asy for us at this
distance of time to determine: there remain no proofs on record of any
considerable violation of the laws, except in the assassination of the
duke of Glocester, which was a private crime, formed no precedent, and
was but too much of a piece with the usual ferocity and cruelty of the
times.

The most remarkable law which passed in this reign, was that for the
due election of members of parliament in counties. After the fall of the
feudal system, the distinction of tenures was in some measure lost;
and every freeholder, as well those who held of mesne lords, as the
immediate tenants of the crown, were by degrees admitted to give
their votes at elections. This innovation (for such it may probably be
esteemed) was indirectly confirmed by a law of Henry IV.[***] which
gave right to such a multitude of electors, as was the occasion of great
disorder.

* Stowe, p. 415. Holingshed, p. 661.

** Grafton, p. 653.

*** Statutes at large, 7 Henry IV. ca. 15.

In the eighth and tenth of this king, therefore, laws were enacted,
limiting the electors to such as possessed forty shillings a year
in land, free from all burdens within the county.[*] This sum was
equivalent to near twenty pounds a year of our present money, and it
were to be wished, that the spirit, as well as letter, of this law had
been maintained.

The preamble of the statute is remarkable: "Whereas the elections
of knights have of late, in many counties of England, been made by
outrageous and excessive numbers of people, many of them of small
substance and value, yet pretending to a right equal to the best knights
and esquires; whereby manslaughters, riots, batteries, and divisions
among the gentlemen and other people of the same counties, shall very
likely rise and be, unless due remedy be provided in this behalf,
etc." We may learn from these expressions, what an important matter
the election of a member of parliament was now become in England: that
assembly was beginning in this period to assume great authority: the
commons had it much in their power to enforce the execution of the laws;
and if they failed of success in this particular, it proceeded less from
any exorbitant power of the crown, than from the licentious spirit of
the aristocracy, and perhaps from the rude education of the age,
and their own ignorance of the advantages resulting from a regular
administration of justice.

When the duke of York, the earls of Sal