262
Constitutional History.
[CHAP.
Largeshare with royal prerogative, all exercise of which was a matter for
OfthecounciI 1 . . 1 .
in executive
business.
advice in this assembly; every sort of ordinance, pardon, licence,
and the like, which the king could authorise, was passed through
the council ; and where, on the other hand, special powers were,
as we have seen, vested in the king by parliament, they were
exercised with the advice of the council.
Relation of
the privy
council to
the great
councils.
Loose con-
stitution of
tɪie great
council.
Besides its relation to the king and the parliament, the privy
council had a direct relation to the great councils which were
often called by the Lancastrian kings on occasions on which
it was not necessary or desirable to call a parliament. These
great councils, the constitution of which was very indefinite,
were essentially deliberative rather than executive, but they
very often appear rather as enlarged and t afforced ’ sessions
of the privy council, than as separate assemblies. It is pro-
bable that the theory which gives to all the peers? of the realm
the right of approaching the king with advice was thus reduced
to practice; and that, as volunteer advisers, any of the lords
who chose might occasionally attend the council. But the
more formal sessions of the great council were attended by
persons summoned by writs of privy seal, sometimes in large
numbers1 ; and thus was formed an assembly of notables whose
advice, though welcome, was not conclusive. As these assem-
blies had no regular constitution or place in the parliamentary
system, it is only now and then that a record of their pro-
ceedings has been preserved. They may however, on all
important occasions of their sitting, be regarded either as
extra-parliamentary sessions of the house of lords or as en-
larged meetings of the royal council. In both characters they
are found acting, as we have seen, in questions of the regency
after the death of Henry V, in the disputes between Beaufort
and Gloucester, and in the preliminary work of parliament, as
had been usual before parliament became a full representation
of the three estates.
368. The relations of the council to the king and the par-
1 See for example the list of persons summoned in 1401, Ordinances, i.
155 s⅛∙; and others, ib. 179, 180; ɪi. 73, 80, 85 ; iii. 322 ; iv. 191 ; v. 237,
238 ; vi. 163, 206, &c. Most of the great councils here indicated have
been noticed already.
XVIH.]
Electoral Rights.
263
Iiament had thus gained definiteness and recognition. Scarcely Relations
ι ,1 . ... ,1 -, , between the
less was this the case with the direct relations between the crown and
crown and the parliament. The period before us witnessed mɪɪɪɪ8,
some very important exemplifications of the matured action of
the constitution in this respect also. The house of lords, for The house
so the baronage may be now called, underwent under the
Lancastrian kings none but personal changes, and such formal
modifications as the institution of marquessates and viscounties ;
their powers remain the same as before, and in matters where
they attempt a separate action, as for instance in the arrange-
ment of the regency or protectorate, their action, which is in
itself as much the action of the great council as of the baronage
eo nomine, is generally confirmed by an act of the whole par-
liament. Such minor particulars as are worth recording may
be noted in another chapter, in which the antiquities of parlia-
ment may be examined in regular order. The history of the Questions
touching the
house of commons, on the other hand, furnishes some valuable house of
illustrations of constitutional practice. These illustrations,
many of which have been noted already, and many of which
must be recapitulated again, may be for our present purpose
arranged in their natural order under the heads of organisation
of the house of commons, including election, privilege, freedom
of conference and freedom of debate, and the powers of the
house of commons as a part of the collective parliament, ex-
ercised in general deliberation, legislative action, taxation, and
control of the national administration.
The regulation of the county elections with a vieιv to secur- Connty
• ɪ 1 л . . . « . . 1 . „ elections,
ιng not merely a taιr representation but the choice of competent
counsellors for the national senate, was a point upon which some
consideration had been spent under Edward III, whom we have
seen rejecting all propositions made for limiting the electoral
body and diminishing the powers of the old county courts 1.
Mucli jealousy of the right of the full county court to elect had Mainten-
beeιι evinced on moιe than one occasion; Edward’s ordinance n⅛ht°ofaw
against the choice of lawyers had remained a dead letter2 ; to elect °°'ut
Richard had been obliged to withdraw from his writs in 1388 the¾he∙
1 Vol. ii. pp. 445, 453.
3 v°l. ii. p. 445.