y secured for the future the free
possession of their seats, and the right which they claimed of judging
solely in their own elections and returns.[****] [45]

A power like this, so essential to the exercise of all their other
powers, themselves so essential to public liberty, cannot fairly be
deemed an encroachment in the commons; but must be regarded as an
inherent privilege, happily rescued from that ambiguity which the
negligence of some former parliaments had thrown upon it.

At the same time, the commons, in the case of Sir Thomas Shirley,
established their power of punishing, as well the persons at whose suit
any member is arrested, as the officers who either arrest or detain him.
Their asserting of this privilege admits of the same reflection.[v]

* Journ, 30th March, 1604.

** Journ, 30th March, 1604.

*** Journ. 30th March, 1604.

**** See note SS, at the end of the volume.

v Journ. 6th and 7th May, 1604.

About this period, the minds of men throughout Europe, especially in
England, seem to have undergone a general but insensible revolution.
Though letters had been revived in the preceding age, they were chiefly
cultivated by those of sedentary professions; nor had they till now
begun to spread themselves in any degree among men of the world.
Arts, both mechanical and liberal, were every day receiving great
improvements. Navigation had extended itself over the whole globe.
Travelling was secure and agreeable. And the general system of politics
in Europe was become more enlarged and comprehensive.

In consequence of this universal fermentation, the ideas of men enlarged
themselves on all sides; and the several constituent parts of the Gothic
governments, which seem to have lain long inactive, began everywhere
to operate and encroach on each other. On the continent, where the
necessity of discipline had begotten standing armies, the princes
commonly established an unlimited authority, and overpowered, by force
or intrigue, the liberties of the people. In England, the love of
freedom, which, unless checked, flourishes extremely in all liberal
natures, acquired new force, and was regulated by more enlarged views,
suitable to that cultivated understanding which became every day more
common among men of birth and education. A familiar acquaintance with
the precious remains of antiquity excited in every generous breast a
passion for a limited constitution, and begat an emulation of