476               Constitutional History.             [chap.

drance or odium in the discharge of his duties. The king
granted the petition : thereupon the accounts were read before
the lords : subsequently the treasurer was by advice of the
lords charged to lay the state of the kingdom, in the same way,
before the commons in their common house on the following
day : and this was done¹. Although the occasion was excep-
tional, the manner of proceeding was probably customary.

438. The result of the conferences with the lords and with
the treasurer on financial questions was the grant of money.
On this point we have circumstantial documentary evidence
from the very first ; both in the writs by which the king, whilst
ordering the collection of the taxes, carefully explains the oc-
casion of the grant and states by whom and in what proportions
it is granted ; and very frequently in the ^t form of grant,’ the
schedule of directions for collection, which the grantors have
drawn up and presented, sometimes as a condition, sometimes
as an appendage to the grant. After the date at which the
two houses began to make their grants on one plan, ceasing to
vote their money independently, and clothing the gift in the
form of tenths and fifteenths, wool, tunnage and poundage, and
other imposts which affected all classes alike, the money grant
took a more definite form ; and from the end of the reign of
Richard II all grants were made by the commons with the
advice and assent of the lords in a documentary form which may
be termed an act of the parliament. Of these we have had
many examples ; we know them to have been the result of a
conference between the lords and commons, but, with the ex-
ception of the discussions on the poll-tax in 1377 and 1380²,
we have very seldom any details of debate upon them, or of the
exact steps of the process by which they became law. The
practice of three readings in each house, the possible speaking,
suggestion of alterations and amendments, all the later etiquette
of procedure on money bills, will be sought in vain in the rolls
of the medieval parliaments. The practice of thrice reading the
bills appears however in the journals of the two houses so early,
and is from the very first parliament of Henry VIII regarded

¹ Rot. Part. iv. 432-439.             ² See above, vol. ii. pp. 459, 470.

so clearly as an established rule, that it must have full credit
for antiquity : it was a matter of course ^x.

439. Scarcely more light is shed on the details of legislative Legislative
procedure. On this point we have already concluded that both
the king and the several members of botlι houses and the
houses themselves had the right of initiation² : Edward III of initiation of
his own good will proposed to remedy the evils of purveyance³ ;
the lords proposed the legislation by which peers are entitled
to be tried by their peers in parliament⁴, and on the petition
of the commons most of the legislation of the middle ages is
founded. The king’s projects for the alteration of the law would
be laid by the chancellor before the house of lords, and after
discussion they would go down to the commons : a similar
course was adopted in all cases in which the legislation began
in the house of lords or on petition addressed to them. When Bills sent
the act, petition, or bill had reached the requisite stage, that is, the lords to
as it must be supposed, had been read three times, it was en- ɪɪɪons.
dorsed by the clerk of the parliament 'soit baille^s aux com-
muns ; ’ it was then sent down to the lower house by the hands
of some of the judges or legal advisers of the parliament, with
the message informing the commons of the subject of the bill
and asking their advice⁶.

¹ In the first parliament of Henry VIII, on the 2 3rd day of the session
‘ adducta est a domo inferior! ’ ‘ billa de Concessione subsidii quae Iecta
fuit seɪnel cum proviso adjungendo pro mercatoribus de Iy hansa Theutoni-
corum.’ On the 24th day the proviso was read and expedited ; on the
27th it was sent down to the commons ; on the 29th the bill of the sub-
sidy was delivered to Sir Thomas Lovel and his companions. The plan
was thus in full working. Lords’ Journals, i. pp. 7, 8.

² See above, vol. ii. pp. 619 sq.

³ Above, vol. ii. p. 435.

⁴ Above, vol. ii. p. 408.

⁵ See Rot. Parl. Hen. VIII, pp. cxcvii, ccvi, ccix, &c.

⁶ See below, p. 489. The form in the Lords’ Journals of 1510 was this :
‘Jan. 24 Receptae sunt quatuor billae Iegendae, una pro Iibertatibus eccle-
siae Anglicanae, una pro retornis falsis, &c. BiIla pro reformatione eccle-
siasticae Iibertatis bis Iecta tradita fuit attornato et Sollicitatori regiis
Teformanda et emendanda,’ &c. ‘ Die 5⁰ Lecta est Billa concernens eccle-
siasticas Iibertates et jam bis Ieeta; Item,’ &c. ‘Die 7⁰ Item eodem die
Iecta est tunc tertia vice billa concernens Iibertates ecclesiae Anglicanae
quae unanimi omnium dominorum tunc praesentium fuit approbata et
admissa ;’ ‘ Item per dominos datae erat in mandatis clerico parliamenti et
attornato et Bollicitatori regiis quod crastino in mane deferrent ad domum
inferiorem billam de ecclesiasticis Iibertatibus/ &c. ‘Die 8° Billa de

<<   <   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   >   >>