ribe their composition in a manner too general to be
instructive, and take little note of novelty or peculiarity in the
constitution of that which was called by the Earl of Leicester.

"That assembly met at London, on the 22nd of January, 1265, according to
writs still extant, and the earliest of their kind known to us, directing
'the sheriffs to elect and return two knights for each county, two
citizens for each city, and two burgesses for every burgh in the county.'
If this assembly be supposed to be the same which is vested with the power
of granting supply by the Great Charter of John, the constitution must be
thought to have undergone an extensive, though unrecorded, revolution in
the somewhat inadequate space of only fifty years, which had elapsed since
the capitulation of Runnymede; for in the Great Charter we find the
tenants of the crown in chief alone expressly mentioned as forming with
the prelates and peers the common council for purposes of taxation; and
even they seem to have been required to give their personal attendance,
the important circumstances of election and representation not being
mentioned in the treaty with John;--neither does it contain any
stipulation of sufficient distinctness applicable to cities and boroughs,
for which the charter provides no more than the maintenance of their
ancient liberties.

"Probably conjecture is all that can now be expected respecting the rise
and progress of these changes. It is, indeed, beyond all doubt, that by
the constitution, even as subsisting under the early Normans, the great
council shared the legislative power with the king, as clearly as the
parliament have since done.[3] But these great councils do not seem to
have contained members of popular choice; and the king, who was supported
by the revenue of his demesnes, and by dues from his military tenants,
does not appear at first to have imposed, by legislative authority,
general taxes to provide for the security and good government of the
community.--These were abstract notions, not prevalent in ages when the
monarch was a lord paramount rather than a supreme magistrate. Many of the
feudal perquisites had been arbitrarily augmented, and oppressively
levied. These the Great Charter, in some cases, reduced to a certain sum;
while it limited the period of military service itself. With respect to
scutages and aids, which were not capable of being reduced to a fixed
rate, the security adopted was, that they