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county are, to be possessed, in that county, of a freehold of forty shillings a year. With regard to electors in towns or boroughs, they must be freemen of them,-a word which now signifies certain qualifications expressed in the particular charters.

When the king has determined to assemble a parliament, he sends an order for that purpose to the Lord Chancellor ; who, after receiving the same, sends a writ, under the great seal of England, to the sheriff of every county, directing him to take the necessary steps for the election of members for the county, and the towns and boroughs contained in it. Three days after the reception of the writ, the sheriff must, in his turn, send his precept to the magistrates of the towns and boroughs, to order them to make their election within eight days after the receipt of the precept, giving four days' notice of the same. And the sheriff himself must proceed to the election for the county, not sooner than ten days after the receipt of the writ, nor later than sixteen.†

* This freehold must have been possessed by the elector one whole year at least before the time of election, except it has devolved to him by inheritance, by marriage, by a last will, or by promotion to an office.

Writs for the election of burgesses were not originally sent to the sheriffs, but directly to the cities and boroughs. The first summons on record directed to a sheriff is of the 23d Edward I.-Ruffhead's Preface, Lyttleton's History of Henry II.

But the Commons acquired no great power until it became an object of ambition to have a seat in parliament. Yet it was long before a seat in parliament became a road to honour and preferment. Various pretexts were used to avoid the honour; and we are informed by numerous authorities that the sheriff's even found it necessary to demand sureties from members that they would appear and perform the services required of them. Boroughs denied their privileges, and barons their titles; and the sheriffs on several occasions reported that they could not get burgesses to send up. And it appears that, from the first introduction of burgesses and citizens into parliament-that is, from the 49th of Henry III. to the 22d of Edward IV., a period of about 200 years— the distinction of being a representative in parliament was so effectually shunned, that only two or three instances of controverted elections occurred during the whole of that period. Boroughs without remonstrance allowed the privilege of the representation to be taken from them and given to others.

Mandates from the Crown were sent to the sheriffs to return particular persons. Borough and county members were returned by one and the same indenture. It is asserted by Brady that Edward III. named all

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The principal precautions, taken by the law, to ensure the freedom of elections, are, that any candidate who, after the date of the writ, or even after the vacancy, shall have given entertainments to the electors of a place, or to any of them, in order to his being elected, shall be incapable of serving for that place in parliament; and that if any person gives, or promises to give, any money, employment, or reward, to a voter, in order to influence his vote, he, as well as the voter himself, shall be condemned to pay a fine of five hundred pounds, and for ever disqualified to vote, and hold any office in a corporation,-the faculty, however, being reserved to both of procuring indemnity for their own offence, by discovering some other offender of the same kind.

It has been moreover established, that no lord of parliament, or lord lieutenant of a county, has any right to interfere in the elections of members; that any officer of the Excise, Customs, &c. who shall presume to intermeddle in elections, by influencing any voter to give or withhold his vote, shall forfeit one hundred pounds, and be disabled to hold any office. Lastly, all soldiers quartered in a place where an election is to be made must move from it, at least one day before the election, to the distance of two miles or more, and not return till one day after the election is finished.

The House of Peers, or Lords, is composed of the lords spiritual, who are the archbishops of Canterbury and of York, and the twenty-four bishops; and of the lords temporal,

the deputies. The author of "Legislative Rights" says that "the kings formerly called up whom they pleased from boroughs, and discontinued, as occasions served, the calling up of others; and the electors looked upon it as a burden to pay wages for what they derived no advantage from, and petitioned to be relieved from so doing." We also find that members of the House of Commons were prosecuted by indictment in the King's Bench for departing from parliament without obtaining permission from the Crown. In some towns, especially at Hull, the corporate bodies returned men to whom they paid wages, without consulting the feelings of the public.- Squaire on the Anglo-Saxon Government, Dalrymple on Feudal Property, Prynn's Animad, Maddox's Furma Brugi, Prynn's Breviary, Parl. Rediv., Brady on Boroughs, Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties.-Ed.

Thirty-nine members were indicted for leaving parliament without leave of the Crown in the reign of Queen Mary.-Ed.

whatever may be their respective titles, such as dukes, marquesses, earls, &c.*

Lastly, the king is the third constitutive part of parliament; it is even he alone who can convoke it; and he alone can dissolve or prorogue it. The effect of a dissolution is, that from that moment the parliament completely ceases to exist; the commission, given to the members by their constituents, is at an end; and whenever a new meeting of parliament shall happen, they must be elected anew. A prorogation is an adjournment to a term appointed by the king; till which the existence of parliament is simply interrupted, and the function of the deputies suspended.

When the parliament meets, whether it be by virtue of new summons, or whether, being composed of members formerly elected, it meets again at the expiration of the term for which it had been prorogued, the king either goes to it in person, invested with the insignia of his dignity, or appoints proper persons to represent him on that occasion, and opens the session by laying before the parliament the state of the public affairs, and inviting it to take them into consideration. The presence of the king, either real or represented, is absolutely requisite at the first meeting; it is that which gives life to the legislative bodies, and puts them in action.

The king, having concluded his declaration, withdraws. The parliament, which is then legally intrusted with the

*The genius of the people being opposed to the feudal system, and Henry VII., apprehending that the barons then in their minority, might, when they came of age, attempt, as barons formerly did, to weaken the authority of the Crown, we are informed that the statute 4th of Henry VII. was contrived to facilitate the destruction of entails, in order to paralyse the power of the nobility and bring treasure into the king's coffers.-Blackstone, B. ii. c. 7 and 21; B. iv. c. 33.

In 1684, the Peerage included 17 dukes, 9 marquesses, 68 earls, 9 viscounts, 67 barons, 2 archbishops, and 24 bishops, in all 196 members of the hereditary legislative chamber.-Ed.

In 1852, the Peerage included 2 peers of the blood royal, 1 of whom, the Prince of Wales, is a minor, 20 dukes, 21 marquesses, 115 earls, 22 viscounts, 203 barons,-in all 381. Nine of the peers are minors. Some of the barons and viscounts hold higher titles in the peerage of Scotland and Ireland. There are also 2 archbishops, 24 bishops for England, and 1 representative archbishop and 3 representative bishops, who have seats in the House of Peers for Ireland.-Ed.

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care of the national concerns, enters upon its functions, and continues to exist till it is prorogued, or dissolved. The House of Commons, and that of Peers, assemble separately; the latter under the presidence of the Lord Chancellor; the former under that of their Speaker; and both separately adjourn to such days as they respectively think proper to appoint.

As each of the two Houses has a negative on the propositions made by the other, and there is, consequently, no danger of their encroaching on each other's rights, or on those of the king, who has likewise his negative upon them both, any question judged by them conducive to the public good, without exception, may be made the subject of their respective deliberations. Such are, for instance, new limitations or extensions to be given to the authority of the king; the establishing of new laws, or making changes in those already in being. Lastly, the different kinds of public provisions or establishments, the various abuses of administration, and their remedies, become, in every session, the objects of the attention of parliament.

Here, however, an important observation must be made. All bills for granting money must have their beginning in the House of Commons: the Lords cannot take this object into their consideration but in consequence of a bill presented to them by the latter; and the Commons have at all times been so anxiously tenacious of this privilege, that they have never suffered the Lords even to make any change in the money bills which they have sent to them; and the Lords are expected simply and solely either to accept or reject them.

This excepted, every member, in each House, may propose whatever question he thinks proper. If, after being considered, the matter is found to deserve attention, the person who made the proposition, usually with some others adjoined to him, is desired to set it down in writing. If, after more complete discussions on the subject, the proposition is carried in the affirmative, it is sent to the other House, that they may, in their turn, take it into consideration. If the other House reject the bill, it remains without any effect: if they agree to it, nothing remains wanting to its complete establishment but the royal assent.

When there is no business that requires immediate dispatch, the king usually waits till the end of the session, or at least till a certain number of bills are ready for him, before he declares his royal pleasure. When the time is come, the king goes to parliament in the same state with which he opened it; and while he is seated on the throne, a clerk, who has a list of the bills, gives, or refuses, as he reads, the royal assent.

When the royal assent is given to a public bill, the clerk says, Le roy le veut. If the bill be a private bill, he says, Sort fait comme il est desiré. If the bill has subsidies for its object, he says, Le roy remercie ses loyaux sujets, accepte leur bénévolence, et aussi le veut. Lastly, if the king does not think proper to assent to the bill, the clerk says, Le roy s'avisera: which is a mild way of giving a refusal.

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It is, however, pretty singular, that the king of England should make use of the French language to declare his intentions to his parliament. This custom was introduced at the Conquest, and has been continued, like other matters of form, which sometimes subsist for ages after the real substance of things has been altered: and Judge Blackstone expresses himself on this subject in the following words: "A badge, it must be owned (now the only one remaining), of conquest; and which one would wish to see fall into total oblivion, unless it be reserved as a solemn memento to remind us that our liberties are mortal, having once been destroyed by a foreign force."+

When the king has declared his different intentions, he prorogues the parliament. Those bills which he has rejected remain without force: those to which he has assented become the expression of the will of the highest power acknowledged in England: they have the same binding force

*William the Conqueror added, to the other changes he introduced, the abolition of the English language in all public as well as judicial transactions, and substituted for it the French that was spoken in his time: hence the number of old French words that are met with in the style of the English laws. It was only under Edward III. that the English language began to be re-established in the courts of justice.

+ Instead of retaining these French words, it would surely be more respectful to an independent nation like the British people, and for the sovereign of the British Empire, to express legislative terms in the strong and expressive language of the sovereign and the country.-Ed.

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