ng John Magna Charta, from which sprang the House of
Lords. The pope took part with the king, and excommunicated the lords.
The date was 1215, and the pope was Innocent III., who wrote the "Veni,
Sancte Spiritus," and who sent to John Lackland the four cardinal
virtues in the shape of four gold rings. The Lords persisted. The duel
continued through many generations. Pembroke struggled. 1248 was the
year of "the provisions of Oxford." Twenty-four barons limited the
king's powers, discussed him, and called a knight from each county to
take part in the widened breach. Here was the dawn of the Commons. Later
on, the Lords added two citizens from each city, and two burgesses from
each borough. It arose from this, that up to the time of Elizabeth the
peers were judges of the validity of elections to the House of Commons.
From their jurisdiction sprang the proverb that the members returned
ought to be without the three P's--_sine Prece, sine Pretio, sine
Poculo_. This did not obviate rotten boroughs. In 1293, the Court of
Peers in France had still the King of England under their jurisdiction;
and Philippe le Bel cited Edward I. to appear before him. Edward I. was
the king who ordered his son to boil him down after death, and to carry
his bones to the wars. Under the follies of their kings the Lords felt
the necessity of fortifying Parliament. They divided it into two
chambers, the upper and the lower. The Lords arrogantly kept the
supremacy. "If it happens that any member of the Commons should be so
bold as to speak to the prejudice of the House of Lords, he is called to
the bar of the House to be reprimanded, and, occasionally, to be sent to
the Tower." There is the same distinction in voting. In the House of
Lords they vote one by one, beginning with the junior, called the puisne
baron. Each peer answers "_Content_," or "_Non-content_." In the Commons
they vote together, by "Aye," or "No," in a crowd. The Commons accuse,
the peers judge. The peers, in their disdain of figures, delegated to
the Commons, who were to profit by it, the superintendence of the
Exchequer--thus named, according to some, after the table-cover, which
was like a chess-board; and according to others, from the drawers of the
old safe, where was kept, behind an iron grating, the treasure of the
kings of England. The "Year-Book" dates from the end of the thirteenth
century. In the War of the Roses the weight of the Lords was thrown, now
on the side of John o