ne tenth and a half, and one fifteenth and
a half. They also reversed the attainder of Tresilian and the other
judges; and, with the approbation of the present judges, declared the
answers for which these magistrates had been impeached to be just and
legal:[****] and they carried so far their retrospect as to reverse,
on the petition of Lord Spenser, earl of Glocester, the attainder
pronounced against the two Spensers in the reign of Edward II.[*****]
The ancient history of England is nothing but a catalogue of reversals:
every thing is in fluctuation and movement: one faction is continually
undoing what was established by another: and the multiplied oaths
which each party exacted for the security of the present acts, betray a
perpetual consciousness of their instability.

The parliament, before they were dissolved, elected a committee of
twelve lords and six commoners,[******] whom they invested with the
whole power both of lords and commons, and endowed with full authority
to finish all business which had been laid before the houses, and which
they had not had leisure to bring to a conclusion.[*******]

* Cotton, p. 370, 371

** Cotton, p. 371.

** Walsing. p. 355.

**** Statutes at large, 21 Rich. II.

***** Cotton, p. 372.

****** The names of the commissioners were, the dukes of
Lancaster, York, Albemarle, Surrey, and Exeter, the marquis
of Dorset, the earls of Marche, Salisbury, Northumberland,
Glocester, Winchester, and Wiltshire; John Bussey, Henry
Green, John Russel, Robert Teyne, Henry Chelmeswicke, and
John Golofre. It is to be remarked, that the duke of
Lancaster always concurred with the rest in all their
proceedings, even in the banishment of his son, which was
afterwards so much complained of.

******* Cotton, p. 372. Walsing. p. 355.

This was an unusual concession; and though it was limited in the object,
might, either immediately or as a precedent, have proved dangerous to
the constitution; but the cause of that extraordinary measure was
an event singular and unexpected, which engaged the attention of the
parliament.

After the destruction of the duke of Glocester and the heads of that
party, a misunderstanding broke out among those noblemen who had joined
in the prosecution; and the king wanted either authority sufficient to
appease it, or foresight to prevent it. The duke of Hereford appeared in
parliament, and a