and temporal. In this
parliament the representatives sat in a separate chamber from the barons
and knights. The Commons consisted of two knights for each county, two
representatives for the city of London, and two for each of the
following twenty towns only:--

Winchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York, Bristol, Exeter, Lincoln,
Canterbury, Carlisle, Norwich, Northampton, Nottingham, Scarborough,
Grimsby, Lynn, Colchester, Yarmouth, Hereford, Chester, Shrewsbury,
Worcester.

From this it appears that there were not representatives of any towns in
the counties of

Westmoreland, Lancaster, Derby, Durham, Stafford, Warwick, Leicester,
Rutland, Suffolk, Hertford, Bedford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Buckingham,
Berks, Oxford, Wilts, Somerset, Gloucester, Dorset, Sussex, Surrey.

In after times, burghs that were summoned frequently prayed the Crown to
be excused from sending representatives, on the account of their being
compelled to pay 3s. 4d. a day to each member for his maintenance, while
attending in his place; yet the allowance was made on a plan so strictly
economical, that the knights of Berkshire were only allowed for six
days, those for Bedfordshire for only five days, and those for Cornwall
for only eleven days, when called to a parliament at York. Sheriffs,
in their write for elections to parliament, sometimes omitted one
or more burghs in a county, and at other times sent writs to the same
burghs--and this, for aught known to the contrary, without instruction
from the king or his council. Where burghs were poor, there were many
such omissions, by favour of the sheriff, for a space of nearly three
hundred years. Upon petition of the town of Torrington to Edward III.,
in 1366, he directed a letter to the bailiff and good men of the town,
excusing them "from the burden of sending two representatives to
parliament, as they had never been obliged so to do till the 24th of his
reign, when," says the king, "the sheriffs of Devonshire maliciously
summoned them to send two members to parliament."

Writs for the election of members to serve in the House of Commons are
issued under different authorities upon a general election, and upon
vacancies of particular seats during the continuance of a parliament.
In the former case, the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, pursuant to
the order in council, causes the writs of elections to be issued for all
places in England and Scotland to which such writs are usually sent. By
the