258 The Lan castrian period: its charac teristics. Increased importance of the Commons CHAPTER IX. PARLIAMENT UNDER THE LANCASTRIAN AND YORKIST KINGS. 1399-1485.) HENRY IV., HENRY V., HENRY VI., EDWARD IV., EDWARD V., RICHARD III. UNDER the Lancastrian Kings the Parliament was occupied rather in the consolidation and regulation of the results of former contests with the Crown than in the acquisition of any new fundamental rights. The Commons continued to exercise, with but slight opposition, the main rights which they had established during the 14th century,voting taxes, appropriating the supplies, which they made dependent upon the redress of grievances, examining public accounts, controlling the internal administration, sharing in legislation, and intervening in questions of war and peace, and in all important business, foreign and domestic. But the chief characteristic of the period was the settlement of the internal constitution of Parliament, and the establishment of its principal forms of procedure and most essential_privileges.' During the latter half of the 15th century, the House of Commons became much less independent than it had been under Edward III., Richard II., or Henry IV. The Wars of the Roses in the first place enhanced the power of the nobles at the expense of the Commons, who proved invariably ready to give a Parliamentary sanction to the claims of a victorious military leader; and, finally, by almost annihilating the ancient nobility, left the Lower House to face unaided the augmented power of the Crown. But the growing importance of the popular assembly is proved by the attempts, which were now systematically made by the Crown and the nobility, to influence the elections in boroughs as well as in counties. A seat in the House of Commons, even as the representative of a borough constituency, became an object of ambition to the members of what would now be termed County families, and the higher social status to which the burgesses had attained is marked by the fact to which Hallam calls attention, that in the reign of Edward IV., and not before, they received the addition of Esquire' in the returns made by the sheriffs. 1 'C'est une époque plus remarquable par certains perfectionnements dans les ressorts du gouvernement parlementaire, que par la conquête de grands droits et par la formation d'institutions fondamentales. --Guizot, Hist. du Gouv. Représ. ii. Midd. Ages, iii. 119. The importance attached to a seat in Parliament at this conditional of accounts. Instances of illegal taxation are very rare under the Lancastrian Taxation: Kings. Under Richard II. the system of forced loans, of which we grants, apfind the Commons complaining for the first time in the second year of propriation of supplies, his reign,' had been very extensively made use of, but the Lancastrian examination Kings seldom had recourse to this means of filling their coffers. In 1400, Henry IV. appears to have obtained an aid from a Great Council, but its members did not pretend to charge any besides themselves. There is also an instance during the minority of Henry VI., of illegal conduct with respect to a conditional grant of a ṣubsidy; the Duke of Bedford and other lords having subsequently declared in Parliament, with the advice of the Judges, and others learned in the law, that the said subsidy was to be at all events collected and levied for the King's use, notwithstanding any condition in the grant. But these were merely occasional exceptions to the admitted legal rule. In the same Parliament the Commons, in making a fresh grant, not only renewed the former conditions, but appropriated the supply, declaring that it ne no part thereof be beset ne dispensed to no other use, but only in and for the defense of the said roialme. Similar precautions had been taken in the grants made to Henry IV. In the sixth year of his reign (1404) the Commons granted a large subsidy on condition that it should be expended for the defence of the kingdom according to the form and extent of the grant, and not otherwise, and two treasurers of war, Thomas, Lord Furnivall, and Sir John Pelham, were appointed and sworn in Parliament to receive it, and account to the Commons at the next Parliament. Thus, conditional grants, appropriation_of_supplies, and examination of accounts became the established usage. of supply on The dependence of supplies on the redress of grievances originated Dependence under Richard II. It had previously been usual for the King not to redress of grievances. time, and the attempts made to influence the electors, are shown in the contemporary Paston correspondence. In vol. i. p. [337] we find the Duchess of Norfolk soliciting the influence of John Paston, Esq., at a county election. 'It is thought right necessarie,' she tells him, 'for divers causes that my Lord have at this tyme in the Parlement suche persones as longe unto him, and be of his menyall servaunts, wherin we conceyve your good will and diligence shal be right expedient.' The 'menyall servaunts were our right welbelovid cosin and servaunts, John Howard and Syr Roger Chambirlayn. In vol. ii[i]. p. [51], is a letter to the bailiff of Maldon recommending the election of Sir John Paston. See also Freeman, Growth of Engl. Const. p. 197. [Paston Letters, supra, from Gairdner's ed., 1872-5.-C.] 1 Rot. Parl. 2 Ric. II. iii. 62. Hallam, Midd. Ages, iii. 85. 3 Rot. Parl. iv. 301. + Id. p. 303; 5 Id. iii. 546. [But cf. Gneist, Hist. Engl. Const. p. 367, note, whence it appears that as early as 2 Edw. II. a twenty-fifth was granted the King by the Commons on the condition First colli sion between the two Houses. All money bills must originate in the Commons. The King notice matters answer petitions until the last day of the session, when the supplies had of course been granted. The attempt to invert this order of proceeding had been declared by Richard II.'s Judges to be high treason. But in the 2nd of Henry IV. the Commons again endeavoured to secure this important lever for the application of Parliamentary power. The King resisted firmly, and the Commons gave way for the time,' but the practice gradually gained ground. In 1407 (9 Henry IV.) a proceeding took place which is interesting both as the first instance of a collision between the two Houses,' and as the earliest authority for what are now two well-known axioms of Parliamentary law, viz. : (1) That all Money Bills must originate in the House of Commons, and (2) that the King ought not to take notice of matters debated in Parliament, until a decision be come to by both Houses, and such decision be regularly brought before him. It ought not to appears that the Lords, in the King's presence, had held a debate on the state of the kingdom, and in answer to his demands, had speciñed pending in Parliament. Certain subsidies as being requisite for the national defence. The King then requested the Commons to send a deputation to the House of Lords to hear and report to their fellows what they should have in command from the King, 'to the end that they might take the shortest course to comply with the intention of the said Lords.' Twelve of the Commons accordingly attended and made their report to the rest of the Lower House, who were thereupon 'greatly disturbed at it, saying and affirming it to be much to the prejudice and derogation of their liberties.' 'And after that our Lord the King had heard this,' the entry on the roll proceeds, 'not willing that anything should be done at present, or in time to come, that might anywise turn against the liberty of the Estate for which they are come to Parliament,* nor of his redressing eight grievances, which were laid before him; which he promised to do. Also in 18 and 22 Edw. III. conditions were made on the grant. Vide also on this point Hannis Taylor, Origin of Engl. Const. 540.—ED,] 1 Ibid. p. 453. [Cf. Hallam, iii. 84.] 3 This collision led to a declaration of the Crown which " placed the King and the two Houses of Parliament each in the separate and independent situation in which they now respectfully stand," cf. Lords Reports, i. 359. [Vide, also, on this constitutional struggle, Pike, Const. Hist. of House of Lords, p. 340.-ED.] The true position of the House of Commons as not being in itself an Estate of the Realm but the representative of the estate of the Commons of England, is here expressed. In the same way, the knights, citizens, and burgesses assembled in the Parliament of 1406 (7 Hen. IV.) which settled the succession to the Crown, are described as the 'procurators and attorneys of all the counties, cities, and boroughs, and of the whole people of the kingdom. Although only elected by a portion of the population they were regarded as in effect procurators and attorneys for the whole. At this period the Parliamentary franchise was at its maximum; under Henry VI. it sank to its minimum. Subsequent extensions of the suffrage have against the liberties of the Lords,-wills and grants, and declares, by the advice and assent of the Lords, in manner following: that it shall be lawful for the Lords to commune amongst themselves in this present Parliament, and in every other in time to come, in the absence of the King, of the state of the realm, and of the remedy necessary for the same. And that in like manner it shall be lawful for the Commons. on their part, to commune together of the state and remedy aforesaid. Provided always that the Lords on their part, and the Commons on their part, shall not make any report to our said lord the King of any grant by the Commons granted, and by the Lords assented to, nor of the communications of the said grant, before the Lords and Commons shall be of one assent and one accord in such matters, and then in manner and form accustomed, that is to say, by the mouth of the Speaker of the Commons, in order that the Lords and Commons may have their will (lour gree) of our said lord the King.'1 assume the Statutes Bills. Originally, not only grants of money but, as we have seen, almost Petitions all statutes originated in the proceedings of the House of Commons. form of The practice of drawing up the statutes from the petitions and answers complete after the session of Parliament had closed, led to the commission of under the frequent frauds on the part of the King's officers, who often entered name of Acts of Parliament on the rolls, differing materially from what the Commons had petitioned for, and the King granted. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many attempts were made by the Commons, from time to time, to remedy this abuse. In 1414 (2nd Henry V.) they presented a petition to the King, which is not only important on account of its subject matter, but interesting as the earliest instance in which the House of Commons adopted the English language in their petitions. After asserting that it had ever been their liberty and freedom that there should be no statute or law made unless with their assent, the Commons proceed: 'Consideringe that been merely attempts to render the essentially representative character of the Commons' House more real and national. 1 Rot. Parl. iii. 611. [This was a very important matter, and affected also the Records of Chancery. Mr. Clifford, Hist. Private Bill Legislation, vol. i. 325, cites a case in 1404, where the Commons complained that a Subsidy Act had been entered on the Rolls of Chancery in a form contrary to the actual grant by them, and prayed for the declaration of their intention in making the grant in the then sitting Parlament, and for instructions to be given to the Barons of the Exchequer that the subsidy should not be levied in its untrue form. The same danger was probably the moving cause of the demand of the Commons in 1406 that certeins de les Communes should be present at the engrossment of the Rolls of Parliament.-C.] Hallam, Midd. Ages, iii. 90. As early as 1363, the Chancellor addressed the Parliament in English in his opening address. Rot. Parl. ii. 283. [Stubbs, iii. 478.] Dispensing and Sus pending powers of the Crown. the Comune of youre lond, the whiche that is, and ever hath be, a membre of youre Parlement, ben as well Assentirs as Peticioners, that fro this tyme foreward, by compleynte of the Comune of eny myschief axkynge remedie by mouthie of their Speker for the Comune, other ellys by Petition writen, that ther never be no Lawe made theruppon, and engrosed as Statut and Lawe, nother by addicions, nother by diminucions, by no maner of terme ne termes, the whiche that sholde chaunge the sentence, and the entente axked by the Speker mouthe, or the Petitions biforesaid yeven up yn writyng by the manere forsaid, withoute assent of the forsaid Comune. Consideringe oure soverain lord, that it is not in no wyse the entente of youre Comunes, zif hit be so that they axke you by spekying or by writyng, two thynges or three, or as manye as theym lust: But that ever it stande in the fredom of your hie Regalie, to graunte whiche of thoo that you luste, and to werune the remanent.' In reply the King, of his grace especial graunteth that fro hensforth no thyng be enacted to the Peticions of his Comune, that be contrarie of hir askyng, wharby they shuld be bounde withoute their assent. Savyng alwey to our liege Lord his real Prerogatif, to graunte and denye what him lust of their Petitions and askynges aforesaide.' Under Henry VI., the Commons made an apparently formal but essentially important innovation, by introducing complete statutes under the name of Bills-petitiones formam actuum in se continentes. These were sent up to the Lords, and if passed there, presented to the King to be accepted or rejected simply, without any alteration. Later on the House of Lords also began to originate Bills, which were sent thence to the Commons; and it gradually became the established rule of Parliament, that with the exception of Money-Bills, which must come from the Commons, and of Bills affecting the Peerage (e.g.. for the restitution of forfeited honours), which must come from the Lords, all other Bills might be originated in either House. 1 The legislative authority of Parliament was still often rendered nugatory by the exercise of the Dispensing and Suspending powers of the Crown. These two terms are frequently used indiscriminately; but there is a very appreciable difference in their strict signification. (1) The Dispensing power consisted in the exemption of particular persons, under special circumstances, from the operation of penal laws; being, in fact, an anticipatory exercise of the undoubted right of the King to pardon individual offenders.3 (2) The Suspending power 1 Rot. Parl. iv. 22. 2 Ruffhead's Statutes, i. 16 (pref.). 3 To pardon a criminal, after he has been guilty, is indeed less dangerous to |