of affirmative proof. And such I reckon
the inference from the language of Roger Hoveden, of Matthew Paris, and
so many more who speak of councils and parliaments full of prelates and
nobles, without a syllable of the burgesses. Either they were absent, or
they were too insignificant to be named; and in that case it is hard to
perceive any motive for requiring their attendance.

NOTE VIII. Page 42.

A record, which may be read in Brady's History of England (vol. ii.
Append. p. 66) and in Rymer (t. iv. p. 1237), relative to the
proceedings on Edward II.'s flight into Wales and subsequent detention,
recites that, "the king having left his kingdom without government, and
gone away with notorious enemies of the queen, prince, and realm, divers
prelates, earls, barons, and knights, then being at Bristol in the
presence of the said queen and duke (prince Edward, duke of Cornwall),
_by the assent of the whole commonalty of the realm there being_,
unanimously elected the said duke to be guardian of the said kingdom; so
that the said duke and guardian should rule and govern the said realm in
the name and by the authority of the king his father, he being thus
absent." But the king being taken and brought back into England, the
power thus delegated to the guardian ceased of course; whereupon the
bishop of Hereford was sent to press the king to permit that the great
seal, which he had with him, the prince having only used his private
seal, should be used in all things that required it. Accordingly the
king sent the great seal to the queen and prince. The bishop is said to
have been thus commissioned to fetch the seal by the prince and queen,
and by the said prelates and peers, _with the assent of the said
commonalty then being at Hereford_. It is plain that these were mere
words of course; for no parliament had been convoked, and no proper
representatives could have been either at Bristol or Hereford. However,
this is a very curious record, inasmuch as it proves the importance
attached to the forms of the constitution at this period.

The Lords' committee dwell much on an enactment in the parliament held
at York in 15 Edw. II. (1322), which they conceived to be the first
express recognition of the constitutional powers of the lower house. It
was there enacted that "for ever thereafter all manner of ordinances or
provisions made by the subjects of the king or his heirs, by any power
or authority whatsoever, concerning the royal