the enormous furplus of ecclefiaftical revenues. Propofal The argument they urged for it, and again and to feize it for better again repeated, was, that fuch exorbitant riches appropriano less than fuch too fcanty earnings could tend tion. only to difqualify all fections of the Church for the due discharge of ministerial functions; and though they failed in their immediate purpose, and had a heretic or two burned in their faces by way

dub of archiepiícopal revenge, and were Failure of

by the higher clergy in fcorn a lack- attempt. learning parliament, they might have felt that, by the very agitation of fuch a queftion, the feeds were fown of no partial gain for pofterity. The Church itself had most reason to regret its immediate failure. But it led to fome important checks on clerical privilege; and the Thirty thirty articles which, two years later, were not articles for regulation only propofed but conceded, for the regulation of King's of the King's household and government, have affairs. been declared by Mr. Hallam, an authority well entitled to respect, to form a noble fabric of conftitutional liberty, hardly inferior to the petition of right. The Sovereign was required to govern by the advice of a permanent council; and this council, together with all the judges and the officers of the royal household, were bound by folemn oath to parliament to observe and defend the amended institutions. It eftablished in effect the principle of minifterial Ministerrefponfibility; and it is a remarkable evidence ial refponfibility efof the fame fpirit, and of the ftrong popular tablished. impulfe favoured, if not created, by the accef- 1410. fion of the Houfe of Lancaster, that an attempt made by the Lords to interfere with the taxation of the people, in the year after the

E

Inter

County Elections Bill paffed, was ftrongly ference resented and refifted by the Lower House, as in great prejudice and derogation of their the Lords liberties.

with Tax

ation by

refifted.

To this, then, had been brought, at the opening of the fifteenth century, that claim of a Sovereign Authority which in the older time had certainly been conceded to the Norman King. For it would be as idle to doubt in what divifion of the State the Conqueft temporarily vested such authority, as to deny that Changes many forms of it still were retained long after fince the its fubftance and vitality had departed. Still, for example, the courfe of legislative procedure retained veftige of exclufive kingly rule. Petitions were ftill prefented by the Commons, confidered by the Lords, and replied to by the Petitions King; which, being entered on the parliament and Bills. roll, formed the bafis of legiflation by the

Conquest.

monarch himself. Even down to Henry the Fifth, indeed, on the authority of a fomewhat remarkable remonftrance found on the roll, we find it alleged as a not unusual practice for the King, taking advantage of the custom which had fo arisen of leaving statutes to be drawn up by the judges from the Petition and Anfwer during the parliamentary recefs, to induce or compel the judges to mifreprefent evation of and falfify the intentions of parliament, by producing ftatutes to which it had not given affent. But how ftrikingly it proves that the fovereign authority, as a real working power, had declined, and that the Houses, representing the power which stood in arms behind them, had rifen, when fuch artifices were thought

Royal

Parlia

mentary control.

worth reforting to; and how fignificant the Bills fubfact that in the very next reign even the ftituted form disappeared altogether, and, in place tions. of the old Petitions, the introduction of complete ftatutes under the name of Bills. was effected.

for Peti

What the fword had won the fword fhould Henry V. keep, faid Henry the Fifth on his acceffion; 1413. but what was meant by the faying has its comment in the fact that in the year which witneffed his victory at Agincourt, he yielded to the House of Commons the moft liberal meafure of legislative power which until then it had obtained. The dazzling fplendour of Good out his conquefts in France had for the time of evil. caft into fhade every doubt or question of his title, but the very extent of those gains upon the French foil established only more decifively the worse than ufeleffness of fuch acquifitions to the English throne. It is Advana ftriking example of the good which is tage to wrought out of evil by an all-wife and over- from ruling Providence, that the very mifchiefs inci- Henry V.'s dent to these wars, the neceffity for unufual fupplies, and the unavoidable burdens thrown upon the people, led to fuch legislative conceffions of a popular kind as till then had not been obtained. The neceffities of the fovereign were fupplied, but the full equivalent was demanded and received in a maintenance of the restraints upon his prerogative. The dif- Further tinction of Henry's reign in conftitutional restraints hiftory will always be, that from it dates a prerogapower, indifpenfable to a free and limited tive. monarchy, of which not only were the leading

Commons

wars.

on the

ture.

fafeguards now obtained, but at once fo firmly established, that against the shock of inceffant refiftance in later years they ftood perfectly unmoved.

Admiffion They had followed, as a kind of inevitable of rights confequence, from that formal admiffion of legislative rights in the Commons, just adverted to, which led to the change from Petitions to Bills. An Act had been paffed, providing that "from this time forward, by complaint "of the Commons afking remedy for any mif"chief, there be no law made thereupon, which "fhould change the meaning by addition or

Law against tampering with petitions.

by diminution, or by any manner of term "or terms;" and a formal grant, in the name of the King, was at the fame time appended to it, ftating that from thenceforth, nothing "be enacted to be petitions of his Commons "that be contrary to their asking, whereby "they should be bound without their affent." It was hardly to be expected, therefore, that when fubfequently, in the fame reign, the Commons claimed certain rights and exemptions needful to the difcharge of their trust, to laft as long as the trust lasted, and to cease when it was laid down, fuch a demand could fafely be refifted. Among other things, they required perfonal release from fuch judicial proceedings as might impede parliamentary functions. They bers of afferted the right to an abfolute defpotifm. concerning every thing that paffed within their own walls. They exacted the exclusive jurifdiction of offences which tended to impair their powers or obftruct their public duties. In a word, they achieved what was thenceforward

Exemptions claimed

for mem

the Commons.

ment.

known by the formidable name of Privilege Privilege of Parliament; the fhield and buckler under of Parliawhich all the battles of liberty and good government were fought in the after time. An attempt to drag the adjudication of the privilege into courts of law followed; when, in the famous cafe of Thorpe the Speaker, the judges declared that they would not deter- cafe. "mine the privilege of the High Court of "Parliament, of which the knowledge be

Thorpe's

against the

longeth to the Lords of Parliament, and not "the juftices." Nor will it be hazardous to Eftapredict that when this privilege is in any mate- blished rial point abandoned, political freedom is at an courts. end. When deputed rights are fuccessfully affailed, abfolute rights are no longer fafe; and parliaments without parliamentary liberties, as Pym nobly faid, will be but a fair and plaufible way into bondage. Not many years after-Right of wards, another most momentous claim was impeachconceded, for which the prefent right had' served to herald the way. This was the awful power of Impeachment, which, also won in the fame reign, was never again loft.

ment won.

inter

For let it not be thought that all the fruits of the hard-fought liberal victories were at once gathered in and ftored for peaceful and Liberal uninterrupted enjoyment. What most im- gains preffes the careful ftudent of early English cepted. hiftory, is the marked distinction he finds it neceffary to keep before him, between the fecurities of civil freedom as generally existing and in fubftance recognised, and their violation as frequently and flagrantly permitted. Freedom Still the violation, when it occurred, was feen outraged