in the fourth year of William I. (1070). Twelve representatives (says Oldfield) were elected in each county in the whole kingdom, and were sworn before the King. In this Parliament or council the laws of Edward the Confessor (by which is probably meant the common law as it prevailed during his reign) were adopted and confirmed.

The Name of “Parliament."-Professor Stubbs remarks that "the name given to the sessions of council (under the early Norman kings) was often expressed by the Latin colloquium; and it is by no means unlikely that the name of Parliament, which is used as early as 1175 by Jordan Fantosme ('sun plenier parlement'), may have been in common use. But of this we have no distinct instance in the Latin Chroniclers for some years further, although when the term comes into use it is applied retrospectively; and in a record of the twenty-eighth year of Henry III., the assembly in which the Great Charter was granted is mentioned as the 'Parliamentum Runimedæ.' . . It is first used in England by a contemporary writer in 1246, namely, by Matthew Paris. It is a word of Italian origin, and may have been introduced either through the Normans, or through intercourse with the French kingdom."

The Earliest Recorded Parliaments.—In a return presented to the House of Commons by order in 1879, giving the names of members of the Lower House and their constituencies "from so remote a period as it can be obtained," the earliest Parliaments mentioned are the following: 1. 15th John (1213), summoned to meet at Oxford. Writs addressed to all the sheriffs, requiring them each to send all the knights of their bailiwicks in arms; and also four knights from their counties "ad loquendum nobiscum de negotiis regni nostri." 2. 10th Henry III. (1226), summoned to meet at Lincoln. Writs addressed to the sheriffs of eight counties, requiring them each to send four knights, elected by the "milites et probi homines" of their bailiwicks, to set forth certain disputes with the sheriffs. 3. 38th Henry III. (1254), summoned to meet at Westminster. Every sheriff required to send two knights to be elected by each county, to prɔvide aid towards carrying on the war in Gascony. 4. 45th Henry III. (1261), summoned to meet at Windsor. The Bishop of Worcester, the Earls of Leicester and Gloucester, and other magnates, having ordered three knights from each county to attend an assembly at St. Alban's, the King enjoins the sheriffs to send the above-mentioned knights also to him at Windsor. 5. 49th Henry III. (1264-5), summoned to meet at London. This appears (says the return) to have been the first complete Parliament consisting of elected knights, citizens, and burgesses. In each of these cases no returns of names could be found.

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The Commons summoned by Simon de Montfort. Leicester (says Hume) summoned a new Parliament in London (20th January, 1265), "and he fixed this assembly on a more democratical basis than any which had ever been summoned since the foundation of the monarchy. Besides the barons of his own party, and several ecclesiasties, who were not immediate tenants of the crown, he ordered returns to be made of two knights from each shire, and, what is more remarkable, of deputies from the boroughs-an order of men which, in former ages, had

always been regarded as too mean to enjoy a place in the national council. This period is commonly esteemed the epoch of the House of Commons in England."

The Writ of Summons to Parliament.-Henry Elsynge, clerk to the House of Commons, writes, in his "Ancient Method and Manner of Holding of Parliaments" (1660): “It doth not appear by the first record of summons now extant, Anno 49 Henry III., by what warrant the Lord Chancellor caused the writ of summons to be made. The King was then prisoner unto Mountford. But surely none but the King can summon the Parliament; and this is the reason that Henry IV., having taken his liege lord, King Richard II., prisoner, on the 20th of August, Anno Rich. 23, did cause the writs of summons for the Parliament, wherein he obtained the crown, to bear date the 19th day of the same month, and the warrant to be per ipsum Regem et consilium, and himself to be summoned by the name of Henry Duke of Lancaster."

The Three Estates Sitting by Themselves. Elsynge records: "6th Edward III., at the Parliament held at York, the cause of summons being touching Scotland, the prelates with the clergy (sat) by themselves, the dukes and barons by themselves, and afterwards they delivered their joint answer to the King. In the former Parliament of that year at Westminster the cause was touching Ireland: the prelates consulted by themselves, and after they gave a joint answer, and they all joined in one grant of a subsidy to the King. Anno 6th Edward III., Octabis Hillarii, the prelates treated by themselves, so did the Lords, and so did the Commons, and afterwards their joint answer was reported to the King by the Bishop of Winchester. . . Anno 50 Edward III., the cause of summons ended, the Commons were willed to withdraw themselves to their ancient place in the Chapter House of the Abbot of Westminster, and there to treat and consult among themselves."

Peculiar Designations given to Parliaments.-Many of the early as well as the later Parliaments acquired special names, by which they are still distinguished. The following list (in which some of the later pages of this section are anticipated) comprises all such designations as are of historical interest :

The Mad Parliament.-One of the last of the great councils summoned before the calling up of the Commons by Simon de Montfort was afterwards known by this name, given to it by the Royalists. "In the year 1258 (says Gurdon), on April 10th, a Parliament met which was called insanum Parliamentum. Simon Montfort, Earl of Leicester, complained very boldly to the King (Henry III.), appealing to the Parliament for justice; upbraided the King that he promoted and enriched strangers, and despised and wasted his own people; neglected his subjects that faithfully served him, as he had charged the King six years before; that he had not performed his promise of rewarding him for his services and expenses in Gascoigny. To which the King answered, that he would not stand to any

promise made to one that proved a traitor. The earl told the King he lied, and, were he not a king, he would make him eat his words."

The Parliament de la Bond.-One of Edward II.'s Parliaments (1321) was called "Parliament de la Bond," from the barons coming to Parliament, armed against the two Spencers, wearing coloured bands upon their sleeves for distinction.-Gurdon.

The Good Parliament.—The Parliament assembled in 1376 (50th Edward III.) has been called by this name, in consequence of its measures against the corruption of the court and government. Several of the ministers were impeached, and the king's mistress, Alice Perrers, was made the subject of a special censure, the Commons passing the following ordinance: "Whereas complaints have been laid before the king that certain women have pursued causes and actions in the king's court by way of maintenance, and for hire and reward, which thing displeases the king, the king forbids that any woman do it for the future, and in particular Alice Perrers, under the penalty of forfeiting all that she, the said Alice, can forfeit, and of being banished out of the realm." The growing activity of the Commons in this Parliament derived much encouragement from the Black Prince, whose death, however, ensued soon after, and John of Gaunt obtained a new Parliament, which undid the work of its predecessor.

The Wonderful, or Merciless Parliament.-The Parliament which was summoned in the eleventh year of Richard II. (Feb. 3rd, 1388) has been called by some historians "the Parliament that wrought wonders;" by others, "the Merciless Parliament." In it articles of high treason were exhibited against the King's ministers, who were, accordingly, sentenced to death or banishment.-Parry's "Parliaments of England."

The Shortest Parliament.-The shortest Parliament ever held was that which met on the 30th of September, 1399, and sat but for a single day, on which it deposed Richard II. "The deposition of Richard (says Hume) dissolved the Parliament; it was necessary to summon a new one; and Henry, in six days after, called together without any new election the same members, and this assembly he denominated a new Parliament."

The Unlearned Parliament.-Speaking of this Parliament, which assembled in 1404, Lord Campbell says, the recklessness of the Commons may have arisen from their not having had a single lawyer among them. Lord Chancellor Beaufort, in framing the writs of summons, illegally inserted a prohibition that any apprentice or other man of the law should be elected. In return for such a slight our law books and historians have branded this Parliament with the name of Parliamentum indoctum, or the "Unlearned Parliament."

The Parliament of Bats.-In the 4th of Henry VI. (1426) a Parliament was summoned to meet at Leicester, and orders were sent to the members that they should not wear swords, so they came to the Parliament, like modern butchers, with long staves, from whence the Parliament got the name of "the Parliament of Bats." And when the

bats were prohibited, the members had recourse to stones and leaden plummets. Gurdon's "History of Parliament."

The Diabolical Parliament.-In the 38th year of Henry VI. (1459) a Parliament was summoned to meet on the 20th November, at Coventry. It was there enacted that all such knights of any county as were returned to the Parliament by virtue of the King's letters, without any other election, should be good, and that no sheriff, for returning them, should incur the pain therefor provided in the Act of the 23rd of Henry VI. The Queen and her party carried all before them in this Parliament, which, from its works, was called Parliamentum diabolicum.-Ibid.

The Addled Parliament.-This name was given by the King's party (James I.) to the Parliament which met on the 5th of April, 1614. It had been summoned in the expectation that it would grant supplies, but it insisted on the previous discussion of grievances, and, as it proved obdurate, it was dissolved on the 7th of June, without having passed a single bill. Prior to the meeting of this Parliament, certain of the King's ministers (among them Bacon and Somerset) undertook that they would so manage the Commons as to secure the necessary votes. This promise got wind, and the ministers were freely spoken of as undertakere -a circumstance to which the King thus alluded in his opening speech: 'For undertakers, he never was so base to call or rely on any."

The Short Parliament.-The fourth Parliament called by Charles I. is known by this name. It met on the 13th of April, 1640-the first Parliament since the dissolution of 1629-and was dissolved after a session of three weeks only, on the 5th of May. Never since the institution of regular Parliaments had there been so long an interval without one, as that which preceded the summoning of this assembly.

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The Long Parliament.-The Long Parliament, or the fifth of Charles I., assembled November 3, 1640-" a Parliament which many, before that time, thought would never have had a beginning, and afterwards that it would never have had an end." It was, however, abruptly and violently dispersed by Cromwell, April 20th, 1653. (See "Personal" section, under "Cromwell.") After many vicissitudes, in which fragments of this Parliament were called together again and again for special purposes, the appearance of legal dissolution was given by a bill for Dissolving the Parliament begun and holden at Westminster 3rd of November, 1640, and that the day of dissolution shall be from this day, March 16th, 1659."* Macaulay describes it as "that renowned Parliament which, in spite of many errors and disasters, is justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude of all who, in any part of the world, enjoy the blessings of constitutional government." On the other hand, Cobbett, in his "Parliamentary History," observes, "Thus ended the Long Parliament, which, with innumerable alterations and several intermissions, had continued the scourge of the nation for nearly twenty years."

Pride's Purge.-When the Commons were to meet on Dec. 6th,

1660, according to modern reckoning, the year formerly commencing on the 25th of March.

1648, Hume says, Colonel Pride, formerly a drayman, environed the House with two regiments, and, directed by Lord Grey of Groby, he seized in the passage forty-one members of the Presbyterian party, and sent them to a low room, which passed by the appellation of "hell," whence they were afterwards carried to several inns. Above 160 members more were excluded, and none were allowed to enter but the most furious and the most determined of the Independents; and these exceeded not the number of fifty or sixty. This invasion of the Parliament commonly passed under the name of "Colonel Pride's Purge," so much was the nation disposed to make merry with the dethroning of those members who had violently arrogated the whole authority of government, and deprived the King of his legal prerogatives. The remains of the Parliament were called the "Rump."

The Rump.-"The nickname originated," says Isaac D'Israeli, "in derision on the expulsion of the majority of the Long Parliament by the usurping minority. The collector of The Rump Songs' tells us, 'If you ask who named it Rump, know 'twas so styled in an honest sheet of prayer called the Bloody Rump, written before the trial of our late sovereign; but the word obtained not universal notice till it flew from the mouth of Major-General Brown, at a public assembly in the days of Richard Cromwell.'"

The Little, or Barebone's Parliament.-The Parliament to which these names have been given was summoned by Cromwell, and met for the first time July 4th, 1653. A hundred and forty summonses to it were issued, and of the parties summoned only two did not attend. Hume says, "Among the fanatics of the House there was an active member much noted for his long prayers, sermons, and harangues. He was a leather-seller in London, his name Praise-God Barebone. This ridiculous name, which seems to have been chosen by some poet or allegorist to suit so ridiculous a personage, struck the fancy of the people, and they commonly affixed to the assembly the appellation of 'Barebone's Parliament.' This assembly sat until the 12th of December, 1653, when it resigned its powers into the hands of Cromwell.

The Healing Parliament. This name was applied to the Parliament which met on the 25th of April, 1660, and, a few days after, restored Charles II.—a measure which, it was hoped, would "heal" all remaining wounds and differences existing in the nation.

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The Drunken Parliament.-The first Parliament which met in Scotland after the Restoration of Charles II. acquired this name. Walter Scott, in his "Tales of a Grandfather," says, "When the Scottish Parliament met, the members were, in many instances, under the influence of wine, and they were more than once obliged to adjourn, because the royal commissioner (Middleton) was too intoxicated to behave properly in the chair.”

The Longest, or Pensionary Parliament.-This Parliament -sometimes called "the Long Parliament," until that name became more distinctly appropriated to the assembly of 1640-was summoned to meet at Westminster on the 8th of May, 1661, and was not dissolved until