tical system of the nation.
In 1589 Thomas Smith, a court secretary, published a book entitled
"The Commonwealth of England and the Manner of Government Thereof," in
which was laid down the fundamental proposition that "the most high
and absolute power of the realm of England consisteth in the
parliament"; and there is no record that the proclamation of this
doctrine, even by a court official, elicited serious protest or
difference of opinion. It was in the Tudor period, further, that both
houses instituted the keeping of journals and that the appointment of
committees and numerous other aspects of modern parliamentary
procedure had their beginnings.

Finally, the Elizabethan portion of the period was an epoch during
which there took place a very real growth in independence of sentiment
and an equally notable advance in consciousness of power on the part
of the popular chamber. Even before the death of Elizabeth there were
ill-repressed manifestations of the feeling that the Tudor monarchy
had done its work and that the time for a larger amount of
parliamentary control had arrived. Nothing was clearer in 1603 than
the fact that the sovereign who should expect to get on agreeably with
his Commons must be both liberal and tactful. That the Stuarts
possessed the first of these qualities in only a very limited measure
and the second one not at all is a fact upon which turns an entire
chapter of English constitutional history.[21]

[Footnote 21: Excellent works of a general nature
on the Tudor period are H. A. L. Fisher, History of
England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the
Death of Henry VIII. (London, 1906); A. F. Pollard,
History of England from the Accession of Edward VI.
to the Death of Elizabeth (London, 1910); and A. D.
Innis, England under the Tudors (London, 1905). For
institutional history see Taylor, English
Constitution, II., Bk. 4. More specialized
treatment will be found in Smith, History of the
English Parliament, I., Bk. 5; Dicey, The Privy
Council, 76-130; and Taswell-Langmead, English
Constitutional History, Chaps. 10, 12. An excellent
survey of English public law at the death of Henry
VII. is contained in F. W. Maitland