The Rise of the Democracy

Representati

ment in civilised countries; and for representative gove

mpathetic intelligence in the person who manipulates it, and the machinery of popular elections can only be worked successfully with a large measure of sincerity and good will. In the hands of the ambitious, the self-seeking,

entative government, and the abuse of power, the cunning, roguery, and corruption that too often accompany popular electi

of representative government, there is no question of the people making positive proposals in legislation, but there is a distinct belief that the consent of the governed ought to be obtained by the ruling

y First Found in Ecc

Castile.[17] St. Dominic makes a representative form of government the rule in his Order of Preaching Friars, each priory sending

Earl Simon issuing writs for the Full Parliament of 1265 for the return of two burgesses from each city and borough. He had seen representative government at work among the friars in their chapters. Why should

ociated with the beginning of representative government in England.

ule of H

the King from time to time gave promises of amendment. But the promises were always broken. As long as Henry could get money he was averse from all constitutional reform. In 1258 the barons were determined that a change must be made. "If the

rary writer, expressed the popul

without advice to s

cannot know the want

tell the King how he

r wants fulfilled an

s people's good and n

slave because men ho

or special treatment," said

rt, Leader of t

arons all came to it fully armed, and civil war seemed imminent. But Earl Simon and Richard of Gloucester carried t

ding council of fifteen, by whom the King was to be guided, and ordered that Parliament was to meet three times a year: at Candlemas (February 2nd), on June 1st, and at Michae

behalf of all the estates of the realm, and the expedient of reducing the national deliberations to three sessions of select committees betrays a desire to abridge the frequent and somewhat irksome duty of attendance in Parliame

ts were filled by Englishmen. Parliament also promised that the vassals of the nobles should have b

Provisions in 1263. As a last resource to prevent civil war, Simon and Henry agreed to appeal to King Louis of France to arbitrate on the fulfilment of the Provisions. The Pope had already absolved Henry from obedience to the Provisions, and the Award of Louis, given at Amiens and called the Mise of

orce ready to take the vengeance which the Award had forbidden, civil war could not be prevented. London rall

victory for Simon, and found the King, Prince Edward, and the k

omised to keep the Provisions and Charters, and to dismiss the aliens. He also agreed to

on's policy at Oxford and the policy after Lewes. The Provisions of 1258 were restrictive. The Constitution of 1264 deliberately extended the limits of Parliament. "Either Simon's views of a Constitution had rapidly developed, or the influences which had checked them in 1258 were removed

clergy and barons as usual-though in the case of the earls and barons only twenty-three were invited, for Simon had no desire for the presence of those who were his enemies. The Full Parliament sat till M

e would not. One by one the barons who stood by Simon were cut down, but though wounded and dismounted, the great Earl "fought on to the last like a giant for the freedom of England, till a foot soldier stabbed him in the back under the mail, and he was borne down and slain." For three hour

nd marvel at his zeal for truth and right, which was such that neither pleasure nor threats nor promises could turn him aside from keeping the oath he swore at Oxford; for he held up the good cause 'like a pillar that cannot be moved, and, like a second Josiah, esteemed righteousness the very h

rons who had turned against Simon were quite determined that the Charters should be observed, and Edward was to show, on his coming to the throne, that he had graspe

an age of great lawgivers; an age that saw St. Louis ruling in France, Alfonso the Wise in Castile, the Emperor Frederick II.-the Wonder of t

Model Parl

. "It is very evident that common dangers must be met by measures concerted in common," ran the writ to the bishops. Every sheriff was to cause two knights to be e

hat the three estates-clergy, barons, and commons: those who pray, those who fight, and those who work-should be represented. But the clergy always stood aloof, preferring t

of the cities and boroughs. So the two Houses of Parliament consisted of barons and bishops-lords spiritual and lords temporal-and knights and commons; and we have to-day

reign Parliament was just a larger growth of the King's Council-the Council that Norman and Plantagenet kings relied on for assistance in the administration

rst voted their own grants to the Crown in convocation, but came to agree to pay the taxes voted by

nted to the important principle that money grants were to be initiated by the House of Commons, were not to be reported to the King until both Houses were agreed, and were to be reported by the Speaker of the Commons' House. This rule is strictly observed at the present day. When a money bill, such as the Finance bill for th

ned that their petitions were not granted in the form they asked, it became a matter of bitter complaint that the laws did not correspond with the petitions. Henry V. in 1414 granted the request that "nothing should be enacted to the petition o

Predominant

ication of two kings-Edward II. and Richard II.-but not strong enough to free the land of the turbule

ught the Plantagenet dynasty to a close, weeded out the older

fewer, and less potent every year. When the great struggle ended at Bosworth, a large part of the greatest combatants were gone. The restless, aspiring, rich baro

barons were the Parliament, it is difficult to understand how it came about that Parliament was so utterly impotent under the Tudors. The Wars of the Roses killed off the mig

of the greater nobility, who were its most potent members, tired the small nobility and gentry, and overthrew

resent day a Parliament deprived of all front-bench men on both sides of the House, and of the lead

al Nationa

, there still remain one or two points to be considered relating to th

county court had the right of electing the knight of the shire; and "it is most probable, on the evidence of records, on the analogies

fore the county electors; but the tenants-in-chief (who held their lands from the Crown) and the knights of the county had naturally considerably more influence than the smaller men. "The chief lord of a great manor would have authority with his te

the shire, there was no competition in the thirteenth or fourteenth century for the honour of going to Parliament, and it is likely enough that the sherif

to be elected to Parliament. It was recognised as "fair that those persons who were excluded from the election should be exempt from contribution to the wages. And to many of the smaller freeholders the exemption from payment would be far more valuable than the privilege of voti

tors must be resident in the country, and must have free land or tenement t

ive, and in that case would do its best to come to an arrangement with the sheriff. (It was not till the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that a considerable increase of boroughs took place. The Tudors created "pocket" and "rotten" boroughs in order to have the nominees of the Crown in Parliament.) The size of the borough bore no relation to its membership till the Reform Act of the nineteenth century, and as the selection of to

omething-to assist the sovereign in some war, to pay some old debt, to contribute its force and aid in the critical juncture of the time. It would not have suited the ante-Tudor kings to have had a fictitious assembly; they would have lost their sole feeler, their only instrument for discovering national opinion. Nor could they have manufactured such an assembly if they wished. Looking at the mode of election, a theorist would say that these Parliaments were but 'chance' collections of influential Engli

eriff, high constable, governor of a royal castle, and justice of the peace have all been held by women. In fact, the lady of the manor had the same rights as the lord of the manor, and joined with men who were free

persons" in the charters of boroughs. "Never before has the phrase 'male persons' appeared in any statute of the realm. By this Act (the Reform Bill), therefore, women

Democracy in

discussion on political rights. The English nation, indeed, has ever been averse from political theories. The notion of a carefully balance

t, and of the characteristics of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, with their respective corruptions, contented themselves for the most part with balancing the spiritual and secular powers, and never broached the idea of a growth into p

e of party or the necessities of kings, to induce the newly admitt

are recognised and acknowledged, are: (1) That that which touches all shall be approved by all; (2) that go