The same reign presents us with an enactment of the British House of Com mons respecting its own future constitu tion, totally different in character from those of William III.'s time just referred to. This is the very important act (9 Anne, c. 5) which established the quali fication of landed property for English members, whether for counties or bo roughs. In the reign of Henry VI., which gave birth to the enactment dis franchising the smaller county free holders, was passed an act, in the same spirit, restricting the choice of those free holders who still retained the franchise. The very terms of this statute imply, that in the case of the counties, as in that of the boroughs, there was originally no legal distinction between the qualification of the electors and that of the elected, but that the former were simply called upon to return two of their own number according to their own best discretion. The circumstance, too, of the daily ex penses uniformly paid under legal obli gation by the constituents to each repre , seqtative while absent on parliamentary duty, may in this place be properly men tioned as a striking evidence of the fact, that the qualification of considerable property, bow much soever it might be regarded in the judgment of the consti tuents, was oi-iginally not at all con templated by the law. The statute in question (23 Henry VI. c. 14) declares, that thenceforward the county represen tatives shall be " notable knights of the same counties, or shall be able to be knights," that is, shall have freehold to the amount of 401. per annum, and that no man shall be eligible " that, stands in the degree of a yeoman or under." On this legal footing the county representa tion remained until the ninth year of Queen Anne, when not only *as the landed property qualification re-e,nacted for the counties on a scale nearly pro portioned to the decrease in the nominal value of money, but an unprecedented step was taken, by including in the very same clause of the same act a provision, that while every knight of the shire should pos sess a freehold or copyhold estate of clear 6001. per annum, so also every citizen, burgess, and baron of the Cinque Ports should have the like landed qualification to the amount of 3001. per annum. The statute of the 1st of George I., commonly called the Septennial Act, which extended the legal duration of parliaments from three years to seven, bow cogent soever might be the political motives of the chief promoters of the measure, is another me morable instance of the lengths to which the House of Commons could now ven ture in dealing with the elective rigstts of its constituents.
After all that royal prerogative sr d parliamentary enactment had now done to undermine the originally free and iivt, dependent basis of the national represeu-i tatiou in general, little more necessary in order to render the sub version of this part of the legislative constitution complete ; and the door was permanently shut against the proseco • Lion of any scheme for reforming or im proving the constitution of the Commons' House, originating within the assembly.
It would require volumes to describe the operation and effects of this great political machine during the period that followed —the period of its most absolute perver sion to ministerial and to party purposes, and at the same time to trace the fearful and fluctuating conflict thus excited and protracted between the vitiated constitu tion of the house and the growing strength and intelligence of public opinion. It is no matter of conjecture ; it is a momen tous and significant fact in the history of this great political institution, that it was " the pressure from without," and that alone, forcibly stimulated, indeed, by the recent success of a popular revolution in France (July, 1830), that drove the House of Commons to compel, first, the formation of a ministry pledged to amend the constitution of the representative body in general, and secondly, by adopting and perseveringly supporting the measure of amelioration consequently brought forward, to force the acqui escence of the hereditary chamber of the legislature in this degree of purification of the representative.
One of the most important operations of the British House of Commons during the period above mentioned, was the en acting of the statute, passed in 1800 and taking effect from January 1st, 1801, by which it incorporated the parliamen tary representation of Ireland with that of Great Britain. For the previous his tory of the Anglo-Irish representation, and the degree of alteration made in it by the Act of Union, we refer to PARLIA MENT OF IRELAND. Sixty-four mem bers for counties, thirty-five for cities and boroughs, and one for Dublin university, were thus added to the number of the British House of Commons. In this in stance, as in that of the Scottish union, the ancient proportion between the city and borough representation was reversed, and an additional weight consequently thrown into the scale of the county re presentation of the United Kingdom at large.
The following is a view of the present state of the representative system, with the alterations made by the Reform Acts of 1832: 2 Will. IV. c. 45, England ; 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 65, Scotland ; 2 & 3 Will. IV. C. 88, Ireland:— 1. As regards the number and local limits of constituencies, and the number of representatives.