PARLIAMENT (Fr. parlemenf, from 0arler, to talk), the supreme legislature of the United 'Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The word was first applied, according to Blackstone, to general assemblies of the states under Louis VII., in France, about the middle of the 12th e.; but in that country it came eventually to lie the designation of a body which performed certain administrative functions, but wilose principal duties were those of a court of justice.
The origin of the parliament of England has been traced to the Saxon great councils of the nation, called " Wittena-gemote," or meeting of wise men. These bad, however, little in common with the parliaments of a later date: among other points of difference, they had a right to assemble when they pleased without royal warrant. Even under the Norman kings, the great council formed a judicial and ministerial as well as a legislative body, and it was only gradually that the judicial functions were transferred to courts of justice, and the ministerial to the privy council—a remnant of the judicial powers of parliament being still preserved in the appellate. jurisdiction of the house of lords. Under the Norman kings, the coudcil of the sovereign consisted of the tenants-in-chief of the crown, who held their lands per baroniam, lay and ecclesiastic. It was the prin ciple of the feudal system that every tenant should attend the court of his immediate superior; and he who held per baroniam, having no superior but the crown, was bound to attend his sovereign in the great council or parliament. In the charter of king John, we for the first time trace the germ of a distinction between the peerage and the lesser nobility, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons being required to Attend by a writ addressed to each, and the other tenants-in-chief by a general summons by the sheriffs and bailiffs. Baronial tenure originally made a man a baron or lord of parliament. When the offices or titles of earl, marquis, or duke were bestowed on a baron, they were conferred by royal or patent, and at length barony came also to tie conferred by writ instead of by tenure. During the 13th e,, the smaller barons were allowed, instead of personally attending the national council, to appear by representa tives; but the principle of representation seems first to have been reduced to a system when permission was also given to the municipalities, which, as corporations, were chief tenants of the crown, to appear by representatives. It is not quite clear when the division of parliament. into two houses took place; but when the representatives of the minor barons were joined by those of the municipalities. the term commons was applied
to both. The lower house was early allowed to deal exclusively with questions of 'supply; and seems, in the reign of Richard II., to have established the right to assign the supplies to their proper uses. As the commons became more powerful, they came to insist on the crown redressing their grievances before they would vote the The influence of parliament was on the increase during the Tudor period, while the reign of the Stewarts was characterized by a struggle for supremacy between the parliament and the crown, each striving to acquire the control of the military force of the country. Time powers of the different estates came to be more sharply defined at the revolution of 1688. Nineteen years later, on the union of Scotland, the parliament of England was merged into that of Great Britain.
In its early history, prior to the war of independence, the parliament of Scotland hitO. probably not been very unlike that of England; it assembled without warrant, and con sisted of bishops, earls, priors, abbots, and barons. At the close of the 13th c., the constitutional history of Scotland diverges from that of England. The addition of the burghs to the national council seems to date from the beginning of the 14th c., but it was not till much later that the lesser barons began to be exempted from attendance. The first act excusing them belongs to the reign of James I., and allows them to choose representatives called speakers, two for each county, excepting some small counties, which were to have but one; the expenses of the representatives being defrayed by the constituency. The Scottish parliament was never, like the English, divided into two houses; all sat in one hall, and though it consisted of three estates, a general numerical majority of members was considered sufficient to carry a measure. The greater part of the business was transacted by the lords of the articles, a committee named by the parlia ment at the beginning of each session, to consider what measures should be passed; and whatever they recommended was generally passed without discussion. It was never held indispensable that the parliament should be summoned by the crown, and it has even been thought that the royal assent to the measures carried was not absolutely essential. The parliament which carried the reformation had no royal sanction. The union was adjusted by commissioners for each country selected by the crown, and passed first, after strong and protracted opposition, in Scotland, and afterward more easily in England.