ENGLISH CONSTITUTION

Reign of Edward I.--Confirmatio Chartarum--Constitution of Parliament
--the Prelates--the Temporal Peers--Tenure by Barony--its Changes--
Difficulty of the Subject--Origin of Representation of the Commons--
Knights of Shires--their Existence doubtfully traced through the Reign
of Henry III.--Question whether Representation was confined to
Tenants in capite discussed--State of English Towns at the Conquest
and afterwards--their Progress--Representatives from them summoned to
Parliament by Earl of Leicester--Improbability of an earlier Origin--
Cases of St. Albans and Barnstaple considered--Parliaments under
Edward I.--Separation of Knights and Burgesses from the Peers--Edward
II.--gradual Progress of the Authority of Parliament traced through
the Reigns of Edward III. and his Successors down to Henry IV.--
Privilege of Parliament--the early Instances of it noticed--Nature of
Borough Representation--Rights of Election--other Particulars relative
to Election--House of Lords--Baronies by Tenure--by Writ--Nature of
the latter discussed--Creation of Peers by Act of Parliament and by
Patent--Summons of Clergy to Parliament--King's Ordinary Council--its
Judicial and other Power--Character of the Plantagenet Government--
Prerogative--its Excesses--erroneous Views corrected--Testimony of Sir
John Fortescue to the Freedom of the Constitution--Causes of the
superior Liberty of England considered--State of Society in England--
Want of Police--Villenage--its gradual Extinction--latter Years of
Henry VI.--Regencies--Instances of them enumerated--Pretensions of the
House of York, and War of the Roses--Edward IV.--Conclusion.

[Sidenote: Accession of Edward I.]

Though the undisputed accession of a prince like Edward I. to the throne
of his father does not seem so convenient a resting-place in history as
one of those revolutions which interrupt the natural chain of events,
yet the changes wrought during his reign make it properly an epoch in
the progress of these inquiries. And, indeed, as ours is emphatically
styled a government by king, lords, and commons, we cannot, perhaps, in
strictness carry it further back than the admission of the latter into
parliament; so that if the constant representation of the commons is to
be referred to the age of Edward I., it will be nearer the truth to date
t