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THE PALACE OP WESTMINSTER.

borough, vai\\ four citizens for the city of London (no donht in return for the support they had renderedto the barons), and they resolved on releasing the prince, whilst the king was still under the guard ofSimon of Leicester. Soon after' there was a division amongst the barons themselves, and Prince Edwardoffering battle to de Montfort, the baron was slain at Evesham, having been undoubtedly the founder ofour representative system.

The king thus free, and the queen having returned to England with the Pope’s Legate, the disaffectedbarons were excommunicated. Parliaments were then held at Southampton , Kenilworth, London ,Marlborough, and elsewhere. Henry died in 1272.*

We may notice that at this period there was an obstinate and one of the earliest disputes between thecivil and ecclesiastical courts on the subject of bastardy. The common law had deemed all men bastardswho were born before wedlock: by the canon law they were held legitimate by the after-marriage. At aParliament assembled at Merton the prelates insisted that the municipal law should be made conformableto the canon law; but the sturdy barons returned the celebrated reply, ‘ Nolumus leges Anglioe mutari '—“ We will not change the laws of England.” This was, perhaps, the first decided check to clericalsuperiority.

According to Selden, in the 47th of this reign, one hundred and fifty temporal and fifty spiritualbarons were summoned to perform the service due by their tenures. In the 35th of the subsequentreign, eighty-six temporal barons, twenty bishops, and forty-eight abbots, were summoned to a Parliament convened at Carlisle.

Writs in the reign of Edward I. , as well as in that of his father, were issued to boroughs to returnMembers to Parliament . In the preamble to the writ Edward says, “ It is a most equitable rule that“ what concerns all should be approved by all; and common dangers repelled by united efforts.” Thedeputies of boroughs, however, had as yet little or no influence in the state. They had no deliberativecapacity, nor hardly a negative, but simply the privilege of giving their consent to such grants as the kingmight demand. Their charges were borne by the boroughs which sent them, and it was then considereda disadvantage to be summoned to return deputies, who gave sureties for their attendance before the Kingand Parliament . They sat apart from the barons and knights, who disdained to mix with such meanpersonages; and when the burgesses had given their consent to the new taxes they returned home, thoughthe * Parliament ’ still continued to sit and discuss the national business. The sheriffs used the freedomof omitting such boroughs as they conceived did not contain persons of sufficient wealth or ability to

* It ms curious to see the Taxes levied in this reign of turbulence and bad faith. In 1224, two shillings were granted on every plough land, and one-fifteenthon all moveables, for the confirmation of Magna Charta . In 1226 a fifteenth of the clergy: five thousand marks levied on the citizens of London . 1230, The bishopsand clergy paid large sums. The Jews paid a third of their treasure and effects. 1231, A scutage of three marks on every knight’s fee. 1232, A fortieth of allmoveables. 1235, Two marks on every plough land, and a thirtieth of all moveables. 1237, a thirtieth of all moveables granted to the king. 1242, Three markson every knight’s fee. 1244, Twenty shillings on every knight’s fee for the marriage of his daughter. A tenth of all the ecclesiastical revenues for three years, andthe nobility and knights three marks on every knight’s fee, for relief of the Holy Land in confirmation of Magna Charta. 51 II. 3rd, Three-tenths of all churchrevenues granted by the Pope. 54 II. 3rd, A twentieth part granted to tip; king by the laity.