as
made in consideration of a grant made by an assembly in which
representatives of cities and boroughs do not appear to have been
present. Yet, though the words of the charter or statute are
prospective, it seems to have long before been reckoned a clear right of
the subject, at least by himself, not to be taxed without his consent. A
tallage on royal towns and demesnes, nevertheless, was set without
authority of parliament four years afterwards. This "seems to show,
either that the king's right to tax his demesnes at his pleasure was not
intended to be included in the word tallage in that statute [meaning the
supposed statute _de tallagio non concedendo_], or that the king acted
in contravention of it. But if the king's cities and boroughs were still
liable to tallage at the will of the crown, it may not have been deemed
inconsistent that they should be required to send representatives for
the purpose of granting a general aid to be assessed on the same cities
and boroughs, together with the rest of the kingdom, when such general
aid was granted, and yet should be liable to be tallaged at the will of
the crown when no such general aid was granted" (p. 244).

If in these later years of Edward's reign the king could venture on so
strong a measure as the imposition of a tallage without consent of those
on whom it was levied, it is less surprising that no representatives of
the commons appear to have been summoned to one parliament, or perhaps
two, in his twenty-seventh year, when some statutes were enacted. But,
as this is merely inferred from the want of any extant writ, which is
also the case in some parliaments where, from other sources, we can
trace the commons to have been present, little stress should be laid
upon it.

In the remarks which I have offered in these notes on the Report of the
Lords' Committee, I have generally abstained from repeating any which
Mr. Allen brought forward. But the reader should have recourse to his
learned criticism in the Edinburgh Review. It will appear that the
committee overlooked not a few important records, both in the reign of
Edward I. and that of his son.

NOTE VII. Page 35.

Two considerable authorities have, since the first publication of this
work, placed themselves, one very confidently, one much less so, on the
side of our older lawyers and in favour of the antiquity of borough
representation. Mr. Allen, who, in his review of my volumes (Edinb. Rev.
xxx. 169), obser