TO give you as short an account of your De­sires as I can; I must crave leave to lay you, as a Foundation, the Frame or First Model of this State.

When, after the Period of the Saxon Time, Ha­rald had advanc'd himself into the Royal Seat; the Great men, (to whom but lately he was no more than Equal either in Fortune or Power) disdaining this Act of Arrogancy and Ambition, called in William Duke of Normandy, (the most Active Prince of any in these Western Parts, and renowned for the Victo­ries that he had successfully Atchieved against the French King, then the most Potent Mo [...]arch in Eu­rope.)

This Duke led along with him to this work of Glory many of the Younger Sons of the best Families of Normandy, Picardy and Flanders; who, as Voluntiers, accompany'd the undertaking of this Fortunate Man.

The Ʋsurper being Slain, and the Crown, by War, gained; to secure Certain to his Posterity what he had so Suddenly gotten, he shar'd out his Pur­chase [Page 4] retainining in Each County a Portion, to support the Soveraign Dignity, which was stiled Demenia Regni; (now the Ancient Demesnes) and assigning to others his Adventurers such Proportions, as engag­ed to himself the Dep [...]ndency of their Personal Service (such Lands only excepted, as, in Free Alms, were allotted to the Church) These were termed Ba­rones Regis, or the Kings Immediate Free-holders; for the word Baro imported then no more.

As the King to These, so These to their Followers, Subdivided part of their Shares into Knights-Fees, and their Tenants were called, Barones Comitis, or the like; for we find, as in the King's Writ, so in Theirs, Baronibus suis al François & Anglois, to their Ba­rons, as well French as English; the Royal Gifts, for the most part, extending to whole Counties or Hundreds; an Earl being Lord of the One, and a Ba­ron of the Inferiour Donations to Lords of Townships or Mannours.

And as the Land, so was also the Course of Judica­ture divided, even from the Meanest to the Highest Portion; each Several had his Court of Law, preserv­ing still the Custom of our Ancestors the Saxons, who jura per Pagos reddebant, distributed Justice through­out each Village: And these were termed Court Ba­rons, or the Freeholders Court, (twelve usually in number) who with the Thame, or Chief Lord, were Judges.

The Hundred-Court was next, where the Hundre­d [...]s, or Aldermannus (Lord of the Hundred) with the chief Lord of each Township within their Limits, judged. God's People observed This Form; in the Publick Centureonis & Decam Judicabant Plebem om­ni [Page 5] tempore, Hundreds and Decennaries administring Justice to the People at all times.

The County-Court, or Generale Placitum, was the next; This was to supply the Defect, or remedy the Corruption of the Inferiour: For Ʋhi Curiae Domi­norum probantur defecisse, pertinet ad Vice-Comi­tem Provinciarum; where the Hundred-Court was found Defective, matters were referr'd to the Lord of the County. The Judges here were Comites & Ba­rones Comitatus, qui Liberas, in hoc, Terras habeant; Earls and Barons of the County, that were Free-holders in the same.

The last and Supreme Court, and proper to our Que­stion, was Generale Placitum apud London, the General Council at London; Ʋniversalis Synodus, the Ʋniversal Synod, in Charters of the Conquerour, Capitalis Curiae, the Capital Court; by Glanvil, Magnum & Commune Concilium coram Rege, & Magnatibus suis; the Great and Common Council before the King and his No­bles.

In the Rolls of Henry the Third, It is not Sta­tive, but summon'd by Proclamation. Edicitur Gene­rale Placitum apud London (says the Book of Abing­don) whither Duces, Principes, Satrapae, Rectores, & Causidici ex omni parte confluxerunt ad istam Curiam, saith Glanvil, the General Assembly was called at London; whither Dukes, Princes, Peers, Rectors, and Lawyers resorted from all Quarters: And Causes were referr'd propter aliquam dubitationem quae emer­git in Comitatu cum Comitatus nescit dijudicare; upon any Question or Difficulty which the County Court was not able to solve. Thus did Ethelweld, Bishop [Page 6] of Winchester, transfer his Suit against Leostine from the County ad Generale Placitum, or the General Assembly: In the time of King Etheldred, Queen Edgine against Goda, from the County appealed to King Etheldred at London, Congregatis Principibus & Sapientibus Angliae, where the Princes and Wise Men of the Land were met together. A Suit between the Bishops of Winchester and Durham, in the time of S. Edward, Coram Episcopis & Principibus Regni in praesentia Regis ventilata & finita; was handled and determined by the Bishops and Princes of the Realm in the presence of the King. In the 10th year of the Conquerour, Episcopi, Comites & Barones Regni potestate adversis Provinciis, ad Ʋniversalem Synodum, pro causis audiendis & tractandis, convocati; the Bi­shops, Earls and Barons of the Realm, &c. being assembled at the Universal Council to hear and de­termine Controversies, (says the Book of Westmin­ster.) And This continued all along in the succeed­ing Kings Reign, until toward the end of Henry the Third.

AS this Great Court or Council, (consisting of the King and Barons) rul'd the important Aflairs of State, and controlled all Inferiour Courts; so were there certain Officers, whose transcendant Power seem'd to be set for the circumscribing the Exe­cution of the Princes Will; as the Steward, Consta­ble, and Marshal, fix'd upon Families in Fee, for ma­ny Ages. They (as Tribunes of the People, or Epho­ri among the Lacedemonians) growing by unman­ly Courage terrible to Manarchy, fell at the feet and [Page 7] mercy of the King, when the daring Earl of Lei­cester was slain at Evesham.

This Chance, and the dear Experience H. the Third himself had made at the Parliament at Oxford, in the fortieth year of his Reign; together with the Memo­ry of the many straits his Father was driven unto, especially at Rumny-Mead near Stanes; brought this King to begin what his Successors fortunately finish'd; in lessening the Strength and Power of his Great Lords. And this was effected by searching into the Regality they had usurped over their peculiar Sove­raigns, whereby they were found to be (as the Book of St. Albans termeth them) quot Domini, tot Tyran­ni, how many Lords, so many Tyrants; and by weakening that Influence and Sway which they car­ryed in the Parliaments, by commanding the Service of many Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, to the Great Council.

Now began the frequent sending of Writs to the Commons; Their assent not only used in Money, Charge, and making Laws, (for, before, all Ordinan­ces pass'd by the King and Peers) but their Con­sent also in Judgments of all Qualities whether Civil or Criminal. In proof whereof I will produce some few succeeding Presidents out of Record.

When Adamor (that proud Prelate of Winchester, Lib. S. Al­ban. fol. 20.7. An. 44. H. 3. the Kings Half Brother) had aggrieved the State by his formidable Insolence; he was banished by the joynt sentence of the King, the Lords, and Commons. And this appeareth expresly, by the Letter sent to Pope Alexander the Fourth, who expostulated a Revocation of him from Exile because he was a Church-man, and [Page 8] so not Subject to any Censure: In This the answe is Si Dominus Rex aut Majores Regni hoc vellent (mean­ing his Revocation) Communitas tamen, Ipsius Ingressum [...] Angliam jam Nullatenus sustineret; though the King and Lords should consent to his Revocation, yet would the Commons never allow of it. The Peers Sub­scribe this Answer with their Names, and Petrus de-Mountford vice Totius Communitatis, as Speaker, or Pro­ctor of the Commons.

For by that Stile Sir John Tiptoft (Prolocutor) affirmeth under his Arms the Deed of Entail of the Crowns by King Hen. the fourth,Charta Orig. sub Sigil. An. 8. H. 4. in the eighth year of his Reign, for all the Commons.

The Banishment of the two Spencers in the fifteenth of Edw. 2d. Prelates, Comites, & Barones, & les, au­tres Peeres de la Terre, & Communes de Royaulme, the Prelates, Earles and Barons, and the rest of the Peers of the Realm, and Commons of the Land, do give Consent and Sentence to the Revocation and Reverse­ment of the Former Sentence; the Lords and Com­mons accord; and so it is express'd in the Roll.

In the first of Edw. the 3d. when Elizabeth the Widdow of Sir John de Burgo, Rot. Parl. 15 Ed. 3. vel 2. complained in Parlia­ment, that Hugh Spencer the Younger, Robert Bol­dock, and William Cliffe his Instruments had by Du­resse forc'd her to make a Writing to the King, whereby she was despoiled of all her Inheritance; Sentence is given for her in these words; Pur ceo que avis est al Evesques, Counts, & Barons, & autres Grandes, & a tout Cominalte de la Terre, que le dit script est fait contre Ley & tout manere de Raison, si faist le dit Escript per agard del Parliament dampue [Page 9] alloquens al livre a la dit Elizabeth, Forasmuch as it appeareth unto the Bishops, Earls, and Barons, and all the Commonalty of the Land, that the said Wri­ting was made against all Law and Reason, it is ad­judged by Parliament, &c.

In An. 4. Ed. 3. it appeareth by a Letter to the Pope, Prela. Parli­am. 1. Ed. 3. Rot. 11. that to the Sentence given against the Earl of Kent the Commons were Parties, as well as the Lords and Peers; for the King directed their Pro­ceedings in these words, Comitibus Magnatibus, Ba­ronibus, & aliis de Communitate dicti Regni ad Par­liamentum illud congregatis injunximus, ut super his [...]scernerent & judicarent, quod Rationi & Justitiae conveniret, habere prae Oculis solum Deum, qui eum concordi unanimi sententia tanquam Reum oriminis lae­sae Majestatis morti adjudicarent ejus sententia, &c. We have commanded the Earls, Peers, Barons, and others of the Commonalty of the said Realm assem­bled in Parliament, to determine in this matter ac­cording to Reason and Justice, having only God be­fore their Eyes; and by an unanimous consent they have sentenced him to death, as guilty of High-Treason.

When in the 50th year of Ed. 3. the Lords had pronounc'd the Sentence against Richard Lions o­therwise than the Commons agreed,Parl. An. 5. Edw. 3. they appeal­ed to the King, and had Redress, and the Sentence entered to their Desires.

When, in the first Year of Richard the Second, [Page 10] Will. Weston, and John Jennings, were Arraigned in Parliament for surrendring certain Forts of the King's;Parl. An. 1. Rich. 2.11.3.8. & 3.5. the Commons were Parties to the Sentence against them given, as appeareth by a Memorandum annexed to That Record. In the first of Hen. the Fourth, although the Commons reserre, by Protesta­tion, the pronouncing of the Sentence of Deposition against King Richard the Second unto the Lords; yet are they equally Interressed in it; as appeareth by the Record: For there are made Proctors, or Commissioners, for the whole Parliament, one Bishop, one Abbot, one Earl, one Baron, and two Knights (Gray and Erpingham) for the Commons. And to infer that because the Lords pronounc'd the Sentence, th [...] point of Judgment should be only Theirs, were as absur'd, as to conclude that no Authority was vested in any other Commissioner of Oyer and Terminer, than in the Person of that Man only that speaketh the Sentence.

In the 2d of Hen. 5. The Petition of the Commons importeth no less than a Right they had to Act and Assent to all things in Parliament; and so it is an­swer'd by the King. And had not the adjourned-Roll of the Higher-House been left to the sole Entry of the Clerk of the Ʋpper-House, (who, either out of neglect to observe due Form, or on set purpose to obscure the Commons Right, and to flatter the Power of those who he immediately served, omitted them,) there would have been frequent Examples of all Times to clear This doubt, and to preserve a just Interest to the Common Wealth. And how conveniently it suits [Page 11] with Monarchy to maintain This Form, lest others of that well-fram'd Body knit under one Head, should swell too Great and Monstrous, may be seen with half an Eye; it being (in my Opinion) at least equally Liable to suffer a-fresh under an Ari­stocracy, as a Democracy.