s ever was held in England."[22] But there is no
appearance that these twelve deputies of each county were invested with
any higher authority than that of declaring their ancient usages. No
stress can be laid at least on this insulated and anomalous assembly,
the existence of which is only learned from an historian of a century
later.[23]

We find nothing that can arrest our attention, in searching out the
origin of county representation, till we come to a writ in the fifteenth
year of John, directed to all the sheriffs in the following terms: Rex
Vicecomiti N., salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod omnes milites ballivae tuae
qui summoniti fuerunt esse apud Oxoniam ad Nos a die Omnium Sanctorum in
quindecim dies venire facias cum armis suis: corpora vero baronum sine
armis singulariter, et _quatuor discretos milites_ de comitatu tuo,
illuc venire facias ad eundem terminum, ad loquendum nobiscum de
negotiis regni nostri. For the explanation of this obscure writ I must
refer to what Prynne has said;[24] but it remains problematical whether
these four knights (the only clause which concerns our purpose) were to
be elected by the county or returned in the nature of a jury, at the
discretion of the sheriff. Since there is no sufficient proof whereon to
decide, we can only say with hesitation, that there _may_ have been an
instance of county representation in the fifteenth year of John.

We may next advert to a practice, of which there is very clear proof in
the reign of Henry III. Subsidies granted in parliament were assessed,
not as in former times by the justices upon their circuits, but by
knights freely chosen in the county court. This appears by two writs,
one of the fourth and one of the ninth year of Henry III.[25] At a
subsequent period, by a provision of the Oxford parliament in 1258,
every county elected four knights to inquire into grievances, and
deliver their inquisition into parliament.[26]

The next writ now extant, that wears the appearance of parliamentary
representation, is in the thirty-eighth of Henry III. This, after
reciting that the earls, barons, and other great men (caeteri magnates)
were to meet at London three weeks after Easter, with horses and arms,
for the purpose of sailing into Gascony, requires the sheriff to compel
all within his jurisdiction, who hold twenty pounds a year of the king
in chief, or of those in ward of the king, to appear at the same time
and place. And that besides those mentione