6

boroughs, a knowledge of English political institutions before the Conquest is requisite. It was not until 1840 that the Antient Laws and Institutes of England' during the Anglo-Saxon period were made fully accessible by the publication of a collection of those laws, edited by Mr. Thorpe, under the direction of the Commissioners of Records. Another work, from which I have derived even more important assistance, is the 'Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici,' edited by Mr. Kemble, and published in six volumes, between the years 1840 and 1848, by the Historical Society. The series comprises upwards of fourteen hundred documents, many of which are of the greatest value in ascertaining the nature of Saxon Government. Also, from several of the books lately issued under the direction of the Master of the Rollsparticularly the series of Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland'-I have frequently derived valuable information.

เ

But, besides these recent publications, others, long known to inquirers into the antiquities of the English Constitution, have been consulted. The 'Hundred Rolls' of the reign of Edward I. and his predecessor have been published more than half a century in two very large and closely-printed folio volumes; but the very obscure contracted Latin in which they are written, and the technical expressions with which they abound, render them unintelligible to all but a very few readers. Yet they are a vast mine of constitutional knowledge, and in some respects more interesting than even the Domesday Book itself. The works of that prodigy of learning-Prynne, especially his Brief Register' of Parliamentary Writs; the 'Firma Burgi,' and 'History of the Exchequer,' by Madox; and Spelman's Glossarium,' will of course be consulted by anyone who wishes to obtain authentic materials for a history of the suffrage. Going still further back, it is obvious that in writing such a work it is necessary to refer to the earliest juristsGlanville, Britton, Bracton, and Fleta. Copious use of

6

these authorities has been made; and though, of course, anything founded upon them cannot be considered as absolutely new, much of the information here collected from them will probably appear novel to many of my readers.

The earliest chapters of this work are necessarily of a preliminary character, and may seem superfluous to a reader anxious to plunge in medias res. I am certain, however, that in the study of the subject here discussed, a preparatory consideration of the state of society to which our parliamentary institutions adapted themselves, is indispensable. In the first place, therefore, the social and legal status of the various agricultural classes in the Middle Ages has been investigated. The close connection of this subject with the county suffrage will be immediately obvious. The third and fourth chapters treat of that much-controverted subject-the constitution of the antient County Courts. The condition of the persons who frequented those assemblies has long been a vexed problem of history; and I do firmly believe that it is now for the first time solved-principally by

fatiguing and protracted exploration of the Hundred Rolls.'

The fifth chapter relates to the origin of Parliament, and the development of the representative system in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In this chapter are collected numerous authorities, which appear decisive of the much-controverted question whether villans, the most numerous class of county tenantry, were contributory to parliamentary taxes and the wages of knights of the shire. That they were so contributory, and that they had a right of suffrage, seems to me now absolutely beyond doubt. In the next chapter the changes in the county suffrage, in the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry VI., are traced; and I have endeavoured to show the real reasons for the violent innovations of the latter reign, and the disastrous consequences which ensued. The extinction of antient electoral rights in the time of Henry VI. marked and hastened the

decline of the power of Parliament which commenced in that reign, and continued until it reached its lowest point in the reign of Henry VIII.

The remaining chapters deal with the method of procedure at elections, and the borough suffrage. The original suffrage of burgesses extended to all the free inhabitanthouseholders in towns, and all boroughs without exception were, at the original institution of the House of Commons, deemed entitled to send representatives to that assembly. The counter-theory-that only towns of royal demesne, and therefore under royal patronage, sent representatives -was supported by Dr. Brady and the 'Report on the Dignity of a Peer;' but, as I have here shown, the evidence of the returns to the first complete Parliament of Edward I. and other antient documents is absolutely fatal to this opinion.

The liberal arrangements adopted in the Record Office permit free access to that great storehouse of historical knowledge. I was anxious to ascertain from documents somewhat later than the Hundred Rolls,' the condition of villans and other tenants after the reign of Edward I. For this purpose a large number of Chartularies and Extents deposited in the Record Office have been searched. I am under the greatest obligations to my friend Mr. Frank Scott Haydon, of that department, who, on my behalf, applied his learning and skill to the examination of these manuscripts--an investigation. for which his familiarity with the history of the Middle Ages, and his skill in palæography, rendered him peculiarly well fitted. I am also indebted to the Rev. James Thorold Rogers, Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, for several valuable suggestions, and for some able notes respecting the value of property in the Middle Ages. The research displayed in his elaborate 'History of Agriculture and Prices,' enable and entitle him to speak with the highest authority on questions of medieval economy.

The numerous translations, from Latin and Norman

French, which occur in the following pages are often very uncouth. It is desirable to explain that literal accuracy has been deliberately preferred to a treacherous smoothness of composition.

I cannot hope that this work is free from errors, but can truthfully plead, in extenuation, that it is the result of careful research and deliberation.

The subject has been regarded entirely in its historical aspects, apart from all reference to existing controversies. The social and political condition of the country at the period here under examination, differed materially from that which at present prevails, and therefore extreme caution is necessary in deducing from the antient history of Parliament lessons of modern application. At the first institution of the House of Commons, land was cultivated principally by peasant proprietors, members of Parliament were paid wages, their functions were principally fiscal, the parliamentary franchise was a burden rather than a privilege, the polling of voters and a property qualification for the suffrage were unknown, and the relations of the Administrative Government to Parliament were utterly different from those established under the Hanoverian Dynasty. These considerations are sufficient to show that a Constitution which worked well in the fourteenth century would not necessarily be beneficial in the nineteenth.