ities in favour of an earlier date. St. Albans.]

Two authorities, however, which had been supposed to prove a greater
antiquity than we have assigned to the representation of the commons,
are deserving of particular consideration; the cases of St. Albans and
Barnstaple. The burgesses of St. Albans complained to the council in the
eighth year of Edward II., that, although they held of the king in
capite, and ought to attend his parliaments whenever they are summoned,
by two of their number, instead of all other services, as had been their
custom in all past times, which services the said burgesses and their
predecessors had performed as well in the time of the late king Edward
and his ancestors as in that of the present king until the parliament
now sitting, the names of their deputies having been constantly enrolled
in chancery, yet the sheriff of Hertfordshire, at the instigation of the
abbot of St. Albans, had neglected to cause an election and return to be
made; and prayed remedy. To this petition it was answered, "Let the
rolls of chancery be examined, that it may appear whether the said
burgesses were accustomed to come to parliament, or not, in the time of
the king's ancestors; and let right be done to them, vocatis evocandis,
si necesse fuerit." I do not translate these words, concerning the sense
of which there has been some dispute, though not, apparently, very
material to the principal subject.[66]

This is, in my opinion, by far the most plausible testimony for the
early representation of boroughs. The burgesses of St. Albans claim a
prescriptive right from the usage of all past times, and more especially
those of the late Edward and his ancestors. Could this be alleged, it
has been said, of a privilege at the utmost of fifty years' standing,
once granted by an usurper, in the days of the late king's father, and
afterwards discontinued till about twenty years before the date of their
petition, according to those who refer the regular appearance of the
commons in parliament to the twenty-third of Edward I.? Brady, who
obviously felt the strength of this authority, has shown little of his
usual ardour and acuteness in repelling it. It was observed, however, by
Madox, that the petition of St. Albans contains two very singular
allegations: it asserts that the town was part of the king's demesne,
whereas it had invariably belonged to the adjoining abbey; and that its
burgesses held by the tenure of attending parl