G17 
PARLIAMENT. 
the houfe fliall think fit; and the ferjeant is to gather in 
the money. 
164.2.—Ordered, That ivhofoever fhall not beat prayers 
every morning, (hall pay one fhilling to the poor ; a box 
to be prepared and fet up at the door for this purpofe, 
and the burgeffes of Weftminfter are to take care that the 
money be duly paid. 
1647. — Ordered, That fo foon as the clock ftrikes 
twelve, Mr. Speaker do go out of the chair, and the houfe 
fhall rife; and that going forth no member fhall ftir, un¬ 
til Mr. Speaker go before, and then all the reft fhall follow. 
Whofoever fhall go out of the houfe before Mr. Speaker, 
fhall forfeit ten fhillings ; but that the reporters may go 
firft. 
Ordered, That while any ftrangeris in the houfe, no 
member to ftir out of his place, or fpeak unto another ; 
and, if any member fhall whifper, or crofs the houfe, 
or read any printed book in the houfe, he fhall pay one 
fhilling into the poor’s box. 
1693.—Ordered, That no member of the houfe do pre¬ 
fume to fmoke tobacco in the gallery, or at the table of 
the houfe, fitting at committees. 
Ordered, That no papifts do prefume to come into 
Weftminfter Hall, the Court of Requefts, or lobby of the 
houfe, during the fitting of parliament; and that the fer¬ 
jeant at arms do take into cuftody all fuch perfons as fhall 
offend againft this order. 
Ordered, That, if any member has a fervant that is a 
popifh recufant, or refufes to go to church and hear di¬ 
vine fervice, he fhall prefently difcharge him, under the 
penalty of fequeftration from the houfe. 
Of Parliamentary Reform. —With fo deep vene¬ 
ration do we regard our glorious conftitution of king, 
lords, and commons, that we fhould deem every facrifice 
trivial for the reftoration of it uncorrupted, and for the 
prefervation of it inviolate. In its original form, it is 
almoft divine: to fuch a degree, to ufe the language of 
fir William Jones, “ that no ftate of Rome or Greece 
could ever boaft one fuperior to it; nor could Plato, 
Ariftotle, nor any legillator, even conceive a more perfeft 
model of a ftate. The three parts which compofe it are 
fo harmonioufly blended and incorporated, that neither 
the flute of Arirtoxenus nor the lyre of Timotheus ever 
produced more perfect concord. What can be more diffi¬ 
cult,” he continues, “than to devife a conftitution which, 
while it guards the dignity of the fovereign and liberty 
of the people from any encroachment by the influence 
and power of the nobility, preferves the force and ma- 
jefty of the laws from violation by the popular liberty?” 
Such was the cafe formerly in our happy ifland, and we 
truft it will be fo again : but, if the people of this country 
are indeed deftined to become great and honourable in 
thefe latter ages, they muft “ call oft’ the old and wrin¬ 
kled Ikin of corruption,” and, waxing young again, 
“ enter upon the glorious ways of truth, and profper- 
ous virtue.” 
To perform its duty to the public, the houfe of com¬ 
mons ought to be fo conftituted as to give its members a 
common intereft and fellow feeling with every part of 
the kingdom, and with every clafs and diftindlion of per¬ 
fons in the community. No one fliould be aggrieved or 
opprefled without finding a defender in that affembly. 
No intereft, however fmall or local, fliould be overlooked 
or negledfed for want of an advocate. No meafure fliould 
be adoptad, without weighing maturely, not only the ge¬ 
neral good it may produce, but the partial evil it may 
occalion. When conflicting interefts are oppofed, a fair 
hearing fhould be given to all, before any decifion is 
formed. Where relief is wanted, or redrefs petitioned 
for, there fhould be fonve one prefent to recommend the 
one, or enforce the other. 
Julius Caefar acknowledges that the Commune Concilium of 
Britain chofe Caffibelanus for their leader; and Pughe, the 
celebrated Welch antiquarian, has proved from the Tryads, 
or ancient records of the Britons, that the Kyfr-y-then 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1269. 
of the ancient Britifli was the Commune Concilium men¬ 
tioned by Caefar, afterwards called the Wittcnn Gemote of 
the Saxons, and which a (Turned the name of Parliament 
in the reign of Edward the Confeflbr, who had received 
his education in France. That this was a reprefentative 
affembly, defied by the people, is proved by the Saxon 
View of Frankpledge, fo ably demonftrated by that 
learned and venerable patriot, the late Granville Sharp ; 
and that not only the legiflative body, but every execu¬ 
tive officer, from the tythingman to the ealderman, or 
chief magiftrate of a county, was defied by the refpedive 
hundreds annually afjhnbled. 
The learned Selden alfo proves from Hoveden, that 
the Conqueror affembled a parliament in the year 1070, 
the fourth year of his reign, which was compofed of twelve 
reprefentatives returned out of every county; who con¬ 
firmed the laws of Edward the ConfelTor, which the king 
bound himfelf to keep, but never adhered to his folenm 
engagement. Hence, the aflembling of a parliament 
compofed of four reprefentatives from each county in the 
49th Henry III. was what Carew calls “ throwing off the 
yoke of the Conqueror, and the redemption of the 
people from flavery.” It was the re-eftabli(hment of the 
ancient form of government which exifted from the ear- 
lieft times, but had been wrecked in the fame tempeft that 
had overturned the Saxon throne ; and it is as ablurd to 
fuppofe that we had no reprefentative parliament ante¬ 
cedent to the forty-ninth of Henry III. as to afl’ert that 
we had no king prior to the fame period. 
That the reprelentation was equal, and the right of fuf- 
frage general, in the houfekeepers paying taxes, or, as it 
is now termed, fcot and lot, is proved from the ftatutes 
at large, and from the earlieft hiftory of every county, 
city, and borough, ip the kingdom. The number of 
members in the parliament fummoned by the conqueror, 
were twelve for each county, and four in that of the forty- 
ninth of Henry III. and theelefiors, till the eighth year 
of Henry VI. were all thofe bearing fcot and lot. Even 
freeholders of forty fhillings per annum were never 
known as pofleffing exclufive rights of election, till the 
enactment of the famous disfranchifing ftatute of that 
year. The fame right of election continues to this day 
in all thofe cities and boroughs where it has not been 
altered by the acceptance of charters, eftablifliing exclu¬ 
five privileges, as it is retained in Weftminfter, Lewes, 
and many other places, or where they have not been de¬ 
prived of it by refolutions of committees of the houfe of 
commons, who have in general differed with each other 
in their determinations wherever this right has been de¬ 
puted, and u'berever they have once departed from the 
ancient letter of the conftitution, which fays that “ Laws, 
to bind all, muft be affented to by all.” 
The members for the fifty-two counties, as already no¬ 
ticed, are all defied by one uniform right. Except in 
certain cities and towns having peculiar jurifdiftions, 
every man, throughout England and Wales, pofi’efled 
of forty fhillings per annum freehold, is entitled to vote 
for the county in which fuch freehold is fituated. 
With refpedt to the different cities, towns, and bo¬ 
roughs, they exercife a variety of feparate and diftinft 
privileges, fcarcely capable of being claffed in any me¬ 
thodical order, and ftill lefs of being afcertained by the 
application of any fixed principle. In the greater part 
of them, indeed, the right of voting appears to be vefted 
in the freemen of bodies corporate; but', under this ge¬ 
neral term, an infinite diverlity of peculiar cuftoms is to 
be found. In fome places, the number of votes is li¬ 
mited to a felefl body not exceeding ten ; in others it is 
extended to eight or ten thoufand. In fome places, the 
freeman muft be a refident inhabitant to entitle him to 
vote; in others his prefence is required only at an elec¬ 
tion. The right to the freedom is all'o different in 
different boroughs; and may, according to peculiar ufage, 
be obtained by birth, fervitude, marriage, redemption, 
&c. See. 
7 S Ths 
