ge
in the character of our constitution. In the reign of Edward II.
parliament had little share in resisting the government; much more was
effected by the barons through risings of their feudal tenantry. Fifty
years of authority better respected, of law better enforced, had
rendered these more perilous, and of a more violent appearance than
formerly. A surer resource presented itself in the increased weight of
the lower house in parliament. And this indirect aristocratical
influence gave a surprising impulse to that assembly, and particularly
tended to establish beyond question its control over public abuses. It
is no less just to remark that it also tended to preserve the relation
and harmony between each part and the other, and to prevent that jarring
of emulation and jealousy which, though generally found in the division
of power between a noble and a popular estate, has scarcely ever caused
a dissension, except in cases of little moment, between our two houses
of parliament.

[Sidenote: Richard II. Great increase of the power of the commons.]

The commons had sustained with equal firmness and discretion a defensive
war against arbitrary power under Edward III.: they advanced with very
different steps towards his successor. Upon the king's death, though
Richard's coronation took place without delay, and no proper regency was
constituted, yet a council of twelve, whom the great officers of state
were to obey, supplied its place to every effectual intent. Among these
the duke of Lancaster was not numbered; and he retired from court in
some disgust. In the first parliament of the young king a large
proportion of the knights who had sat in that which impeached the
Lancastrian party were returned.[139] Peter de la Mare, now released
from prison, was elected speaker; a dignity which, according to some, he
had filled in the Good Parliament, as that of the fiftieth of Edward
III. was popularly styled; though the rolls do not mention either him or
any other as bearing that honourable name before Sir Thomas Hungerford
in the parliament of the following year.[140] The prosecution against
Alice Perrers was now revived; not, as far as appears, by direct
impeachment of the commons; but articles were exhibited against her in
the house of lords on the king's part, for breaking the ordinance made
against her intermeddling at court: upon which she received judgment of
banishment and forfeiture.[141] At the request of the lower house,