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236  ANNUAL REGISTER For the YEAR 1772.  237

inconveniences, which are taken notice of, and remedied by the statute of the eighth of Henry the Sixth, chapter the seventh, which recites, that of late "elections of knights had been made by very great, outrageous, and excessive numbers of people, of which the most part was of people of small substance, and of no value, whereof every of them pretended a voice equivalent with the most worthy knights and esquires, whereby manslaughter, riots, batteries, and divisions among the gentle men and other people of the same counties shall very likely rife and be, unless convenient and due remedy be provided in this behalf; and then it provides that, no persons shall have votes, but such as have lands or tenements to the value of forty shillings a year above all charges." And so the law stands at this day, though by the change in the value of money, by the spirit of this statute, no person should have a vote that could not dispend ten pounds a year at least. Such a regulation, were it now to be made, would, certainly, be of great advantage both to the representers and represented; but there is little prospect of its ever taking place: and if it should be proposed, it would be looked upon as an innovation, though in truth, it would be only returning to the original principles of the constitution.

Our legislature, then, consisting of three distinct parts, the king, lords, and commons, in process of time, each of them grew up to have distinct privileges, as to the beginning particular businesses. Thus all acts of general grace and pardon take their rise from the king; acts relative to the lords, and matters of dignity, in the house, and the granting of money in the commons. How the commons came by this exclusive right, as to money matters, is not so easy to determine. Certain it is that, originally, the lords frequently taxed themselves, as did the commons the commonalty, without any communication with each other; but afterwards, when it was judged better to lay on general taxes, that should equally affect the whole nation, these generally took their rise in that house which represented the bulk of the people; and this, by steadiness and perseverance, they have arrogated so far into a right peculiar to themselves, as not to allow the lords a power to change the least tittle in a money bill. As to laws that relate not to these peculiar privileges, they now take their rise indifferently either in the lords or commons, and when framed into a bill, and approved by both, are presented to the king for his assent; and this has been the practice for these two or three hundred years past.

But the ancient method of passing laws was different, and was not only more respectful to, but left more power in the crown. The house which thought a new law expedient, drew up a petition to the king, setting forth the mischief, and praying that it might be redressed by such or such a remedy. When both houses had agreed to the petition, it was entered on the parliament-roll, and presented to the king, who gave such answer as he thought proper, either consenting in the whole, by saying, let it be as is desired, or accepting part and refusing or passing by the rest, or refusing the whole by saying, let the ancient laws be observed, or in a gentler tone, the king will deliberate. And after his answer was entered on the roll, the judges met, and on consideration of the petition and answer, drew up the act, which was sent to be proclaimed in  the several counties.

Lord Coke very justly observes that these acts drawn up by men, matters of law, were generally exceedingly well penned, short, and pithy, striking at the root of the grievance, and introducing no new ones; whereas the long and ill penned statutes of later days, drawn up in the houses, have given occasion to multitudes of doubts and suits, and often, in stopping one hole, have opened two. However, notwithstanding this inconvenience, there was good cause for the alteration of method. The judges, if at the devotion of the court, would sometimes make the most beneficial laws elusory, by inserting a salvo to the prerogative, though there was none in the king's answer; whereas, by following the present course, the subjexts have reduced the king to his bare affirmative or negative, and he has lost that privilege, by the disuse of petitions, of accepting that part which was beneficial to himself, and denying the remainder.

I have the rather mentioned this ancient practice of making laws, because it shews how inconsistent with our constitution is that republican notion, which was broached by the enemies of Charles the first, that the king, by his coronation oath, swearing to observe the laws quas vulgus elegerit, was obliged to pass all bills presented to him, and had no negative. The meaning, certainly, only extended to his observation of the laws in being. For if the words were to be construed of future propositions, and in the sense that those people would put upon them, the lords also, as well as the king, must be deprived of their power of dissent, and so indeed, it appears, they expounded it; for when the lords offended them, by refusing the trial of the king, they consistently enough with the maxim they established, turned them out of doors.

But though such as I have mentioned is the constitution of the English parliament, the form of the legislature in this kingdom hath been for above two hundred and sixty years very different, the nature of which, and the causes of its deviation from its model, it is proper every gentleman of this country should be acquainted with. In the infancy of the English government in Ireland, the chief governors, were generally chosen by the king out of the lords of the pale, the descendants of the first conquerors, both as they were better acquainted with the interest, and more concerned in the preservation of the colony, and also as, by their great possessions, they were better enabled to support the dignity of the place, whole appointments, the king's revenue here being inconsiderable, were very low. These governors, however, though men of the greatest abilities, and of equal faithfulness to the crown, were not able to preserve the footing the English had got soon after the conquest; but were every day losing ground to the natives, down to the reign of Edward the Third, which is generally, and, I believe, justly,

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