enacting
clauses; nor in the reigns ensuing, till the 9 Edward III., nor in any
of the enacting clauses of 16 Richard II. Nay, even so low as Henry
VI., from the beginning till the eighth of his reign, the assent of the
commons is not once expressed in any enacting clause. See preface to
Ruffhead's edit, of the Statutes, p. 7. If it should be asserted, that
the commons had really given their assent to these statutes, though
they are not expressly mentioned, this very omission, proceeding, if you
will, from carelessness, is a proof how little they were respected. The
commons were so little accustomed to transact public business, that
they had no speaker till after the parliament 6 Edward III. See Prynne's
preface to Cotton's Abridg.: not till the first of Richard II. in the
opinion of most antiquaries. The commons were very unwilling to meddle
in any state affairs, and commonly either referred themselves to the
lords, or desired a select committee of that house to assist them, as
appears from Cotton. 5 Edw. III. n. 5; 15 Edw. III. a. 17; 21 Edw. III.
n. 5; 47 Edw. III. n. 5; 50 Edw. III. n. 10; 51 Edw. III. n. 18; 1 Rich.
II. n. 12; 2 Rich. II. n. 12; 5 Rich. II. n 14; 2 parl. 6 Rich. II. n.
14; parl. 2, 6 Rich. II. n. 8, etc.]

[Footnote 5: NOTE E, p. 105. It was very agreeable to the maxims of all
the feudal governments, that every order of the state should give their
consent to the acts which more immediately concerned them; and as the
notion of a political system was not then so well understood, the other
orders of the state were often not consulted on these occasions. In
this reign, even the merchants, though no public body, granted the king
impositions on merchandise, because the first payments came out of their
pockets. They did the same in the reign of Edward III.; but the
commons had then observed that the people paid these duties, though the
merchants advanced them; and they therefore remonstrated against this
practice. Cotton's Abridg. p. 39. The taxes imposed by the knights on
the counties were always lighter than those which the burgesses laid on
the boroughs; a presumption, that in voting those taxes the knights and
burgesses did not form the same house. See Chancellor West's Inquiry
into the Manner of creating Peers, p. 8. But there are so many proofs,
that those two orders of representative were long separate, that it is
needless to insist on them. Mr. Carte, who had carefully consulted the
rolls of pa