250 
and the idea of reprefentation came for- 
ward by a neceflary confequence: parlia- 
ment, from being fingly compofed of 
men who fat in their own rights to fave 
the great from the oppreffion of the crown, 
and not the fmall from the oppreflion of 
the great, now began to open its doors 
to the patriot citizen; the feodal and 
perfonal, changed into natural and corpo- 
rate privileges ; and the people, for the firft 
time in the hiftory of the world, faw the 
root of their liberties fixed in the centre 
of the conftitution. 
As the multiplication of royal tenures 
from the enfranchifement of boroughs * 
(but chiefly from the operation of this 
law) firft gave rife to popular reprefenta- 
tion ;- fo it is only in the continued opera- 
tion of thefe principles, that we can trace 
the difttin& exiftence and growing power 
of the Houfe of Commons: we know that 
they ailembled for a long time in the 
fame chamber with the peers; that the 
feparation was not preconceived by the 
founders’ of the conftitution, but arofe 
from neceffity, when their numbers be- 
came too great to form one affembly ; and 
we. know that they never thought of af- 
fuming popular legiflative privileges, till 
by this neceffary divifion they became a 

crown had not preferved it, by conferring on 
afew, by perfonal inveftiture, an hereditary 
tight of legiflation in the room of that terri- 
torial peerage that had branched out and be- 
come a popularright. ‘This produced a great 
chaiige in the orders of the ftate, for the 
feedal baronage, after having produced the 
Houfe of Commons, continued to balance 
and ftruggle with the prerogative as a demo- 
cracy, in the fame manner that it had refifted 
it before as an ariftocratical body: whereas, 
the nionarchical peerage, which fprung up on 
the decay of the feodal, is merely an emana- 
tion of the royal prerogative, interefted in the 
Support of the crown, from which it -derives 
it luftre and its power, and has no connec- 
tion with the feodal fyfRem which conferred 
no legiflative rights but by tenure iz cafite, 
which tenure, diffufed among the multitude, 
conftituted the Houfe of Commons. 
'* It is very probable, that burgage tenure 
firft gave the idea of a reprefestative of the 
fmaller barons: For when the king enfran- 
chifed a tewn, and gave it lands from the 
royal demefne, this inftantly made the cor- 
poration a tenant in capite; but, as the corpo- 
ration could not fit in parliament, it ele€ted a 
burgefs, Jt is in confequence of this bur- 
gage tenure or tenancy im capite, of a corpora- 
tion, that we now fee fuch an infignificant 
village as Old Sarum, fending two members 
to parliament, while fuch a flourifhing town 
as Manchefter fends none. oe 
Mr. ErfRine on the Houfe of Commons. 
. 
diftint&t body from the lords. This, 
though a political accident, brought the 
Eneglifh Commons forth into attion; 
their legiflative exiftence was the natural 
birth of the feodal fyftem, comprefled by 
the crown. 
To prove thefe truths, we have only te 
contemplate the hiftory of our fifter king- 
dom of Scotland (governed at that time 
by the fame laws), there being very little 
difference between the Regiam Majefiatem, 
the Scotch code of thofe days, and the work 
compiled by Glanville, chief juftice to 
Henry If. The law of Edward I. which 
produced thefe great changes * in Eng- 
land, was tranfcribed by the Scotch 
parliament into the ftatute book of_their 
Robert I. but the King of Scotland had 
not conquered that country as William 
had fubdued England, confequently he 
was rather a feodal chieftain than a mo- 

* It may be afked, what thefe changes 
were, Which the aét is faid to have produced, 
fince the burgefles were called to parliament 
in the beginning of Edward’s reign, before 
the act pafied; and fince: the leffer barons 
were fummoned by the fheriffs, as early as the 
reign of King John. To this it may be an- 
fwered, that thefe parliaments were entirely 
feodal; the burge‘les reprefenting thofe cors 
porations that were. tenants ia capite, and the 
iummons of the leffler barons being by no 
means a popular ele@tion, but a proclamation 
for thofe who hold fufficient lands of the 
king iz capite, to afflemble in their own rights; 
but where the ftatute of guia empiores had fo 
generally diffufed the royal holding, that 
from being a feodal privilege confined to a 
few, it came to be a popular and almeft uni- 
verfal rizht, reprefentation of the multi- 
tude fucceeded upon fecdal principles to a 
perfonal right of legiflation; the territorial 
peerage funk altogether, or rather dilated 
itfelf into an Houte of Commons; and that 
power, which in other feodal countries, being 
condenfed like the rays of the fun to a focus, 
confumed the rights of mankind, produced, 
when thus fcattered abroad, a plentiful har- 
veft of liberty. In Scotland, where the ac 
of quia emptores was never enforced, the feodal 
baronage diffufeditfelf, notwithftanding, fo as 
‘at leaft to produce a reprefentation, butit con- 
tinued to be a reprefentation merely feodal 3 
the knights of the fhires were reprefentative 
barons, not reprefentatives of the pecple; and 
never formed a diftinét order in the ftate¢ 
indeed, fuch a third power could never have 
poflibly fprung up froma feodal conftitution, 
or any other principle, than that which is here 
laid down. ‘There was no reprefentation of 
the Scotch barons till the year 1427, when it 
was enaéted by ftatute, that the fmaller 
barons needed not to come to parliament, pro~< 
yided they fent commiMioners, ro 
gt eae aarck, 
