t consent of
parliament illegal, though it did not for some time prevent their being
occasionally imposed, it was still more difficult to carry on a war with
France or Scotland, to keep on foot naval armaments, or even to preserve
the courtly magnificence which that age of chivalry affected, without
perpetual recurrence to the house of commons. Edward III. very little
consulted the interests of his prerogative when he stretched forth his
hand to seize the phantom of a crown in France. It compelled him to
assemble parliament almost annually, and often to hold more than one
session within the year. Here the representatives of England learned the
habit of remonstrance and conditional supply; and though, in the
meridian of Edward's age and vigour, they often failed of immediate
redress, yet they gradually swelled the statute-roll with provisions to
secure their country's freedom; and acquiring self-confidence by mutual
intercourse, and sense of the public opinion, they became able, before
the end of Edward's reign, and still more in that of his grandson, to
control, prevent, and punish the abuses of administration. Of all these
proud and sovereign privileges, the right of refusing supply was the
keystone. But for the long wars in which our kings were involved, at
first by their possession of Guienne, and afterwards by their
pretensions upon the crown of France, it would have been easy to
suppress remonstrances by avoiding to assemble parliament. For it must
be confessed that an authority was given to the king's proclamations,
and to ordinances of the council, which differed but little from
legislative power, and would very soon have been interpreted by
complaisant courts of justice to give them the full extent of statutes.

It is common indeed to assert that the liberties of England were bought
with the blood of our forefathers. This is a very magnanimous boast, and
in some degree is consonant enough to the truth. But it is far more
generally accurate to say that they were purchased by money. A great
proportion of our best laws, including Magna Charta itself, as it now
stands confirmed by Henry III., were, in the most literal sense,
obtained by a pecuniary bargain with the crown. In many parliaments of
Edward III. and Richard II. this sale of redress is chaffered for as
distinctly, and with as little apparent sense of disgrace, as the most
legitimate business between two merchants would be transacted. So little
was there of