n earl, to give him a
fixed salary, commonly about twenty pounds a year, in lieu of his third
of the fines: the diminution of his power kept pace with the
retrenchment of his profit: and the dignity of earl, instead of being
territorial and official, dwindled into personal and titular. Such were
the mighty alterations which already had fully taken place, or were
gradually advancing, in the house of peers; that is, in the parliament:
for there seems anciently to have been no other house.

* Spel. Gloss, in voce Comes.

** Essays on British Antiquities. This practice, however,
seems to have been more familiar in Scotland and the
kingdoms on the continent, than in England.

*** There are instances of princes of the blood who accepted
of the office of sheriff. Spel. in voce Vicecomes.

But though the introduction of barons by writ, and of titular earls, had
given some increase to royal authority, there were other causes which
counterbalanced those innovations, and tended in a higher degree to
diminish the power of the sovereign. The disuse into which the feudal
militia had in a great measure fallen made the barons almost entirely
forget their dependence on the crown: by the diminution of the number
of knights' fees the king had no reasonable compensation when he levied
scutages, and exchanged their service for money: the alienations of the
crown lands had reduced him to poverty: and above all, the concession
of the Great Charter had set bounds to royal power, and had rendered it
more difficult and dangerous for the prince to exert any extraordinary
act of arbitrary authority. In this situation it was natural for the
king to court the friendship of the lesser barons and knights, whose
influence was no ways dangerous to him, and who, being exposed to
oppression from their powerful neighbors, sought a legal protection
under the shadow of the throne. He desired, therefore, to have their
presence in parliament, where they served to control the turbulent
resolutions of the great. To exact a regular attendance of the whole
body would have produced confusion, and would have imposed too heavy a
burden upon them. To summon only a few by writ, though it was practised
and had a good effect, served not entirely the king's purpose; because
these members had no further authority than attended their personal
character, and were eclipsed by the appearance of the more powerful
nobility, He therefore dispense