Constiliitional History.
[chap.
ʌ chosen
council.
Business
«allotted
to it.
Fortescue’s
plan had
been in use
under the
Lancastrian
kings.
2.52
spiritual and four temporal lords to serve for a year ; the
king should appoint the president or chief councillor. The
wages of the members should be moderate, especially those of
the lords and the spiritual councillors ; if the charges were
very great the number might be reduced. This body might
entertain all questions of state policy, the control of bullion,
the fixing of prices, the maintenance of the navy, the proposed
amendments of the law, and the preparation of business for
parliament. The great officers of state, especially the chan-
cellor, should attend on its deliberations, and the judges if
necessary ; and a register of its proceedings should be kept ɪ.
Chosen counsellors were much better than volunteers2. One
of the first things to be done after the resumption, was to
consolidate and render inalienable or, so to speak, amortize
the crown lands, a measure which would entitle the king
who should enact it to the confidence of his subjects and the
gratitude of posterity. Then from lands otherwise accruing,
gifts might be made ; grants for a term of years might be
given with consent of council, life estates and greater gifts
only with the consent of parliament3. Except the exact
determination of the selection and number of the councillors,
Fortescue’s scheme contains nothing which had not been in
principle or in practice adopted under Henry IV and Henry
V. The example for , amortizing ’ the crown lands had been
given in the consolidation of the estates of the duchy of
Lancaster; the scheme of resumption broached so often, and
accepted in principle by Henry IV, had been put into force
under Henry VI. The powers of the council had been freely
exercised during all the three reigns, and, although th# direct
influence of parliament on the council had been less under
1 Monarchy, c. ɪ 5, pp. 468-470; Pl. p. 14.4. The office of chief or
president of the council had been held by William of Wykeham under
Edward III ; Rot. Parl. iii. 388 : but the post was not a fixed one, and
the title of Consiliarins principalis had belonged to Gloucester and Bedford
as a part of the protectorship. Coke says (4 Inst. p. 54), that John
Russell, bishop of Lincoln, was praesidens consilii in the 13th Edward
IV. He was then Ireeper of the privy seal.
2 ‘ Good Counsayle,’ Opp. pp. 475∙ 4/6.
s Monarchy, c. 19, p. 473; Pl. p. 155 ; see Rot. Parl. iii. 479, 579.
XVIlI.]
National Idea of Ue King.
2.53
Henry VI than under Henry IV, the theory of the relation of
the two bodies subsisted in its integrity ; it is only in the
latter years of the last Lancastrian reign that the Mng at-
tempts to maintain his council in opposition to the parliament,
and then only in the firm belief that his council was faithful to
him, his parliament actuated by hostile motives or prompted
by dangerous men.
366. It is true that neither in the vague promises of Henry National
ɪ conscious-
ly nor in the definite recommendations of Sir John Iortescue nessof the
are to be found enunciations of the clear principles or details position.
of the practice of the English constitution. But the consti-
tution did not now require definitions. The discipline of the
fourteenth century, culminating in the grand lesson of revo-
lution, had left the nation in no ignorance of its rights and
wrongs. The great law of custom, written in the hearts and
lives and memories of Englishmen, had been so far developed
as to include everything material that had been won in the
direction of popular liberties and even of parliamentary
freedom. The nation knew that the king was not an ar-
bitrary despot, but a sovereign bound by oaths, laws, policies,
and necessities, over which they bad some control. They knew
that he could not break his oath without God’s curse ; he could
not alter the laws or impose a tax without their consent given
through their representatives chosen in their county courts.
They knew how, when, and where those courts were held, and
that the mass of the nation had the right and privilege of
attending them; and they were jealously on the watch against
royal interference in their elections. And so far there was
nothing very complex about constitutional practice : there was
little danger of dispute between lords and commons ; the
privilege of members needed only to be asserted and it was
admitted ; there was no restriction on the declaration of gra-
vamina, or on the impeachment of ministers or others who
were suspected of exercising a malign influence on the govern-
ment. When the king promised to observe their liberties, men т1ю ∞nsti-
. tιi τ Jiii 11 <∣ . tution as
m general knew what he meant, and watched how he kept his understood
o л . I -1. . by the
promise. They saw the ancient abuses disappear; Coinplaintsnation.