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is granted, is illegal: That it is the right of the Subjects to petition the King, and that all commitments or persecutions for such petitions are illegal : That the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time of peace, unless it be with consent of parliament, is illegal: That the subjects which are protestants, may have arms for their defence suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law That elections of members of parliament ought to be free That the freedom of speech, or debates in parliament, ought not to be impeached, or questioned in any court out of parliament: That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted: That juries ought to be duly empanneled and returned, and that jurors which pass upon men in trials of high treason ought to be freeholders: and That for the redress of all grievances, and for the amending, strengthening, and preserving the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently." This Declaration was by the Bill of Rights.

985. After the Revolution, the Constitutional Liberty of England seemed to be sufficiently secured; and was so: yet the care of parliament was still employed in devising and enacting further Securities. The appropriation of the revenue by Parliament was carried into further detail, by the separation of the Civil List, and of the Navy, Army, and Ordnance Department, from each other. "This measure has

given the House of Commons so effectual a control over the executive power, or more truly speaking, has rendered it so much a participator in that power, that no administration can possibly subsist without its concurrence; nor can the session of parliament be intermitted for an entire year, without leaving both the naval and military force of the kingdom unprovided for."* The Mutiny Bill also, by which alone Hallam, Eng. Const., 111., 159.

martial law can be administered in the army, was from this time passed only from year to year.

986. The Act of Settlement, by which the Electress Sophia, after the death of Queen Anne, was declared to be the stock of the Royal line, contained further provisions, intended to secure the nation against arbitrary acts of the Court: especially the exclusion of pensioners, and many of the officers of the Crown, from parliament; and the protection of the independence of the Judges, by making their commissions continue quamdiu se bene gesserint, during life or good behaviour, instead of durante bene placito, as long as the crown chose, which had been the practice.

The

987. Thus, so far as Parliament was the guardian of the National Liberty, the cause of liberty was fully vindicated; and the doubt might occur, whether, according to the Constitution so modified, Parliament might not sometimes be led, by some special object, to interpose its power so as to obstruct the acts of the crown, and to make government impossible. Order seemed to have been sacrificed to Liberty. But this was not the case. balance between Order and Liberty was preserved by the struggle which took place within the boundary of Parliament itself. The Influence of the Crown and of the Aristocracy was in that field exerted in favour of Order; and with more steadiness and care, than can be expected, on that side, from the Democracy. The efforts of the Democracy soon began to be directed to diminish or extinguish this Influence. One of the points, which thus came into conflict, was the mode of electing the Members of the House of Commons. By the theory of the Constitution, as it had been commonly stated, these Members were the Representatives of the Common People; but the Advocates of popular Rights asserted that in fact, they were not so; and that the House of

Commons ought to be reformed, so as to bring the fact into nearer accordance with the theory of Representation.

988. By the ancient Constitution, the House of Commons was supposed to contain representatives of all the parts of the Empire which were subject to English laws and parliamentary burthens. Henry VIII. extended the right of election to the whole of Wales, the counties of Chester and Monmouth, and even the towns of Berwick and Calais; and thus added thirtythree members to the Commons.* Edward VI. created fourteen boroughs, and restored ten, that had disused their privilege. Mary added twenty-one, Elizabeth sixty, and James twenty-seven members. But the design of the great influx of new members from petty boroughs, in these latter reigns, seems to have been to secure the authority of government, which such members were likely to support, rather than to follow out a democratic principle of the Constitution.

989. Four different kind of Electors of the Representatives of Boroughs appear in our Constitutional History. (1) Members of Corporations: the municipal magistracy or governing body of the incorporated place; (2) Freemen of Corporations, to whom the elective franchise was given by charters of incorporation; (3) Electors by Burgage Tenure; where the right was annexed to certain freehold lands or burgages, and did not belong to any persons but such tenants; (4) The inhabitant householders paying scot and lot, which include local and general taxes. This was the original form of the right as enjoyed by Boroughs in the time of Edward I., and was applied to all of a later date, where a franchise of a different nature was not expressed in the charter.

*Hallam, Eng. Const., III., 50.

mons.

990. These varieties in the elective franchise, the various growth and decay of ancient Boroughs, and in some cases the rise of insignificant hamlets into great and wealthy towns, have at all periods produced great deviations from regularity and consistency, in the representative structure of the House of ComSo long as the struggle of the House with the Crown was an external war, these irregularities were not considered as very prejudicial to the cause of Liberty. Taking the House altogether, the vari ous classes of the Community were virtually, if not actually, represented, as to their interests, arguments, and purposes. But when the battle between Authority and the claims of a larger Liberty was to be fought within the body of the Commons, the mode of electing the individual members became a matter of great moment in the struggle. Those who wished to enlarge the Liberty of the People demanded a Reform of the Parliament, a correction of the Anomalies of its composition, and a more faithful application of the Principle of Representation. Such reforms in special cases would have been consistent with previous history; but the establishment of a new Rule for all cases, was giving a new basis to the House of Commons, and was resisted as a perilous experiment, by the adherents of the ancient forms of Authority. The act for such a new basis of the House of Commons was, however, carried in 1831. In the preamble it is stated to have for its objects "to deprive many inconsiderable places of the right of returning members, to grant such privilege to large, populous, and wealthy towns, to extend the elective franchise to many of His Majesty's subjects who have not heretofore enjoyed the same." By this Act, the voters for Knights of the Shire were to be, in addition to the old electors, the forty-shilling freeholders, copyholders to the extent of ten pounds a year, and other tenants to the extent of fifty pounds.

The voters for Boroughs were to be persons occupying a house in the borough of the value of ten pounds a year. A number of boroughs (sixty) were disfranchised as inconsiderable places; the criterion adopted being, that the population was less than 2000. A number of other boroughs were allowed only one meinber, the population being less than 4000. Instead of two members to each county, there were assigned to some of the more populous counties three, to some, four, according to their importance. To towns containing more than 10,000 inhabitants, one representative was given; and two to places which had 20,000 inhabitants or more.

991. This is now the condition of the electoral franchise. The passing of the Act by which it was established is perhaps the largest attempt ever made at once to bring the Constitution nearer to a theoretical symmetry; but it is to be recollected, on the other hand, that the deviations of the composition of the representative body from the representative principle had become enormous. One caution, however, is suggested to the admirer of the English Constitution by this circumstance; In proportion to the largeness of the step made in the Reform Bill, should be the length of time which is allowed to elapse before any new Movement of an extensive nature is attempted. The New Part of the Constitution must have time to incorporate itself with the Old, before the body politic can bear with safety any new experiments. It may be that the Constitution has in this case drawn in a new life by a deep draught of the cup of liberty; but it is requisite for the health of the nation that this strong potion be allowed time to assimilate with the system, before the draught be repeated.