delay in the administration of juftice; fixed the court of Common Pleas, at Westminster, that the parties in a law-fuit might no longer be haraffed with following the king from place to place; eftablifhed annual circuits of judges; confirmed the liberties of all cities and diftricts; protected every freeholder in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property; unless they were pronounced by a jury of his equals to be forfeited to the laws of his country*; and made a ftipulation in favour of the property of men, who had before been confidered to have no rights whatever, by enacting that the bondmen or flaves fhould be kept in the unmolefted poffeffion of their implements of husbandry. Thus was the firft general oppofition fuccefsfully made against arbitrary power; and thofe rights were acknowledged and eftablifhed, which the English had enjoyed before the conqueft. As Magna Charta was granted under circumftances of great folemnity, and afterwards ratified at the be "Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, vel diffeifietur de libero tenemento fuo, vel libertatibus, vel liberis confuetudinibus fuis; aut utlagetur, aut exulet, aut aliquo modo deftruetur. Nec fuper eum ibimus, nec fuper eum mittemus, nifi per legale judicium parium fuorum, vel per legem terræ. Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus judicium, vel rectum." Magna Charta, cap. 29. "This article is fo important, that it may be faid to comprehend the whole end and defign of political focieties; and from that moment the English would have been a free people, if there were not an immenfe difference between the making of laws, and the obfervip, of them." De Lolme on the Conftitution, p. 28. ginning ginning of every reign, it was a facred pledge depofited in the hands of the people, for the equitable government of their kings. Unlike thofe traditional edicts, which admitted of any colour of interpretation that might fuit the caprice, the folly, or the neceffity of abfolute monarchs, this celebrated Charter was a public and confpicuous record, to which immediate appeal might be made to determine the right of fubjects to a redress of grievances, and the free administration of juftice. It was the root, from which falutary laws gradually branched out, as the state of fociety became more civilifed, for the protection and fecurity not only of the proprietors of land and of merchants, but of perfons of every rank and degrée in the kingdom'. In the reign of Henry III. which continued fiftyfix years, which was of longer continuance than that of any other English monarch, and was remarkable for continual inftances of the caprice and incapacity of the king, and his contests with his haughty and powerful nobles, we may difcover fome of the earliest traces of a reprefentative legislature. The captive monarch, intimidated by the fword of the imperious Simon Montford Earl of Leicester, iffued orders for every county to depute persons to affift him and his nobles in their deliberations on 1 John reigned 19 years, and died at the age of 51, A. D. 1216. From 1216 to 1272. ftate ftate affairs. Thus to the diftractions and troubles of these disastrous times, England is indebted for the reprefentatives of the people being firft called to parliament. The more regular establishment of the Houfe of Commons may however be referred to the fucceeding reign of EDWARD THE FIRST. Strongly actuated by the martial fpirit of his age, he engaged in long and expenfive wars against Wales and Scotland, in confequence of which his treasury was exhaufted, and his only refource for regular fupplies was found in the contributions of his fubjects. But as the mode purfued by his predeceffors of filling their coffers had been both odious, and in a great degree inefficient, he devifed a method of obtaining by their own confent what had formerly been wrefted by the arbitrary mandate of the king. With this view, in the eleventh year of his reign, the mayors and other officers of cities were commanded by writ to caufe two burgeffes to be elected, and fent to Weftminfter; and in his eighteenth year, the theriffs were required likewise by writ to cause two or three knights to be chofen, and fent from their respective counties". The object of this Parliament was to provide for the pecuniary wants of the King, and to ratify the refolutions made by himself and his barons. He like See Rymer's Fœdera, vol. ii. p. 249, for a copy of the former writ, and Brady's Introduction, for a copy of the latter, p. 149. wife annexed an important article to Magna Charta, by which he bound himself and his fucceffors not to raise any fubfidies whatever, without the approbation of both Lords and Commons. Several excellent laws for the eafe and benefit of all ranks of his fubjects were paffed in this " general parliament," which gave the greateft fatisfaction to the whole body of the nation, and gained Edward the entire affections of his people. The character of Edward the firft was marked not only by the bravery of a warrior, but the more ufeful and profound talents of a legiflator. From the praife, which many writers give to him, fome fhare must be deducted on account of the neceffities to which he often expofed himfelf by his wars. He ratified both the charters, and observed their conditions with a fcrupulous exactnefs, which formed the diftinguifhed glory of his reign. He afforded a free and extenfive scope to the exercise of the ftatutes of the realm, furrendered a part of his right of fending mandates to arreft the progress of juftice; and, as a decifive proof of his refpect for the laws, and his defire to promote their impartial adminiftration, he caused his fon the Prince of Wales to be publicly apprehended and imprifoned for breaking down the fences and killing the deer of Walter de Langton, Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry ". • A.D. 1275. PA. D. 1305. Rapin, vol. i. p. 383. fol. It is natural enough to conclude, that as at this period the members of both Houfes of Parliament held their deliberations under the authority of a wife and well-difpofed fovereign, they would make the great interest of the nation at large the subjects of their debates, and thus improve the science of legiflation. Accordingly we find that they gave their attention to many plans of great public utility; they paffed laws for establishing manufactures in various parts of England, for fupporting the parochial clergy by the endowment of vicarages, and for restraining the encroachments and the rapacity of the fee of Rome. Every fucceeding generation has expreffed its applause of Edward the first, and felt the benefits of his wife and falutary inftitutions. By him the laws were carried fo far towards perfection, that he has been styled the English Juftinian. Sir Matthew Hale did not fcruple to affirm, that more was done in the firft thirteen years of his government, to fettle and eftablish the diftributive juftice of the kingdom, than in all the ages down to his time. To trace the progrefs of the increafing privileges of the House of Commons, we must have recourse to particular facts. In a tone of bold and just complaint the two Houses of Parliament called upon the weak and unfortunate Edward the second to banish Gavefton, his infinuating but licentious favourite, from his court. This was the first exercise Crowned in 1272, reigned 35 years, died in 1307, aged 68. C of |