d of strong monarchy that once there had
been. Law and order had long since been secured; all danger of a
feudal reaction had been effectually removed; foreign invasion was no
more to be feared. Strong monarchy had served an invaluable purpose,
but that purpose had been fulfilled.

[Footnote 22: C. Ilbert, Parliament, its History,
Constitution, and Practice (London and New York,
1911), 28-29.]

[Footnote 23: Prothero, Statutes and Constitutional
Documents, 293-294.]

*28. The Rights of the Commons Asserted.*--Finally there was the (p. 027)
fact of the enormous growth of Parliament as an organ of the public
will. The rapidity of that development in the days of Elizabeth is,
and was at the time, much obscured by the disposition of the nation to
permit the Queen to live out her days without being seriously crossed
in her purposes. But the magnitude of it becomes apparent enough after
1603. In a remarkable document known as the Apology of the Commons,
under date of June 20, 1604, the popular chamber stated respectfully
but frankly to the new sovereign what it considered to be its rights
and, through it, the rights of the nation. "What cause we your poor
Commons have," runs the address, "to watch over our privileges, is
manifest in itself to all men. The prerogatives of princes may easily,
and do daily, grow; the privileges of the subject are for the most
part at an everlasting stand. They may be by good providence and care
preserved, but being once lost are not recovered but with much
disquiet. The rights and liberties of the Commons of England
consisteth chiefly in these three things: first, that the shires,
cities, and boroughs of England, by representation to be present, have
free choice of such persons as they shall put in trust to represent
them; secondly, that the persons chosen, during the time of the
parliament, as also of their access and recess, be free from
restraint, arrest, and imprisonment: thirdly, that in parliament they
may speak freely their consciences without check and controlment,
doing the same with due reverence to the sovereign court of
parliament, that is, to your Majesty and both the Houses, who all in
this case make but one politic body, whereof your Highness is the
head."[24] The shrewdness of the political philosophy with which this
passage opens is matched only by the terseness with which the
fu