y the ancient Constitution of England, however, the Parliament was
merely a body of counselors, as it were, summoned by the king to give
him their advice, to frame for him such laws as he wished to have
framed, and to aid him in raising funds by taxing the people. The king
might call this council or not, as he pleased. There was no necessity
for calling it unless he needed more funds than he could raise by his
own resources. When called, they felt that they had come, in a great
measure, to aid the king in doing his will. When they framed a law,
they sent it to him, and if he was satisfied with it, he _made it
law_. It was the king who really enacted it. If he did not approve the
law, he wrote upon the parchment which contained it, "The king will
think of it," and that was the end. The king would call upon them to
assess a tax and collect the money, and would talk to them about his
plans, and his government, and the aid which he desired from them to
enable him to accomplish what he had himself undertaken. In fact, the
king was the government, and the houses of Parliament his instruments
to aid him in giving effect to his decrees.

The nobles, that is, the heads of the great families, and also the
bishops, who were the heads of the various dioceses of the Church
formed one branch of this great council. This was called the House of
Lords. Certain representatives of the counties and of the towns
formed another branch, called the House of Commons. These delegates
came to the council, not from any right which the counties and towns
were supposed to possess to a share in the government, but simply
because they were summoned by the king to come and give him their aid.
They were to serve without pay, as a matter of duty which they owed to
the sovereign. Those that came from counties were called knights, and
those from the towns burgesses. These last were held in very little
estimation. The towns, in those days, were considered as mere
collections of shopkeepers and tradesmen, who were looked down upon
with much disdain by the haughty nobles. When the king called his
Parliament together, and went in to address them, he entered the
chamber of the House of Peers, and the commons were called in, to
stand where they could, with their heads uncovered, to hear what he
had to say. They were, in a thousand other ways, treated as an
inferior class; but still their counsels might, in some cases, be of
service, and so they were summoned to