ties was gradually separated from
that of the peers, and formed a distinct order in the state.[**]
The growth of commerce, meanwhile, augmented the private wealth and
consideration of the burgesses; the frequent demands of the crown
increased their public importance; and as they resembled the knights
of shires in one material circumstance, that of representing particular
bodies of men, it no longer appeared unsuitable to unite them together
in the same house, and to confound their rights and privileges.[***] [5]
Thus the third estate that of the commons, reached at last its present
form; and as the country gentlemen made thenceforwards no scruple of
appearing as deputies from the boroughs, the distinction between the
members was entirely lost, and the lower house acquired thence a great
accession of weight and importance in the kingdom. Still, however, the
office of this estate was very different from that which it has since
exercised with so much advantage to the public. Instead of checking and
controlling the authority of the king, they were naturally induced to
adhere to him, as the great fountain of law and justice, and to support
him against the power of the aristocracy, which at once was the source
of oppression to themselves, and disturbed him in the execution of the
laws. The king, in his turn, gave countenance to an order of men so
useful and so little dangerous: the peers also were obliged to pay them
some consideration: and by this means the third estate, formerly so
abject in England, as well as in all other European nations, rose by
slow degrees to their present importance; and in their progress made
arts and commerce, the necessary attendants of liberty and equality,
flourish in the kingdom.[****] [6]

* Brady's Answer to Petyt, p. 85, from the records.

** Cotton's Abridgment, p. 13.

*** See note E, at the end of the volume.

**** See note F, at the end of the volume.

What sufficiently proves that the commencement of the house of
burgesses, who are the true commons, was not an affair of chance, but
arose from the necessities of the present situation, is, that Edward,
at the very same time, summoned deputies from the inferior clergy, the
first that ever met in England,[*] and he required them to impose
taxes on their constituents for the public service. Formerly the
ecclesiastical benefices bore no part of the burdens of the state:
the pope indeed of late had often levied imposit