writ, that of 22 E. I., certainly implies the latter; and I do not know
that any of the rest are conclusive to the contrary. In the reign of
Edward II. the words ad consentiendum alone, or ad faciendum et
consentiendum, begin; and from that of Edward III. this form has been
constantly used.[80] It must still, however, be highly questionable
whether the commons, who had so recently taken their place in
parliament, gave anything more than a constructive assent to the laws
enacted during this reign. They are not even named in the preamble of
any statute till the last year of Edward I. Upon more than one occasion
the sheriffs were directed to return the same members who had sat in the
last parliament, unless prevented by death or infirmity.[81]

[Sidenote: At what time parliament was divided into two houses.]

It has been a very prevailing opinion that parliament was not divided
into two houses at the first admission of the commons. If by this is
only meant that the commons did not occupy a separate chamber till some
time in the reign of Edward III., the proposition, true or false, will
be of little importance. They may have sat at the bottom of Westminster
Hall, while the lords occupied the upper end. But that they were ever
intermingled in voting appears inconsistent with likelihood and
authority. The usual object of calling a parliament was to impose taxes;
and these for many years after the introduction of the commons were laid
in different proportions upon the three estates of the realm. Thus in
the 23 E. I. the earls, barons, and knights gave the king an eleventh,
the clergy a tenth; while he obtained a seventh from the citizens and
burgesses; in the twenty-fourth of the same king the two former of these
orders gave a twelfth, the last an eighth; in the thirty-third year a
thirtieth was the grant of the barons and knights and of the clergy, a
twentieth of the cities and towns; in the first of Edward II. the
counties paid a twentieth, the towns a fifteenth; in the sixth of Edward
III. the rates were a fifteenth and a tenth.[82] These distinct grants
imply distinct grantors; for it is not to be imagined that the commons
intermeddled in those affecting the lords, or the lords in those of the
commons. In fact, however, there is abundant proof of their separate
existence long before the seventeenth of Edward III., which is the epoch
assigned by Carte,[83] or even the sixth of that king, which has been
chosen by some other