Tlie object
informally
gained.
Share of the
commons in
taxation,
expressed in
the words of
the grant.
270 Constitutional History. [chap.
predecessors, that they should have any answer to their peti-
tions before they had shown and done all their other business of
parliament, whether it were matter of a grant or otherwise ;
the king would not in any way change the good customs and
usages made and used of ancient times.’ It is probable, how-
ever, that the point was really secured by the practice, almost
immediately adopted, of delaying the grant to the last day
of the session, by which time no doubt the really important
petitions had received their answer, and at which time they
were enrolled 1. Speedy execution, however, was a different
thing, and the petition of the commons for it proves that delay
was a weapon by no means idle or harmless in the hands of the
servants of the law.
370. That the commons should have a decisive share in the
bestowal of money grants had become since the reign of
Edward III an admitted principle ; and the observance of the
rule is illustrated by the history of every parliament. In the
foregoing pages the regular votes of taxation have been noticed
as they occurred; and the decision of Henry IV in 1407 has
been referred to as recognising the right of the commons to
originate, and, after it has received the assent of the lords, to
announce the grant, generally on the last day of the session.
The ordinary form of the grant expresses this ; it was made by
the commons with the assent of the lords spiritual and tem-
poral. This particular form curiously enough occurs first in
the grants made to Richard II in 1395, the previous votes of
money having been made by the lords and commons conjointly2.
It was observed in 1401 and 1402, and henceforth3 became the
constitutional form. It may however be questioned whether
Henry’s dictum in 1407 was at the time understood to recognise
1 Sir H. Nicolas (Ordin. i. p. Ixiv) mentions a case in which it was
ordered that an error in the Roll should be corrected, and no such cor-
rection appears to have been made : from which he argues that the Rolls
may not have been ingrossed for two or three years after the session.
But this could only be exceptional.
2 Rot. Parl. iii. 331.
3 Not however without exceptions, ʃn 1404 tlɪe lords temporal for
themselves and the ladies temporal and all other persons temporal granted
a tax of 2 0.sι. on the £20 of land; Rot, Parl. iii. 546.
XVIIi.] Form of Money Grants. 271
the exclusive right of tire commons to originate the grant. On Departure
one occasion in the reign of Edward IV there was a marked ordinary
departure from the form established by long usage. This was
in 1472, when on the occasion of an act for raising a force of
13,000 archers, the commons, with the advice and assent of the
lords, granted a tenth of the revenue and income not belonging
to the lords of parliament ; and the lords, without any reference
to the advice of the commons, followed it up with a similar
grant from their own property ɪ. It is questionable whether
this was not a breach of the accepted understanding, but no
objection was taken to it at the time ; the grant, as a means of
raising additional funds, failed of its object, and it did not
become a precedent. The attempt of the commons in 1449 to Attemptof
tax the stipendiary clergy, an attempt perhaps made by over- mons to tax
sight, was defeated by the king, who referred the petition which diary cte"gy.
contained their proposal to the lords spiritual to be transmitted rx
to the convocation2. As however throughout this period the
convocations followed, with but slight variations, the example
set by the commons, the practical as well as the formal deter-
mination of the money grants may be safely regarded as having
now become one of the recognised functions of the third estate.
371. The power which the exercise of this function gave
them was freely employed in more critical matters than those
of political deliberation and legislation; and perhaps the hold
which it gave them on the royal administration, both in state
and household, is the point in which the growth of consti-
tutional ideas is most signally illustrated by the history of this
century. The practice of appropriating particular grants to Appropria-
particular purposes had been claimed under Bichard II3 ; it grants to
was observed under Henry IV and his successors ; the greater purposes,
grants were almost invariably assigned to the defence of the
realm ; tunnage and poundage became the recognised provision
for the safeguard of the seai ; the remnants of the ancient
crown lands were set apart for the expenses of the household,
for which they were obviously insufficient, and supplementary
1 Rot. Parl. vɪ. 4-8. 2 lb. V. 152, 153.
3 Vol. ii. § 287. 1 See above, p. 250.