SECTION I.

 

The Rise of Parliaments

III. The inhabitants of cities, having obtained personal freedom and municipal jurisdiction, soon acquired civil liberty and political power. It was a fundamental principle in the feudal system of policy, that no free­man could be subjected to new laws or taxes unless by his own consent. In consequence of this, the vassals of every baron were called to his court, in which they established, by mutual consent, such regulations as they deemed most beneficial to their small society, and granted their superiors such supplies of money, as were proportioned to their abilities, or to his wants.

The barons themselves, conformably to the same maxim, were admitted into the supreme assembly of the nation, and concurred with the sovereign in enacting laws, or in imposing taxes. As the superior lord, according to the original plan of feudal policy, retained the direct property of those lands which he granted, in temporary possession, to his vassals the law, even after fiefs became hereditary, still supposed this original practice to subsist.

The great council of each nation, whether distinguished by the name of a Parliament, a Diet, the Cortes, or the States-general, was composed entirely of such barons, and dignified ecclesiastics, as held immediately of the crown. Towns, whether situated within the royal domain, or on the lands of a subject, depended originally for protection on the lord of whom they held. They had no legal name, no political existence, which could entitle them to be admitted into the legislative assembly, or could give them any authority there. But as soon as they were enfranchised, and formed into bodies corporate, they became legal and independent members of the constitution, and acquired all the rights essential to free-men.

Among these, the most valuable was, the privilege of a decisive voice in enacting public laws, and granting national subsidies. It was natural for cities, accustomed to a form of municipal government, according to which no regulation could be established within the community, and no money could be raised but by their own consent, to claim this privilege. The wealth, the power, and consideration, which they acquired on recovering their liberty, added weight to their claim; and favorable events happened, or fortunate conjunctures occurred, in the different kingdoms of Europe, which facilitated their obtaining possession of this important right.

In England, one of the first countries in which the representatives of boroughs were admitted into the great council of the nation, the barons who took arms against Henry III [AD 1265] summoned them to attend parliament, in order to add greater popularity to their party, and to strengthen the barrier against the encroachments of regal power. In France, Philip the Fair, a monarch no less sagacious than enterprising, considered them as instruments which might be employed with equal advantage to extend the royal prerogative, to counterbalance the exorbitant power of the nobles, and to facilitate the imposition of new taxes. With these views, he introduced the deputies of such towns as were formed into communities, into the States-general of the nation. In the empire, the wealth and immunities of the imperial cities placed them on a level with the most considerable members of the Germanic body.

Conscious of their own power and dignity, they pretended to the privilege of forming a separate bench in the diet [AD 1293]; and made good their pretensions.

But in what way soever the representatives of cities first gained a place in the legislature, that event had great influence on the form and genius of government. It tempered the rigor of aristocratical oppression with a proper mixture of popular liberty: it secured to the great body of the people, who had formerly no representatives, active and powerful guardians of their rights and privileges: it established an intermediate power between the king and the nobles, to which each had recourse alternately, and which at some times opposed the usurpations of the former, on other occasions checked the encroachments of the latter.

As soon as the representatives of communities gained any degree of credit and influence in the legislature, the spirit of laws became different from what it had formerly been; it flowed from new principles; it was directed towards new objects; equality, order, the public good, and the redress of grievances, were phrases and ideas brought into use, and which grew to be familiar in the statutes and jurisprudence of the European nations. Almost all the efforts in favor of liberty in every country of Europe, have been made by this new power in the legislature. In proportion as it rose to consideration and influence, the severity of the aristocratical spirit decreased; and the privileges of the people became gradually more extensive, as the ancient and exorbitant jurisdiction of the nobles was abridged.

Freedom for All