Page:The Scourge - Volume 5.djvu/21

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ON THE INSTITUTION OF PARLIAMENTS.

Sir,

A free and fair representation of the people is so essential to the maintenance of that harmony in our constitution, which for ages has been so justly a(Jmired,so necessary to the preservation of the rights and privileges of the people, that a brief enquiry into the antiquity and constitution of this great council of the nation may at the present moment be interesting if not useful — it will at least shew tis what we have lost by corrupt influence, and what our ancestors enjoyed in those dark ages, when despotism was considered to be overwhelming, and the subject in a state of bondage. Among erudite men I shall gain little credit for my deductions, because my sources of information have been equally theirs; but among the great body of the nation, I should wish to be attentively heard, because to them I may be able to advance some facts unknown before, and shew them their rights and privileges in a true light — a light which their ordinary pursuits possibly might have prevented their viewing itin. Britain, according to Carew, was originally monarchical, and has always been governed by a sovereign aided by his councils: those councils were composed of^ king, lords, and commons, according to Mr. Petyt and horde Coke: to use the words of the latter, he says, after quoting a great many authorities, " therefore there were parliaments unto which the knights and burgesses were summoned both before and in the reign of William the conqueror." Mr. Petyt writes that the freemen or commons of England, as now called and distinguished from the great lords, were pans essential and constituent part of the IV ittena- gemot, commune concilium. Baronagium Anglm,ov parliament in the times of the British, Saxon, or Norman governments. Speiman says," King Ethelbert summoned a parliament called Commune concilium tarn cleriquam pepnli, anno 60.3. But there are many records

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