480 Constitutional IIistori/. [chap.
almost exactly resembling the articuli cleri. Yet here again
Obscurity of except for this glimpse of light we are in complete darkness as
the method ɪ , 1, .
of proceed- to the exact steps of proceeding. Inere was a roll of petitions,
lng' on which, as we learn from Haxey's case, it was not very diffi-
cult to obtain the entry of a gravamen, which the prudence of
the house, were it wide awake, could scarcely have allowed to
pass. It cannot be believed that the articles of Haxey’s peti-
tion, touching the number of ladies and bishops at court, could
have been read three times and approved by the house, or, as
is the practice in convocation, had been adopted by two-thirds
of the members; yet if it were not, it is difficult to under-
stand how the custom of three readings can be regarded as an
established rule. By some such process however the common
petitions must have been authenticated ; they were adopted by
the house as its own, and sent up through the house of lords to
Adoption of the king. Even this we only learn from the enacting words of
bia⅛°rm° the statutes, and from a rare mention on the rolls of the cases
in which the lords joined in the king’s refusal. The statutes
are made by the king with the advice and consent of the lords
spiritual and temporal ; the petitions are answered ‘ le roi Ie
veut’ or ‘le roi s’avisera’ with the advice of the lords. Towards
the close of our period the form of bill drawn as a statute has
begun to take the place of petition. This custom was intro-
duced first in the legislative acts which were originated by the
king ; the law proposed was laid before the houses in the form
which it was ultimately to take. It was then adopted in
private petitions which contained the form of letters patent in
which a favourable assent was expressed1. The form was found
convenient by the commons in their grants, and by the king in
bills of attainder ; it became applicable to all kinds of legisla-
tion, and from the reign of Henry VII was adopted in most
important enactments2.
1 A good instance is the king’s act on purveyance in 1439 ; Kot. Park
v. 7, 8 : ‘ quaedam cedula sive billa communibus praedictis de mandate
ipsius domini regis exħibita fuit et Iiberata sub hac verborum serie.’ The
act for the attainder of Henry VI and his partisans in 1461 was brought
forward as ‘ quaedam cedula formaιn actus in se continens Hot. Parl.
V. 476. Private petitions in this form are found ib. iv. 323, etc.
2 See Hot. Parl. vi. 138, &c. It is to this form of initiation that the
XX.] Legislative Procedure. 481
We have already traced the efforts made by the commons to Processof
secure the honest reproduction of the words of their petitions Nnthrougii
in the statutes founded upon them ; that object was more mens?"1'
perfectly secured by the adoption of the new form, the pro-
mulgation of a new law or act in the exact form in which
it was to appear, if it passed, eventually in the statute roll.
In this form we can more distinctly trace its progress : after
the due readings and final adoption by the commons, it was
sent up with the inscription ‘ Soit baillé aux seigneurs/ and
was considered and adopted 01- rejected by the lords1. If they Mutual
accepted it, it was again indorsed ‘Les seigneurs sont assentus’ assβπto∙
and then submitted to the king. The same process was ob-
served in statutes that originated with the lords : the commons
recorded their assent, ‘Les communs sont assentus,’ and the
bills went up to the king and his council.
441. The legislative act, when it had received the final form Enacting
in which it was to become a part of the national code or statute the king,
roll, appeared as the act of the king. The enacting words as
they appear in the first statute of Henry VII are these : ‘ The
king . . . . at his parliament holden at Westminster . . . . to the
honour of God and Holy Church and for the common profit of
the realm, by the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal
process of readings, committals, and report are most easily applied ; and
they appear very early in the Journals ; thus 2 Edw. VI, Dec. 10, i The
bill for levying of fines in the county palatine of Chester ; committed to Mr.
Hare.’ Jan. 8th : t To draw a bill for the absence of knights and burgesses
of parliament—Mr. Goodrick, Mr. Arundel ; ’ Commons’ Journals, i. 5, 6.
1 The first proofs of the three readings occur in the first Journals of tho
Commons ; the first reading is simply noted ; on the second reading follows
the direction i Ingrossetur/ on the third the note ‘Judicium / see Com-
mons’ Journals, i. 12, &c. The form however in which the three readings
are recorded before the royal assent is given runs thus, ‘ Qua quidem per-
Iecta et ad plenum intellecta eidenɪ per dictum regem &c. &c. fiebat re-
sponsio ; ’ Lords’ Journals, i. p. 9. This form occurs early in the reign of
Henry VI and must be understood to have then the same meaning as in
the first of Henry VIII. See Kot. Parl. v. 363 : f Quae quidem petitio et
cedulae transportatae fuerunt et deliberatae communibus regni Angliae in
eodem parliamento existentibus ; quibus iidem communes assensum suum
praebuerunt sub hac forma, ti a ceste bille et a les cedules a ycest bille
annexez les Commyns sount assentuz/’ quibus quidem petitione, cedulis
et assensu, in parliamento praedicto Iectis auditis et plenius intellectis, de
avisamento et assensu dominorum Spiritualium et temporalium in eodem
parliamento e∑istentium, auctoritate ejusdem parliament! respondebatur
eisdem in forma sequenti.’
VOL. Ill, I i