other power has
ever done, in ancient or modern times. They decide who shall
administer the government, and in what way. They make the laws, settle
questions of trade and commerce, decide really on peace and war, and,
in a word, hold the whole control, while the nominal sovereign takes
rides in the royal parks, or holds drawing-rooms in the palaces, in
empty and powerless parade. There is no question that the British
House of Commons has exerted a far wider influence on the destinies of
the human race than any other governmental power that has ever
existed. It has gone steadily on for five, and perhaps for ten
centuries, in the same direction and toward the same ends; and
whatever revolutions may threaten other elements of European power,
the British House of Commons, in some form or other, is as sure as any
thing human can be of existence and power for five or ten centuries to
come.

And yet it is one of the most remarkable of the strange phenomena of
social life, that this body, standing at the head, as it really does,
of all human power, submits patiently still to all the marks and
tokens of inferiority and degradation which accompanied its origin. It
comes together when the sovereign sends writs, _ordering_ the several
constituencies to choose their representatives, and the
representatives to assemble. It comes humbly into the House of Peers
to listen to the instructions of the sovereign at the opening of the
session, the members in a standing position, and with heads
uncovered.[C] It debates these suggestions with forms and in a
phraseology which imply that it is only considering what _counsel_ to
give the king. It enacts nothing--it only recommends; and it holds its
existence solely at the discretion of the great imaginary power which
called it into being. These forms may, very probably, soon be changed
for others more true to the facts; and the principle of election may
be changed, so as to make the body represent more fully the general
population of the empire; but the body itself will doubtless continue
its action for a very long period to come.

[Footnote C: Even in the case of a committee of conference between the
two houses, the lords have _seats_ in the committee-room and wear
their hats. The members from the commons must _stand_, and be
uncovered during the deliberations!]

According to the view of the subject which we have presented, it
would of course follow, as the real sovereignty was mainly in th