THE ORIGIN OF PARLIAMENT
The origin of the British Parliament has been sought rightly enough in the witenagemôts or national assemblies of the Anglo-Saxons. In a somewhat different form these were continued in the Norman times, and as early at least as the reign of Henry III. we find not only the barons and the high ecclesiastics, but also the knights of the shire with the burgesses summoned to attend. These formed the three estates, now known as the lords spiritual, the lords temporal, and the commons.
In the reign of Edward III. (1327 - 77) the separation of the estates into two houses - the House of Lords, consisting of the lords spiritual and the lords temporal, and the House of Commons, consisting of the knights, citizens, and burgesses - became settled.
All the peers were not originally entitled to a seat as a matter of right, but only those who were expressly summoned
by the king. Every hereditary peerage now, however, confers the right of a seat in the House of Lords or Upper
House - The number is indefinite, and may be increased at the pleasure of the crown, which, however, cannot deprive
a peer of the dignity once bestowed.
The upper house at present comprises about 560 members. By the act of union with Scotland, 16 representatives of
the Scottish peerage are elected by the Scottish nobility for each parliament's duration (seven years), and 28
are elected for life by the peers of Ireland.
The parliament is not permanent, and it is the royal prerogative to summon and dissolve it. The first business
of the Commons is to elect a speaker. The members then take the oath of allegiance, and when this is done the king or queen's speech is read, being answered
by an address from each house. In the upper house the lord-chancellor presides, holding the position of the speaker
in the Commons. All grants of subsidies or parliamentary aids must originate with the House of Commons, and the Lords have not the
right to amend, but only to accept or reject, a money bill. As the parliament is summoned, so it is prorogued by the royal authority. A dissolution
of the parliament is effected either by the authority of the crown, or by length of time. The House of Commons being chosen but for seven
years, at the expiration of that time parliament is dissolved ipso facto.
The lower house of parliament has the direction of all financial concerns; and there is no subject which may not be brought before it by petition, complaint, or motion of a member, The upper house is the supreme court of judicature in the nation. In civil cases it (now represented by the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary) is the supreme court of appeal from the superior tribunals of the three kingdoms. In indictments for treason or felony, or misprision thereof, where the accused is a peer of the realm, the House of Lords are the judges of the law and the fact. In cases of impeachment by the House of Commons the House of Lords are also the judges. All the forms of a criminal trial are then observed, and the verdict must be by a majority of at least twelve votes.
The House of Commons previous to the Reform Bill of 1832 consisted of 658 members, of whom 513 were for England and Wales, 45 for Scotland, and 100 for Ireland. In this representation there were great injustices and anomalies. Many of the boroughs had quite fallen into decay, so that a place like the famous Old Sarum, which consisted only of the ruins of an old castle, sent two members to parliament, while great manufacturing towns like Manchester and Birmingham were absolutely without representation. Not only the rotten boroughs, as these decayed constituencies were called, but also in many cases the towns, where the right of suffrage belonged to a small number of freeholders, were practically in the hands of a single family, and in this way a few great houses - Norfolk, Bedford, Devonshire, and the Pelhams, &c. - commanded more than 100 seats in parliament. For the few places that were in the hands of independent voters a shameless system of bribery existed, in spite of the prohibitory laws, and the prices of votes were generally well known: a seat for a small place cost about £5000. 'the Reform Bill of 1832 brought great changes. Occupiers of lands or tenements in counties at a yearly rent of not less than £50, and occupiers as owner or tenant of a house or shop in a borough of a yearly value of £10, now received the franchise fifty-six rotten boroughs were wholly disfranchised; thirty boroughs were deprived of one member; and one borough (Melcombe-Regis cum Weymouth, which had four) of two members; twenty-two boroughs were created in England, to return two members each, and nineteen boroughs to returns one member each. Besides taking away the right of election from many insignificant places, and vesting it in large, or at least in tolerably numerous, constituencies in new boroughs, the act introduced something like uniformity in the qualifications of the voters of the old boroughs and cities, and extended the elective franchise from close corporations, or privileged bodies, to the citizens at large.
After several unsuccessful attempts by Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Gladstone to pass bills for further reform,
in 1867 Mr. Disraeli, then chancellor of the exchequer, succeeded in carrying through a bill which conferred the
borough franchise on all householders who had resided in the borough for twelve months previous to the last day
of July in any year, and had been assessed for and paid poor-rates, and on all lodgers 'who had occupied for, like
period lodgings of the yearly value of £10 unfurnished. In counties the franchise was bestowed on occupiers
as owners or tenants of subjects of £12 ratable value, and the copyhold and leasehold franchise was reduced
from £10 to £5. This bill related only to England and Wales, but bills of a similar character were
passed for Scotland and Ireland in the following year. In this way the electorate, which was 1,352,970 in 1867,
rose to 2,243,259 in 1870, The total number of members still remained at 658. To Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham,
and Leeds were assigned three members each, and to London University one.
Populous counties were further divided, and to many of the divisions two members each were given .
From the union of Scotland with England in 1707 till 1832 the former , returned forty. five members to the House of Commons, thirty for the thirty-three counties, and fifteen for fifteen districts of burgh.. Superiors, or persons holding directly from the crown, alone voted in the counties. In two counties there were only three real voters in each. The number of persona who actually voted at the elections of the burgh. was very inconsiderable, consisting, in general, of the magistrates and town council, amounting only to twenty in each burgh, or in all the sixty-six burghs to 1320. By the Scotch Reform Act of 1832 eight members were added to the representation; Edinburgh and Glasgow receiving two each, and Aberdeen, Dundee, Greenock, Perth, and Paisley one each. The right of voting was also placed as near as possible on the same footing as in England; but the number of members, though increased, was not in proportion with the constituency of England or even Ireland. By the Scotch Reform Act of 1868 the burgh franchise was assimilated to that of England, being conferred on householders, but in counties the occupation tenure was £14 or upwards. Seven additional seats were given: one to the universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow, one to those of Edinburgh and St. Andrews, one to Glasgow city (which now had three), one to Dundee (which now had two), and one each to the counties of Lanark, Ayr, and Aberdeen, which were divided into two divisions, each returning a member.
Since the legislative union with Britain in 1801 Ireland had sent 100 members to the House of Commons. By the Reform
Act of 1882 five members were added, and £10 copyholders, &c., admitted amongst the classes of county
voters. In 1850 occupiers of land rated at £12 a year were admitted to vote. In the borough franchise the
£10 qualification for owner or occupant was adopted in the reform of 1832, much the same as in England; and
by the act of 1850 the franchise was further extended to £8 occupiers. By the reform bill of 1868 the occupation
franchise in towns was reduced from £8 to £4, and for lodgers it was fixed at the same as in England
and Scotland.
The Representation of the People Act of 6th Dec. 1884, established a uniform householder and a uniform lodger franchise throughout the kingdom. Equally important changes were effected by the Redistribution Act passed in June, 1885. By it 79 small boroughs in England and Wales (including four districts of borough. in the latter) and 24 in Ireland ceased to return members separately, while in Scotland the Haddington and Wigton districts of burghs lost the burgh franchise. In England 36 small boroughs, and in Ireland 3, lost one member each. The members for Liverpool were increased to 9, for Birmingham, the Tower Hamlets, and Glasgow to 7 each, for Manchester to 6, for Leeds and Sheffield to 5 each, and other important centres in proportion. Thirty-three new boroughs, chiefly in the London Metropolitan district, were created. Many of the larger boroughs were divided and a member given to each division; large counties were dealt with in a similar way. The numerical strength of the house was also raised, the gross number of members being 670, of which England gets 465 (2 additional), Wales 30 (as before), Scotland 72 (12 additional), and Ireland 103 (2 less).
