Lecture XX.—Page [454]
Condition and attributes of the Parliament during the reign of Edward II. (1307-1327).
Empire of favourites.
Struggle of the barons against the favourites.
Aristocratic factions.
Petitions to the king.
Forms of deliberations on this subject.
Deposition of Edward II.
Lecture XXI.—Page [463]
Of petitions during the early times of representative government.
Regulations on the subject.
Transformation of the right of petition possessed by the Houses of Parliament into the right of proposition and initiative.
Petitions ceased to be addressed to the king, and are presented to Parliament.
Origin of the right of inquiry.
Necessity for representative government to be complete.
Artifices and abuses engendered by the right of petition.
Lecture XXII.—Page [476]
Condition of the Parliament under Edward III.
Progress of the power of the Commons.
Their resistance to the king.
Regularity of the convocation of Parliament.
Measures taken for the security of its deliberations.
Division of the Parliament into two Houses.
Speaker of the House of Commons.
Firmness of the House of Commons in maintaining its right to grant taxes.
Accounts given by the government of the collection of the taxes.
Appropriation of the funds granted by Parliament.
Parliamentary legislation.
Difference between statutes and ordinances.
Lecture XXIII.—Page [484]
Continuation of the history of the progress of the Commons House of Parliament during the reign of Edward III.
Their interference in questions of peace and war; and on the internal peace of the kingdom.
Their resistance of the influence of the Pope, and of the national clergy, in temporal affairs.
First efforts of the Commons to repress abuses at elections.
First traces of function of Committees of both Houses to investigate certain questions in common.