gislative assembly returned generally to
its old course; that the writs issued in the 49th of Henry III., being a
novelty, were not afterwards precisely followed, as far as appears, in
any instance; and that the writs issued in the 11th of Edw. I., "for
assembling two conventions, at York and Northampton, of knights,
citizens, burgesses, and representatives of towns, without prelates,
earls, and barons, were an extraordinary measure, probably adopted for
the occasion, and never afterwards followed; and that the writs issued
in the 18th of Edw. I., for electing two or three knights for each shire
without corresponding writs for election of citizens or burgesses, and
not directly founded on or conformable to the writs issued in the 49th
of Henry III., were probably adopted for a particular purpose, possibly
to sanction one important law [the statute _Quia Emptores_], and because
the smaller tenants in chief of the crown rarely attended the ordinary
legislative assemblies when summoned, or attended in such small numbers
that a representation of them by knights chosen for the whole shire was
deemed advisable, to give sanction to a law materially affecting all the
tenants in chief, and those holding under them" (p. 204).

The election of two or three knights for the parliament of 18th Edw. I.,
which I have overlooked in my text, appears by an entry on the close
roll of that year, directed to the sheriff of Northumberland; and it is
proved from the same roll that similar writs were directed to all the
sheriffs in England. We do not find that the citizens and burgesses were
present in this parliament; and it is reasonably conjectured that, the
object of summoning it being to procure a legislative consent to the
statute _Quia Emptores_, which put an end to the subinfeudation of
lands, the towns were thought to have little interest in the measure. It
is, however, another early precedent for county representation; and that
of 22nd of Edw. I. (see the writ in Report of Committee, p. 209) is more
regular. We do not find that the citizens and burgesses were summoned to
either parliament.

But, after the 23rd of Edward I., the legislative constitution seems not
to have been unquestionably settled, even in the essential point of
taxation. The Confirmation of the Charters, in the 25th year of that
reign, while it contained a positive declaration that no "aids, tasks,
or prises should be levied in future, without assent of the realm," w