little interest in the election of their parliamentary representatives that they were not at the trouble to attend and record their votes. Of course the electors were not then so numerous as they are at the present day; but that those who attended and voted at the county court constituted the entire body of the electors who took part in the proceedings must by no means be taken for granted. Indeed, it is clear from the returns collected by Prynne, that the electors who voted at the county court were present in a representative capacity, or as delegates from the main body of electors in the constituency. That this was the case as regards the elections for the cities and boroughs is beyond a doubt. Thus, we gather from the returns referred to that two bailiffs, "in the presence of seven electors," elect two members for Dunwich; two bailiffs, "in the presence of the electors and other resident burgesses," elect two members for Ipswich; the mayor and bailiffs, "with the assent of the whole community," elect two members for Portsmouth; four burgesses, "by the assent of the rest," elect members for every borough in Dorsetshire; thirty-five "trustworthy men" (probes homines) are the electors for Newcastleon-Tyne; and among the Parliamentary writs is a memorandum dated London, Feb. 3rd, 1300, of the election of four citizens, who were chosen "by the mayor, aldermen, and six of the best and most dis

D

creet men of each ward." That these elections were indirect, is beyond dispute, in my opinion; the acting electors themselves were evidently representative men, and were selected because they were regarded as 'trustworthy," "the best and most discreet" in their respective constituencies. Probably the electors followed the practice of the clergy in this respect, who usually deputed to a small committee of their body the function of choosing the representatives for these assemblies; or the still more ancient practice of electing the sworn knights to nominate the recognitors at the great assize may have been their model.1

But we are not left in any doubt as to the mode in which these elections were conducted, as we have the very process described in the record of the proceedings of the corporation of Lynn Regis. From this we learn that the burgesses were in the habit of choosing twelve men as the parliamentary electors for the borough, and the following entry shows how this was done :-"7th Jan., 1436. John Ashden and John Syff of the twenty-four, John Adams and Bartholomew Colles of the common council, were elected by the mayor, by the consent of the whole congregation, who called Edward Mayne and John Springewell, and they called Galfrid Gatele and John Mariat, and the aforesaid eight called William Kyrketon and Thomas

1 Stubbs, Const. Hist., vol. i., pp. 619 and 635.

Lok; and the aforesaid ten called Thomas Talbot and Martin Wrighte, which twelve were charged (being sworn according to the custom to preserve the liberty of the town) to choose two burgesses for the borough of Lynn, to go to Parliament on the 21st of January next ensuing."1 This also seems to

have been the usual method of electing a jury in those days, as we find from the proceedings of the same corporation on 13th of April, 1442. It also appears from the same record that it was usual for the burgesses to elect their mayor to represent the borough in Parliament on the expiration of his office--a custom which seems to have been followed in other places up to a comparatively recent period, as we gather from the correspondence of Andrew Marvell with the mayor and corporation of Hull. We also learn from the same source that the same representatives were seldom elected for two Parliaments in succession by the same constituency. The representatives in the cities and boroughs usually graduated at the municipal board of their native place. The mayor of one year usually became the parliamentary representative of the next. of the next. The records of the borough corporations show a regular graduation from common councilmen to mayors, and from mayors to parliamentary representatives. It was no doubt

1 Archæology, vol. xxiv. p. 317.

the close relationship thus formed between the local bodies and their parliamentary representatives which gave such marked political significance to municipal elections in early times—a characteristic which they have not wholly lost even at the present day.

CHAPTER II.

A NEW DEPARTURE.

THE various changes which from time to time have taken place in the constitution, have been brought about gradually, often without any alteration in the law, and, except when the Septennial Act was passed, without any violent shock to public sentiment. Following the chronological order of events, the most important changes we have to note are:-(1) The abandonment of residential qualification for representatives; (2) the extension of the term of Parliament; (3) the introduction of government by party; (4) the establishment of the corporate responsibility of ministers; and (5) lastly, the substitution of outside pressure for the constitutionally expressed will of the electors.

From the earliest times it was regarded as indispensable that a member of Parliament should reside within the constituency which elected him, and for a long period this rule was rigidly enforced on all