personal property for purposes of taxation, and of jurors to
present criminal matters before the king's justices. Thus, Henry II.'s
Saladin Tithe of 1188--the first national imposition upon incomes and
movable property--was assessed, at least in part, by juries of
neighbors elected by, and in a sense representative of, the taxpayers
of the various parishes. By the opening of the thirteenth century the
idea was fast taking hold upon the minds of Englishmen, not only that
the taxpayer ought to have a voice in the levying of taxes, but that
between representation and taxation there was a certain natural and
inevitable connection. In the Great Charter, as has been stated, it
was stipulated that in the assessment of scutages and of all save the
three commonly recognized feudal aids the king should seek the advice
of the General Council. The General Council of the earlier thirteenth
century was not regularly a representative body, but it was not beyond
the range of possibility to impart to it a representative character,
and in point of fact that is precisely what was done. To facilitate
the process of taxation it was found expedient by the central
authorities to carry over into the domain of national affairs that
principle of popular representation which already was doing approved
service within the sphere of local justice and finance, and from this
adaptation arose, step by step, the conversion of the old gathering of
feudal magnates into a national parliamentary assembly.

*12. Early Parliaments.*--The means by which the transformation (p. 012)
was accomplished consisted in the first instance, as has been said, in
the introduction into the Council of new and representative elements.
The earliest step in this direction was taken in 1213, when King John,
harassed by fiscal and political difficulties, addressed to the
sheriffs a series of writs commanding that four discreet knights from
every county be sent to participate in a deliberative council to be
held at Oxford. The practice took root slowly. In 1254 Henry III., in
sore need of money for the prosecution of his wars in Gascony,
required of the sheriffs that two knights be sent from each county to
confer with the barons and clergy relative to the subsidies which
should be accorded the crown. The desired vote of supplies was refused
and the long-brewing contest between the king and the barons broke in
civil war. But during the struggle that ensued the foundations of
Pa