To all this it yields some corroboration, that a
neighbouring though long hostile kingdom, who borrowed much of her law
from our own, has never admitted any freeholders, except tenants in
chief of the crown, to a suffrage in county elections. These attended
the parliament of Scotland in person till 1428, when a law of James I.
permitted them to send representatives.[31]

Such is, I think, a fair statement of the arguments that might be
alleged by those who would restrain the right of election to tenants of
the crown. It may be urged on the other side that the genius of the
feudal system was never completely displayed in England; much less can
we make use of that policy to explain institutions that prevailed under
Edward I. Instead of aids and scutages levied upon the king's military
tenants, the crown found ample resources in subsidies upon moveables,
from which no class of men was exempted. But the statute that abolished
all unparliamentary taxation led, at least in theoretical principle, to
extend the elective franchise to as large a mass of the people as could
conveniently exercise it. It was even in the mouth of our kings that
what concerned all should be approved by all. Nor is the language of
all extant writs less adverse to the supposition that the right of
suffrage in county elections was limited to tenants in chief. It seems
extraordinary that such a restriction, if it existed, should never be
deducible from these instruments; that their terms should invariably be
large enough to comprise all freeholders. Yet no more is ever required
of the sheriff than to return two knights chosen by the body of the
county. For they are not only said to be returned pro communitate, but
"per communitatem," and "de assensu totius communitatis." Nor is it
satisfactory to allege, without any proof, that this word should be
restricted to the tenants in chief, contrary to what must appear to be
its obvious meaning.[32] Certainly, if these tenants of the crown had
found inferior freeholds usurping a right of suffrage, we might expect
to find it the subject of some legislative provision, or at least of
some petition and complaint. And, on the other hand, it would have been
considered as unreasonable to levy the wages due to knights of the shire
for their service in parliament on those who had no share in their
election. But it appears by writs at the very beginning of Edward II.'s
reign, that wages were levied "de communitate comitatus