It is natural enough to conclude, that as at this period the members of both houfes of parliament held their deliberations under the authority of a wife and moderate fovereign, they would make the great intereft of the nation at large the fubjects of their debates, and thus improve the fcience of legiflation. Accordingly we find that they gave their attention to many plans of great public utility; they paffed laws for eftablishing manufactures in various parts of England, for fupporting the parochial clergy by the endowment of vicarages, and for reftraining the encroachments and the rapacity of the fee of Rome. Every fucceeding generation has expreffed its applaufe of this illuftrious reign, and felt the benefits of its wife and falutary inftitutions. By Edward the first the laws were carried fo far towards perfection, that he has been ftyled the English Juftinian. Sir Matthew Hale did not fcruple to affirm, that more was done in the firft thirteen years of his government, to fettle and establish the diftributive justice of the kingdom, than in all the ages down to his own time".

To trace the progrefs of the increafing privileges of the House of Commons, we must have recourfe to particular facts. In a tone of bold and juft complaint the two houses of parliament called upon the weak and unfortunate Edward the fecond to banish Gaveston, his infinuating but licentious favourite, from his court. This was the firft exercise

• Blackftone's Comment, vol. iv. p. 424.

of

of that important privilege, which confifted in the impeachment of the fufpected minifters of the crown. By the petition annexed to their bills for granting fubfidies to Edward the third and Henry the fourth, the Houfe of Commons claimed a proportionable fhare of the legislation with the King and the Houfe of Lords, by making bills for pecuniary fupplies originate with themselves.

In the martial reign of EDWARD THE THIRD, the parliament is fuppofed to have affumed its prefent form by a feparation of the Commons from the Lords. The celebrated statute for defining treasons was one of the first productions of this newly modelled affembly. Many laws were paffed for depreffing the civil power of the pope, the fecurity of perfonal property, and the interests of trade and commerce. During this reign Magna Charta was ten times confirmed; and this repeated ratification conferred more glory upon the king, than all his victories obtained in France or Wales.

The glorious victories of CRESSY, POITIERS, and AGINCOURT, cannot fail to engage our attention, and fill the mind of an Englishman with the highest and most favourable opinion of the valour of his ancestors P. The laurels reaped by an Edward and a Henry are ftill fresh and unfading;

The victory gained at Creffy, 1346; Poitiers, 1356; Agincourt, 1415. A. D. 1400, &c.

and

and the voice of fame will proclaim their exploits to the remoteft pofterity. Scenes of inteftine commotion fucceeded: and the Houfes of York and Lancaster combated with the malice of demons, and the fiercenefs of barbarians, for the crown of the meek and pious Henry the fixth. The country was abandoned to the defolation of war, the blood of the nobleft families was fhed in the fatal battles of St. Alban's, Wakefield, Towton, and Tewkesbury; but no advantage accrued from fuch inhuman contefts to the general good of the people. The voice of law and humanity was drowned by the rude clash of arms; and the incredible flaughter that was made by the contending factions was a melancholy proof of the prevalence of the feudal system, and of the alacrity with which the people flew to arms, whenever the ftandard of war was raised by the imperious barons,

While we remark the exorbitant influence of a martial ariftocracy, and the indifcretion and vi olence of fome of the kings, whofe measures they controuled more frequently from motives of felfaggrandizement, than ardour for the public good, let us not forget to pay the tribute of justice to unfortunate monarchs. The caftles of Berkley and Pomfret, and in a later age, the tower of London, witneffed the fufferings of Edward the fecond, Richard the fecond, and Henry the fixth, and were ftained with their foul and nefarious murders.

a A. D.

1400, &c.

VOL. II,

C

The

1

The temporifing members of the parliaments, who had depofed them, denied them even the privilege of a common fubject, and refused to hear them in their own defence. The act of depofition was virtually an order for their execution; fince the experience of ages proves, that to a prince, when the allegiance of his fubjects is withdrawn, the paffage is fhort from the throne to the grave. Although neither Edward nor Richard were much beloved in their profperity; yet, by a revolution of opinions, natural to mankind, their fufferings, aggravated by an untimely and cruel death, excited the pity, and even the veneration of their fubjects. The proceedings of the houfes of parliament upon these trying occafions proved the wretched defects of the laws, and the uncontrolled power of the vindictive fword. The fortunate Pretender to the crown, however black his perjury, or flagrant his rebellion, was allowed and even encouraged to trample upon the rights of humanity and justice, and wreft the fceptre from his lawful fovereign: Yet after these severe conflicts, the royal prerogative regained its afcendancy: the general liberties of the country were difregarded, and all orders of the ftate united with equal fervility to proftrate themselves before the throne, and to present their fwords and their eftates to the difpofal of the conqueror.

The fucceffion of the Tudor family to the crown produced fome important acquifitions to the cause

of freedom. Henry VII. whofe conduct was influenced by oppreffive avarice as well as confummate policy, weakened the power of his nobles, by permitting them to alienate their lands. This privilege, as we have remarked in our furvey of the feudal fyftem, gave a deep and incurable wound to that inftitution, and raised the refpectability of the lower orders of the community, who were enabled, by the increafing fupplies of trade and commerce, to become the purchasers of estates. By dividing the lands among many proprietors, a competition of fmall interefts was produced; and those great and formidable confederacies of the ariftocratical power

power, which had fo frequently excited the alarıns of kings, and fubverted the throne in former ages, were prevented by this falutary measure, or at least rendered very difficult to be formed.

The conduct of HENRY VIII. exhibited a perpetual struggle of violent paffions. The condemnation of two of his queens, of the gallant and accomplished Lord Surry, and of the facetious and learned Sir Thomas More, muft confign him to the hatred of all pofterity. His paffion for the beautiful and unfortunate Ann Boleyn induced him tỏ free his kingdom from the shackles of Papal fupremacy, and introduce the reformation of religion. This event formed a new and extraordinary epoch in the English hiftory. It repreffed the inordinate power of the Clergy, abolished the monaftic orders,

• A. D. 1509. Rapin, vol. i. p. 794, &c. Carte, vol. iii. p. I, &c. Hume, vol, iv. p. 35. C 2

and