ORIGIN AND ANTIQUITY Or PARLIAAIENT.
The origiu of any ancient institution must be difficult to trace, when in the course of time it has undergone great changes ; and few subjects have afforded to antiquaries more cause for learned research and ingenious conjecture than the growth of our parliament into the form which it had assumed when authentic records of its existence and constitution are to be found. Great councils of the nation existed in England both under the Saxons and Normans, and appear to have been common amongst all the nations of the north of Europe. They wero called by the Saxons mieliel-synoth, or great council; michel gemote, or great meeting; and wittena-gemote, meeting of wise men—by the last of which they are now most familiarly known.
The esesetItotlon of these councils cannot be known with any certainty. and there has been much controversy on the subject, and especially as to the share of authority enjoyed by the people. Differeet periods have been amigned for their admittance into the legislature. Coke, Spelman, (..1mden, and Prynne agree that the oeninens formed part of the great synods or councils before the Conquest ; but bow they were summoned, and what degree of power they Lximewed. Is a matter of doubt and obscurity. " The maul run- ' at/tutees of parliament, as It now steads, Revs Illeckstone," was marked out as lung ago as the seventeenth year of hung John, A.D. 1215, in the great charter granted by that prince. wherein be pnnnisea to ruinnion all archbishops, bishops. abbots, earls, and greater barons [Ilanoss]
personally, and all other tenants in chief under the crown by the sheriff and bailiffs, to meet at a certain place, with forty days' notice, to asocoa aids and when necessary ; and this constitution has subsisted, In fact at least, from the year 1266, 49 Hen. 111., there being still extant writs of that date, issued by Simon de NIontfort, earl of Leicester, to sammon knights, citizens, and burgesses to parliament." A statute, alto,;lamest 15 Edw. 11. (1322), declares that " the matters to be established for the estate of the king and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, should be treated, accorded, and established in parliament, by the king and by the mood of the pre. late., earls, and barons, and the commonwealth of the realm, nccording Aad Gas before aerustomed." In reference to this statute, Mr. Hallam observes, "that it not only establishes by a legislative decla ration the present constitution of parliament, but recognises it as already standing upon a custom of some length of time." (1 Const, Mee,' 5.) CoNsTITVENT PARTS OF PARLIAMENT.
These have been treated of in separate articles, and nothing more will be attempted in this place than a brief analysis, which will bring the whole under one view. Of the king (or queen), the first in rank, nothing need be repeated.
The House of Lords is at present composed of—