nt dawn of popular government in England. For the
representatives of the counties were only deputies from the smaller
barons and lesser nobility; and the former precedent of representatives
from the boroughs, who were summoned by the earl of Leicester, was
regarded as the act of a violent usurpation, had beer, discontinued in
all the subsequent parliaments; and if such a measure had not become
necessary on other accounts, that precedent was more likely to blast
than give credit to it.

* Brady's Treatise of Boroughs, p. 31, from the records.
Heming vol. i. p. 52. M. West. p. 422. Ryley, p. 462

During the course of several years, the kings of England, in imitation
of other European princes, had embraced the salutary policy of
encouraging and protecting the lower and more industrious orders of
the state; whom they found well disposed to obey the laws and civil
magistrate, and whose ingenuity and labor furnish commodities requisite
for the ornament of peace and support of war. Though the inhabitants of
the country were still left at the disposal of their imperious lords,
many attempts were made to give more security and liberty to citizens,
and make them enjoy unmolested the fruits of their industry. Boroughs
were erected by royal patent within the demesne lands; liberty of trade
was conferred upon them; the inhabitants were allowed to farm, at a
fixed rent, their own tolls and customs,[*] they were permitted to
elect their own magistrates; justice was administered to them by these
magistrates, without obliging them to attend the sheriff or county
court: and some shadow of independence, by means of these equitable
privileges, was gradually acquired by the people.[**] The king, however,
retained still the power of levying talliage or taxes upon them at
pleasure;[***] and though their poverty and the customs of the age made
these demands neither frequent or exorbitant, such unlimited authority
in the sovereign was a sensible check upon commerce, and was utterly
incompatible with all the principles of a free government. But when
the multiplied necessities of the crown produced a greater avidity for
supply, the king, whose prerogative entitled him to exact it, found
that he had not power sufficient to enforce his edicts, and that it was
necessary, before he imposed taxes, to smooth the way for his demand,
and to obtain the previous consent of the boroughs, by solicitations,
remonstrances, and authority. The inconve