d with the attendance of most of the
lesser barons in parliament; and in return for this indulgence (for such
it was then esteemed) required them to choose in each county a certain
number of their own body, whose charges they bore, and who, having
gained the confidence, carried with them, of course, the authority of
the whole order. This expedient had been practised at different times
in the reign of Henry III.,[*] and regularly during that of the present
king. The numbers sent up by each county varied at the will of the
prince:[**] they took their seat among the other peers; because by their
tenure they belonged to that order:[***] the introducing of them into
that house scarcely appeared an innovation: and though it was easily in
the king's power, by varying their number, to command the resolutions of
the whole parliament this circumstance was little attended to in an age
when force was more prevalent than laws, and when a resolution, though
taken by the majority of a legal assembly, could not be executed, if it
opposed the will of the more powerful minority.

*Rot. Glaus. 38. Hen. III. pp. 7. and 12. d.; as also Ret.
Claus 12 Hen. III. m. 1. d. Prynne's Pref. to Cotton's
Abridgment.

** Brady's Answer to Petyt, from the records, p 151.

*** Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, App. No. 13.

But there were other important consequences, which followed the
diminution and consequent disuse of the ancient feudal militia. The
king's expense in levying and maintaining a military force for every
enterprise, was increased beyond what his narrow revenues were able to
bear: as the scutages of his military tenants, which were accepted in
lieu of their personal service, had fallen to nothing, there were no
means of supply but from voluntary aids granted him by the parliament
and clergy, or from the talliages which he might levy upon the towns
and inhabitants in royal demesne. In the preceding year, Edward had been
obliged to exact no less than the sixth of all movables from the laity,
and a moiety of all ecclesiastical benefices[*] for his expedition
into Poictou, and the suppression of the Welsh: and this distressful
situation which was likely often to return upon him and his successors,
made him think of a new device, and summon the representatives of all
the boroughs to parliament. This period, which is the twenty-third of
his reign, seems to be the real and true epoch of the house of
commons, and the fai