively-important part of the 

 nation. This interpretation harmonizes with subsequent 

 events. For though the representation of towns afterwards 

 lapsed, yet it shortly revived, and in 1295 became established. 

 As Hume remarks, such an institution could not &quot;have 

 attained to so vigorous a growth and have flourished in the 

 midst of such tempests and convulsions,&quot; unless it had been 

 one, &quot; for which the general state of things had already pre 

 pared the nation :&quot; the truth here to be added being that this 

 &quot;general state of things&quot; was the augmented mass, and hence 

 augmented influence, of the free industrial communities. 



Confirmation is supplied by cases showing that power 

 gained by the people during times when the regal and aris 

 tocratic powers are diminished by dissension, is lost again if, 

 while the old organization recovers its stability and activity, 

 industrial growth does not make proportionate progress. 

 Spain, or more strictly Castile, yields an example. Such 

 share in government as was acquired by those industrial 

 communities which grew up during the colonization of the 

 waste lands, became, in the space of a few reigns characterized 



