34
The following table, from a work published in 1719, shews the alterations since the time of James tothe time of George I.
Existing.
.59.
.62.
.17.
.45
.59.
.21.
.38
.64.
.53.
.11
. 8.
. 0
.30. ..... .
.21.
. 9
Anne.
.30 .
.24 _
. 6
.20.
.10.
.10
332
154
119
Deduct extinction.
.154
Peers in 1719.
Erom that period to the present time the rule of increase has been nearly in the same proportion.The peerage in 1834 was twenty-five dukes, nineteen marquesses, one hundred and seventeen earls,sixteen viscounts, one hundred and seventy-nine barons, exclusive of sixteen Scotch and twenty-eightIrish peers, with two' archbishops and twenty-four English and two Irish representative bishops, makinga total number of the House of Lords four hundred and thirty Peers; whilst now (1848) the amount ofthe Peers of Parliament is about four hundred and seventy.
The opinions as to the first date of the origin of the Commons is involved in much doubt, and hascaused considerable discussion and consequent dissension amongst writers, historical and legal. A writerof a work in 1677, called “ A Discourse of the Rise and Progress of Parliaments,” says, “ Though the“ rise of Parliaments, like the head of Nilus, be unknown, yet they have been of long standing and“ great power; ’ and if, as is very possible, the germ of popular power may be traced up to the Saxontimes, or even higher, we shall at least find its traces from and since the Conquest, having been graduallyacquired and strengthened as the lights of civilization became more widely diffused and accordinglyvalued; and increasing with the love of arts, learning, and the consequent desire for perfect freedom,which early characterized the British people, which, as it became better understood, was the moreardently desired, more indefatigably struggled for, and more pertinaciouly maintained, until it hasbecome ‘ part and parcel’ of the Constitution of our land—a Constitution whose roots seem, if possible,the more firmly implanted in the heart of every one by the storms which have so recently convulsedto the very centre nearly every other city and empire in Europe .
A system of county representation seems to have been established at a period considerably earlier thanthe admission of burgesses into the great council; but the first county representatives do not appear tohave had any other business than to make the king and peers acquainted with the conduct and thegrievances of their several counties. Eor this purpose it was directed, in the reign of King John , not thatthe knights should attend the Parliament in person, but meet in their counties, and draw up their reports.But the “ Mad Parliament ” which met at Oxford in the reign of Henry III. , in the year 1258, appointedtwelve commissioners, and the king twelve more, to whom, acting conjointly, full authority was given toreform the state. This council of twenty-four made several very important regulations, which are known