The troublesome reign of Richard II closes with an interesting attempt
to make its legislation permanent, as has sometimes been attempted
in our State constitutions. The last section of the last law of King
Richard declares "That the King by the Assent of the said Lords and
Knights [note it does not say by consent of the Commons], so assigned
by the said Authority of Parliament, will and hath ordained that ...
to repeal or to attempt the repeal of any of the said Statutes
is declared to be high treason," and the man so doing shall have
execution as a traitor. Notwithstanding, in the following year the
first act of Henry IV repeals the whole Parliament of the 21st of
Richard II and all their statutes; that it be "wholly reversed,
revoked, voided, undone, repealed, and adnulled for ever"--so we with
the States in rebellion, and so Charles II with the acts of Cromwell.

(1400) Under Henry IV is the first secular law against heresy, making
it a capital offence. Upon conviction by the ordinary the heretic
is to be delivered to the secular arm, _i.e._, burnt. Note that the
trial, however, still remains with the ordinary, _i.e._, the clerical
court. Under Henry IV also we find a statute banishing all Welshmen
and forbidding them to buy land or become freemen in England; and
under Henry VI the same law is applied to Irishmen, and in the next
reign to Scotchmen as well. The Irishmen complained of, however,
were only those attending the University of Oxford. In 1402 we find
Parliament asserting its right to ratify treaties and to be consulted
on wars; matters not without interest to President Roosevelt's
Congress, and in 1407 we find definite recognition of the principle
that money bills must originate in the lower house.

For the purpose of his Chicago speech, it is a pity that Mr. Bryan's
attention was never called to the Statute of the 8th of Henry VI,
which forbids merchants from compelling payment in gold and from
refusing silver, "which Gold they do carry out of the Realm into
other strange Countries." An enlightened civic spirit is shown in the
Statute of 1433, which prohibits any person dwelling at the Stews in
Southwark from serving on juries in Surrey, whereby "many Murderers
and notorious Thieves have been saved, great Murders and Robberies
concealed and not punished." And the statute sweepingly declares
everybody inhabiting that part of Southwark to be thieves, common
women, and other misdoers. Fortunately, this