484
Cowiltutwnal History.
[chap.
Probable 442. Of the minute points of this carefully arranged pro-
antiquity t
Ofthese cecdιng some are doubtless of modern growth; but the sub-
proce&ses. ∙ ɪ mi n τ
stance of the programme must be ancient. J,he three readings
of the bills are traceable as soon as the form of bill is adopted ;
the committees for framing laws find a precedent as early as
1340, when a committee of the two houses was appointed to
draw up the statutes framed on the petitions1; they are spoken
of by Sir Thomas Smith as an essential part of legislative pro-
cess ; ‘ the committees are such as either the lords in the higher
house or the burgesses in the lower house do choose to frame
the laws upon such bills as are agreed on and afterwards
to be ratified by the same houses ; ’ after the first or second
reading the bill is ordered to be ingrossed; it is read a
third time, then the question is put; and traces of this pro-
cedure are found in the earliest journals of both houses : the
silence of the rolls implies nothing as to the novelty of the
practice.
We look in vain for illustrations of the rules of debate, and
of the way in which order was maintained, or for any standing
orders. Yet as soon as the journals begin, order, debate, and
the by-laws of procedure, are all found in working. We are
compelled to believe that many of them are ancient.
sir Thomas In default then of anything like contemporary evidence, we
∞unt of The may accept Sir Thomas Smith’s account of the holding of
[Tiiamcnt. parliament, notwithstanding the strong infusion of Tudor
theory with which it is inseparably mixed, as approximately
true of the century that preceded : the extract is long, but
it needs no apology, and will supply all that is wanted here in
respect of the procedure of the two houses :—
Constitution 113. ‘The most high and absolute power of the realm of
Iiament. England Consisteth in the parliament : for as in war where the
king himself in person, the nobility, the rest of the gentility
and the yeomanry are, is the force and power of England ; so
in peace and consultation where the prince is, to give life and
the last and highest commandment, the barony or nobility for
the higher, the knights, esquires, gentlemen and commons for
1 Rot. Parl. iɪ. 113 ; above, vol. ɪɪ. p. 401.
XX.] Parliamentary Forms. 4¾
the lower part of the commonwealth, the bishops for the clergy,
be present to advertise consult and show what is good and
necessary for the eommonwealtlɪ and to consult together ; and
upon mature deliberation, every bill or law being thrice read
and disputed upon in either house, the other two parts, first
each apart, and after the prince himself in the presence of both
the parties, doth consent unto and alloweth. That is the
prince’s and the whole realm’s deed, whereupon justly no man
can complain but must accommodate himself to find it good
and obey it.
‘That which is done by this consent is called firm, stable
and sanctum, and is taken for law. The parliament abrogateth Power of the
ιιτ τιτ . _ π parliament.
old laws, maketh new, gιveth order lor things past and for
things hereafter to be followed, changeth rights and possessions
of private men, Iegitimateth bastards, establisheth forms of
religion, altereth weights and measures, giveth form of suc-
cession to the crown, defineth of doubtful rights whereof is no
law already made, appointeth subsidies, tailes, taxes and im-
positions, giveth most free pardons and absolutions, restoretlɪ
in blood and name, as the highest court, Condemneth or ab-
solveth them whom the prince will put to trial. And to be
short, all that ever the people of Rome might do either in
Centuriatis comitiis or tributis, the same may be done by the
parliament of England, which representeth and hath the power
of the whole realm, both the head and body. For every Représenta-
tive charac∙
Englishman is intended to be there present, either in person ter.
or by procuration and attorney, of what pre-eminence, state,
dignity or quality soever he be, from the prince, be he king or
queen, to the lowest person of England. And the consent of
the parliament is taken to be every man’s consent.
‘ The judges in parliament are the king or queen’s majesty, Judges of
. . _ parliament,
the lords temporal and spiritual ; the commons represented by
the knights and burgesses of every shire and borough town.
These all or the greater part of them, and that with the consent
of the prince for the time being, must agree to the making of
laws.
‘ The officers in parliament arc the speakers, two clerks, the Offie.∙rs.