and the flight of James. By a "convention," consisting of the two houses of parliament, this flight was regarded as an "abdication;" the succession to the throne was changed, and placed upon new legal bases. "The lords and commons at Westminster assembled resolved," according to the declaration of rights, "that William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, are to be King and Queen of England, and proclaimed as such." The declaration and Bill of Rights further assure the rights of parliament, inasmuch as

1. The suspension of statutes by the king, and

2. The dispensing power of the king, are declared unlawful. 3. The king is reminded that no money is to be granted without assent of parliament.

4. No army to be maintained in times of peace without the consent of parliament.

5. Parliamentary elections to be henceforth free from royal influence.

6. That debates or proceedings in parliament ought not to be impeached in any court or place out of parliament.

7. Parliaments are to be held frequently.

To legalize this revolution the theory of an original contract between prince and people, and which James had broken, was

set up.

As William was compelled to maintain himself in accord with the parliament as the king "elected," the actual supremacy of that body became very marked and distinct, inasmuch as the king was bound to rely upon the party dominant in parliament, and to unite its members into a select council; whereas the governmental council contained men of all parties, and was consequently unfitted for the carrying out of a rule which was to be supported by one party alone. Although the Act of Settlement condemns such cabinet government as unconstitutional, it was retained by the House of Hanover because the new dynasty could only yield itself up to the Whigs and rely upon them; the want of support which this dynasty had in the kingdom rendered the first two Georges completely dependent on the Whig oligarchy.

Parliamentary government was further confirmed by the Mutiny Act and the annual grant of the budget; by these two innovations the parliament rendered its annual summoning necessary; its power was finally established by the "Septennial Bill,"

whereby the representatives have been more than ever set free from their constituents, and the corporative spirit of the lower house has been strengthened. As the lower house was in great part the appanage of the ruling parties, the crown, whenever wishful of securing influence, had no resource left but to work upon parliament by means of bribery.

The efforts of George III. to strengthen the prerogative were not directed against the parliament; when, however, the latter, by means of Fox's great measure, "the East India Bill," armed itself for the struggle against corporate rights, the king succeeded in overthrowing the parliamentary families. Under the sway of a minister like Pitt, who, with a powerful accession of the nobility, and upheld by great events, governed the country for long years without check, the king eventually subsided into that native impotence which marked his ancestors. The power of parliament, in consequence of the American war, became limited, inasmuch as the right of the colonies to tax themselves was recognized, and the taxation of the colonies by parliament was excluded by the pressure of events. The privileges of parliament became further limited through the increasing power of the press, which victoriously maintained its struggles against parliamentary privileges. On the other hand, since Pitt's East India Bill, the cabinet acquired a significant influence over the colossal British Empire in India, until finally in 1858, the Indian government was committed to the care of this parliamentary section.

Since the revolution of 1688 material alterations have taken place in the composition of parliament. The Acts of Union with Scotland (1706), and with Ireland (1801), brought many new members to the lower house, and to the upper house a new category of peers-viz., "elected" peers. The Catholic Emancipation Bill of 1829 threw open parliament to British Catholics; and finally, the "Reform Bill" (1832) destroyed many close and insignificant boroughs, and gave the right of representation to many large commercial towns and cities. By the introduction of new elements the character of the lower house and the cabinet policy has been modified, the upper house sensibly weakened, and the primum mobile of government substantially centred in the lower house.

CHAPTER II.

THE COMPOSITION OF PARLIAMENT.

Meaning of "Parliament."-The Parliament a Court of Judicature.-Presence of the King in Parliament.-Since George I. no King has been a Listener in Parliament. —The King the Beginning and End of Parliament.-Summoning of Parliament. -Conventions.-Annual Sessions.-Annual Parliaments.-Triennial.-Septennial.-Place of Summoning.-Opening of Parliament.-Election of Speaker.— Ratification. Speech from the Throne.-Bill read pro formâ.—Amendments to "Address."-Prorogation.-Proclamation for the Summoning of Parliament.Dissolution.-Demise of the Sovereign.

THE expression, "parliament," was first made use of in the year 1248 by Henry III., inasmuch as he termed the assembly at Runnymede, which forcibly obtained Magna Charta, "Parliamentum Runemede quod fuit inter dominum Johannem regem, patrem nostrum, et barones suos Angliæ." (Rot. cl. 28 Hen. III.)*

Parliament, as the successor of the "Curia Regis," is especially a court of judicature as well as the supreme council of the crown; it is styled by Coke, "The High Court of Parliament,' and in Shakespere's Henry VI., part ii. act 5, s. 3, it is so termed :

"The king is fled to London,

To call a present court of parliament."

As in all the courts of law, the sovereign is regarded as being ever present in parliament, the conception to the mind of the lawyer is, that the king sits with the "Lords" in one house, and with the "Commons" in the other. Under Plantagenet rule, the king was by law bound to be always present in parliament, unless it were shown to a committee of twelve members of the parliament that he was suffering bodily.+ Under Henry VI. the king and parliament first recognized in express terms that the upper house might deliberate even during the voluntary absence of the king. Charles II., James II., William III., and Anne, were listeners at the proceedings. Since George I. this has no longer occurred,

*Pauli iv. 688.

+ Modus Tenendi Parliamentum, edited by Hardy, London, 1846, 34, 35.

Rex tenetur omni modo personaliter in teresse parliamentum nisi per corporalem ægritudinem detineatur.

probably from the simple fact of this king not having understood English.* The lord chancellor, that is, one of the "advisers of the crown," in his capacity as prolocutor of the upper house, is the personal representative of the sovereign. The sovereign has likewise been occasionally regarded as one of the "estates" of the realm, but the conception is an erroneous one. By the "estates" of the realm are to be understood the lords spiritual, lords temporal, and the commons; the sovereign and these three estates are the first corporation or body politic in the kingdom.t

The sovereign is not only the head, but also the beginning and the end (caput, principium et finis) of parliament; he alone can summon parliament, and no parliament, save on the demise of a sovereign, can assemble of its own accord (vide post). Parliament is summoned by a writ of the sovereign issued out of chancery, by advice of the privy council, at least thirty-five days previous to its assembling. If a new parliament is to be elected, the chancellor sends his warrant to the clerk of the crown in chancery, the latter issues writs to the sheriff to procure the election of "knights" and "burgesses." burgesses." On a vacancy occurring whilst parliament is sitting, a writ for the election of a new member is issued after motion in the house. If the vacancy occur during the prorogation, and it be occasioned by death, the writ is issued at the instance of the speaker.

Upon every convocation of parliament (1384) special matters of business concerning the parliament were wont to be indicated; at present the parliament, without further indication of its duties, is summoned merely for the deliberation of important business.

"Conventions," that is, parliaments summoned without the king, have frequently occurred. At the restoration of Charles II. a convention met above a month before the return of the king; the lords by their own authority, and the commons in pursuance of writs issued in the name of the keepers of the liberty of England by authority of parliament. The first thing done after the king's return was to pass an act declaring this to be a good parliament, notwithstanding the defects of the king's writs. The legality of this act is, however, contested by many. In 1688

His minister, Robert Walpole, understood neither German nor French, the conversation between king and mini

ster had consequently to be conducted in a barbarous kind of Latin.

Petyt, Lex parliamentaria.

another (6 convention" of the two houses met, and after it had called William and Mary to the throne, and legalized such assembly as a "parliament," it was declared by 1 Will. and Mary, st. i. c. 1, that this convention was really the two houses of parliament.*

By 4 Edw. III. c. 14, it was enacted, "It is accorded that parliament shall be holden every year once or (and ?) more often if need be." Also by 36 Edw. III. c. 10, it was directed, "that a parliament be holden every year if need be." The interpretation put by the Stuarts amounted to this, that only in the event of its being "needful" should a parliament be holden every year, or more frequently-a sophistical interpretation truly.

By 16 Chas. I. c. 1, it was enacted, that if the king neglected to call a parliament for three years, the chancellor or keeper of the great seal might issue writs for summoning the peers and for the election of the commons; that if the chancellor or keeper should neglect to do it, any twelve of the peers might summon the parliament; that if the peers should neglect to issue the necessary summons, the sheriffs of the counties and other magistrates respectively might proceed to the election; and should they refuse then, that the freeholders of each county might elect their members, and that the members so chosen should be obliged, under severe penalties, to attend. This act was deemed such an invasion of the prerogative, that it was repealed on the Restoration by 16 Chas. II. c. 1. But that act contains a provision that parliament shall not in future be intermitted for above three years at the most. "Thus," says Mr. Hallam, "the result of the enactment was, that the law of the long parliament subsisted as to its principle, without those unusual clauses which had been enacted to render its observance secure. Although the king promised to observe this act, yet at the time of his death nearly four years had elapsed since the dissolution of his last parliament.

By 1 Will. and Mary, sess. 2, c. 2, it was enacted, "that parliaments shall be holden frequently." As, however, the " Mutiny Act" and the "Budget" are only granted for a year, the crown, since the revolution, is compelled to summon a parliament annually.† Probably so long as the knights and burgesses were bound by

* Bl. i. 151.

+ Bowyer, 81.