INFLUENCE ON THE ADMINISTRATION.

45T Edward II., the close of his reign, the Commons, as we soal presently see, took advantage of the right of iBRIvermen which they had acquired, to possess themselves also of the run of impeting de naisters to whom they attri Juted the misfortunes of the time. All this fellows in me anaural course of things, and cearty demonstrates the continually increasing infuence of the Commons in polineal

In regard to the internal suministration of the country. TT TORTUSS Was not less perceptible. Until the rein di Elviri II attempts to encrench men the entri government cad originized with the burdas; it was the buzens who, under Renzy MI. and Edvard il. had seized upon the mean of appointing to great pubie offices, and of disposing of the reveries of the State. In 1842, the Commens veraced a sintar endeavour, less erect and aTICES in is character, but tending towards the same object by cre rear and better chosen means. Frediting by the necessities of the sing, who was then destitute of minds, and unturiy made to ecntime the wr with France, they resented to him the two following petitions: 1. - That cerca by commission may bear the cecums of these who have recurved wocis, neceys, or other aid for the king, and than the same may be enrolled in the chancery.” Is this me king consented, men condition that the treasurer and ord emer zuzen should be members of the commission 2-Thas the chineur and other officers of state may be chosen oren Partament, and the same time be crerly sworn tO coserve the laws of the land and Magna Charta sise the kine consented, but with these restrictions: “ING my such office, by the death or ethere of the CUTCena. become void, the choice to remain scler in the king de maine therein the assens of his council: but thas every such cfficer stall be sworn as the next Partament, acverEng to the petition; and that every Partament following the king shall resume he is hands all seen offices, so as the sad officers stal de left madie te ausver £2, objections." These decisions were inmeétuziy ecnverted into statutes. The chanceler and treasurer, with the judges and other officers of the crown, vere required to swear to observe them * Faziamenary History, vol. i. p. 104

488

INTERFERENCE WITH MINISTERS."

upon the cross of Canterbury. The chancellor, treasurer, and several judges, protested against this act, as being contrary to their first oath and to the laws of the realm; their protest was entered upon the rolls of Parliament, but the statute was nevertheless definitively passed. The Commons had now obtained the most formal recognition of the responsibility of ministers to Parliament. The most pressing necessities alone had extorted consent from the king. Scarcely had the Parliament dissolved, when the king, by his own authority only, formally revoked the statute by writs addressed to all the sheriffs; and it is a most singular circumstance that so illegal an act excited no remonstrance, and that the statute was revoked by the Parliament itself in the year following.

:

The mere attempt, however, was a great step. It proves that two fundamental ideas had taken possession of the minds of the representatives of the Commons; first, that the Parliament ought to exercise some influence over the choice of the king's ministers; secondly, that these ministers should be responsible to Parliament for their conduct. As to the first point, the Commons of the fourteenth century employed a very bad method of obtaining it, by claiming that their influence over the choice of the agents of the supreme power should be direct, and by interfering directly in the appointment of ministers; they prodigiously weakened, if they did not utterly destroy, ministerial responsibility and the progress of representative government has proved that indirect influence, exercised in such matters by a majority of the Parliament, is alone admissible and efficacious. But it was a great thing for the Commons to have attained such growth as to dare to entertain such an idea of their rights. They resumed the exercise of these rights, with greater success, at the close of this reign. The king was old and feeble; his arms were everywhere unsuccessful; abuses multiplied at his court; Edward had fallen beneath the sway of favourites; one of his sons, the Duke of Lancaster, alone enjoyed his favour, and abused it; a woman, named Alice Perers or Pierce, possessed a shameful influence over him, which she employed chiefly in supporting the interest of her friends, in the courts of justice. She might often be seen, sitting within the precincts of the judicial tri

bunals, intimidating by her presence the jadres whom she had pesterać with her solatations. A report was strand at the same time that the Duke of Lancaster tended to have himsad decured heir to the crown, to the preradice of the youthson of the Black Prince, who was then in a dying state, md who possessed the £fection of the whole nation. A Padament was convoked in 1876: mà a powerful party in both Houses proocneed artist the ministers of the kingIn the Tree House, the Black Prince himself led the attack and in the Lower House, the opposition was headed by Peter de la Mare. The Commons demanded that the king's counEL SHOLIE DE Bugmented by ten or twelve members, premtes, kris, or others; that no important matter should be denied without the consent of sx à four of them; and finally, that s the officers of the crown should be sworn to TANITE No present, emolument, or reward beyond ther legal salaries and expenses. The king consented to £ these demands noun andton that he should himself appoint the new coundiers, and that the chancellor, the tresseer, and the keeper of the party sell should be allowed to discharge the duties of the office without their interference... The Com TONS DEXT Enderroned to obtain that the justices of peace in each county should be appointed by the lords and kicks of that cozzi in Parliament, and should not be removed without that consent; but the king refused to grant this. The Commons continued to complain of the king's ecl COLINELIOS, Sturbating to them the distress into which the king had fallen, the diapiston of the subsidies, and so forth. Finally, mi a ter to the immediate spolemion of the principles which they maintained ther formerly impeached the Lords Latimer and Neri, who occuNAL POSIS in the king's household, and four merchants of London. named Lyon. Elis. Pacher, and Bam, who were farmers of the rural subsidies. This secusation had is effect; the aroused persons were decired amble of a public employment, and banished from the court and cound, and ther property was confiscated. As for Alice Perves, the Commons attacked her also, and the king was constrained to assume the following ordmanOP 2 -Whoress complaint has been brought before the king that some women have pursued causes and actions in the king's court by way of manten

490

DEATH OF THE BLACK PRINCE.

ance, and for hire or reward, which thing displeases the king, the king forbids that any woman do it hereafter, and in particular Alice Perers, under the penalty of forfeiting all that the said Alice can forfeit, and of being banished out of the realm.”*

Nothing of this kind had previously been attempted by the Commons. This Parliament sat from the end of April to the 6th of July, 1376, that is, for a longer period than any preceding Parliament; the number of its petitions to the king was 223, and all its acts were so popular that it received the name of the Good Parliament.

But the Commons were not in a position to maintain unassisted so brilliant a success; their triumph had been due in great measure to the co-operation of the Black Prince and his party in the Upper House; and the Black Prince died before the closing of the Parliament. The king, by settling the crown upon his son Richard, dissipated many fears. A new Parliament was convoked on the 27th of January, 1377, and one of his first acts was to solicit the revocation of the sentence passed in the preceding year against Lord Latimer and Alice Perers; which request was granted. Six or seven only of those knights who had been members of the previous Parliament sat in the new one; and Peter de la Mare was imprisoned. Nevertheless, the new Parliament maintained the rights already acquired in several particulars; it insisted upon the proper appropriation of the subsidies, upon an account being given of the receipts, and so forth. The death of Edward III. which occurred on the 21st of June, 1377, put an end to a struggle which was probably about to arise once more between the Commons and the advisers of the crown.

In addition to this intervention of the House of Commons in the general affairs of the State, some particular facts prove the progress which its influence was making in all respects, and deserve to be remarked in this point of view. I. The Commons began energetically to resist both the power which the Pope still assumed to exercise in England, and the internal influence of the English clergy themselves. In 1343, they protested against the right which the Pope claimed to have to appoint foreigners to certain vacant *Rot. Parl. ii. 329.

OPPOSITION TO THE CLERGY.

491

ecclesiastical benefices, and against other abuses of the same kind. They called upon his majesty and the lords to aid them in expelling the papal power from the kingdom, and addressed to the Pope himself a letter full of the most indignant remonstrances. Previously, the barons alone had actively interfered in affairs of this kind. In 1366, the king informed the Parliament that the Pope intended to cite him to Avignon to do homage for his crown, according to the terms of the treaty concluded with king John, and also to pay the tribute promised upon that occasion. The Lords on the one hand, and the Commons on the other, replied that king John had no right to contract such engagements without the consent of the Parliament, called upon the king to refuse to comply with the Pope's citation, and promised to support him with all their power. In 1371, the Commons complained that the great offices of the State were occupied by ecclesiastics, to the great detriment of the king and the state, and demanded that in future they should be excluded therefrom, leaving to the king the right of choosing his officers, provided they were laymen. Finally, in 1377, they demanded that no ordinance or statute should be enacted upon petition of the clergy, without the consent of the Commons; and that the Commons should be bound by none of the constitutions which the clergy might make for its own advantage and without their consent, since the clergy would not be bound by the statutes or ordinances of the king to which they had not consented. This conflict between the national representatives and the clergy soon became a permanent habit, which contributed powerfully, in the sixteenth century, to the introduction of the Reformation.

II. In 1337, the Parliament turned its attention to the protection of the national industry. It prohibited the exportation of English wools, and granted great encouragement to those foreign clothworkers who should take up their residence in England. These regulations soon fell into desuetude in consequence of the wars with France; but they prove the disposition of the Parliament to give attention to all matters of public interest.

III. It was also during this reign that, for the first time, we find the Parliament manifesting anxiety about the abuses