The Electorate And the Legislature

men of the nation into a feudal gathering of his tenants-in-chief ; how the lesser barons, unable or unwilling to defray the cost of personal attendance at court, deputed two or three of their number to represent them ; how the custom which thus arose received the force of law at Runnymede; how, in the middle of the thirteenth century, the sheriffs were desired to secure the election of proper representatives of the men of the county, instead of simply selecting representatives themselves; how a few years later a single reformer, winning a memorable victory over the Crown, decided on admitting borough representatives to Parliament; and how, before the century was closed in which these great reforms were made, the legislature permanently acquired the elements of which it still consists. Yet the wisest man in the thirteenth century could not have anticipated the results whichthe reforms of his own time were gradually preparing. In the reign of Edward I. it would have seemed mere folly to have predicted that the time would come when the Crown would still reign but no longer govern; when the vast power of the clergy?the first estate?would be represented in Parliament by an insignificant group of twenty-six prelates in the House of Lords; when the Lords themselves would be only allowed to continue as a separate branch of the legislature on the understanding that they should not oppose the will of the Commons on any question of paramount importance; when the Commons, vi...