ʒoo Constitutional History. [chap.
of 1365 furnishes a fair instance of the early usage; ‘the 17 th
of February the king, lords and commons being assembled in
the white chamber, and the ordinance against those who
impugn the rights of the king and his crown being read first,
and then the petitions of the commons and their answers, and
the grant made to the king of the subsidy of wool, leather,
and woolfells being recited to the said lords and commons by
the chancellor, the king thanked the said lords and commons
heartily for their good counsel and advice, and the great travail
they had had, and also for the aid which they had made and
granted him in this parliament, and gave leave to the said
lords and commons to depart each where he pleased ; and so
ended the parliament1.’ Bichard II, in 1386, took the op-
portunity of making a protest on behalf of his prerogative by
word of mouth2. Henry IV, in 1*402, invited both houses to
dine with him on the Sunday after the dissolution ; but, though
the king several times spoke in the parliament chamber, the
invitation was conveyed hy the earl of Northumberland3. The
Lancastrian kings more than once took leave of the estates
in person and with a speech, and Edward IV took particular
pains to address the commons at least in his first parliament4.
Members If was not always that matters ended so pleasantly ; more than
kept behind, , ɪ
once a committee had to be named to dispatch petitions that
had not been fully considered, or to make sure that the common
petitions were not altered before they became laws. In 1332
and 1333 the lords were ordered to stay when the commons
had leave to go5. In 1362 some of the commons were directed
to stay for certain business on which the king wished to speak ;
in 1372 the citizens and burgesses were kept behind and
prevailed on to grant tunnage and poundage6. In 1376 the
king was ill at Eltham, and the three estates went down to
take leave of him and to hear his answers to the petitions ;
1 Rot. Part. ii. 288. 2 Ibid. iii. 224.
3 Ibid. iii. 493. In 1368 Edward III entertained the lords and many
of the commons on a like occasion ; ib. ii. 297. In 1376, at the close of the
Good Parliament, Sir Peter de la Mare gave a great banquet, the King
supplying wine and venison ; Chr. Angl. p. Ixxii.
t Rot. Parl. v. 486.
s Ibid. ii. 65, 69. 6 Ibid. ii. 275, 310.
XX.] Wages c>f Members. 501
in 1377 they went in the наше way to Sheen to receive the
answers, which were read on the following day in the parlia-
ment chamber, and then sat for some days longer ɪ. The
dissolution was sometimes made an occasion for an oration by
the speaker ; Sir Arnold Savage furnishes the most conspicuous
example, but the announcement of the grant on the last day of
the session was a tempting opportunity for compliments on both
sides.
The parliament was held to be dissolved by the death or Dissolution
deposition of the king in whose name it was called, but this death!kmg 3
rule was not observed in the case of Edward II, and was evaded
in that of Richard IT. The parliament of 1413 was held to
be dissolved by the death of Henry IV ; and this is a solitary
example2.
447. One of the last matters transacted was the issue of Wages of the
. , . , pr, Ii 1 . p _ ɪnembeis of
the writs to the gherιtts and borough magistrates lor the pay- the house of
ment of the wages of the representatives in the house of
commons. The knights of the shire received each four shillings
a day, and the citizens and burgesses each two. This rate of
payment was fixed by usage, or possibly by ordinance, in the
seventh year of Edward II ; and was observed from the begin-
ning of the next reign, the rates of the preceding and intervening
years having occasionally varied. These wages were collected
by the sheriffs from the ‘ communities ' of the counties and
towns represented, and were a frequent matter of petition, in
which almost every conceivable plea was alleged in order to
escape the obligation ,.
1 Rot. Parl. ii. 330, 364.
2 ‘ Tan qe mesme le parlement par la mort du dit très noble roy et pier
qe Dieu assoille, fuist dissolve ; ’ Rot. Parl. iv. 9.
s See Prynne, Fourth Register, pp. 1-608. Parl. Writs, II. i. 115 ; cf.
pp. 148, 2io, &c. Riess, Wahlreeht, pp. 97 sq. The sheriff of Cambridge
in 1307 is forbidden to distrain the villeins of John de la Mare for expenses,
inasmuch as he attended in person ; Parl. Writs, I. 191 : so also in Norfolk
the villeins of the bishop are free ; Pail. Writs, II. i. 259. In 1327 Edward
III orders the sheriff of Middlesex to levy the expenses within liberties as
well as without, the men of the liberties of Westminster and Wallingfoid
having refused to pay ; ib. II. i. 366. On the collection of wages in Glouces-
tershire from both the liberties and the geldable, see Pail. Writs, I. 95.
The sheriff of Kent returns in 1313 that at three county courts the men re-
fused to pay, on the gɪound that they held in gavelkind ; Parl Writs, II.