The system was gradually developed by employing men not acquainted with the facts, and bringing witnesses before them to testify; and a further change was made when the decision of questions of law was given to a judge, leaving to the jury only questions of fact. The county officers were elected by the freemen at these courts. The central government was vested in a king, who came to the throne by hereditary title, but The King. also, usually, with the consent of the larger land-owners. Associated with him in the management of affairs was a body called the Assembly of the Wise Men. Originally all the land-owners were entitled to a seat in this assembly; but after a time only the more powerful exercised the right. This body had power to raise troops for national defence, to impose taxes, to direct ecclesiastical affairs, and to care for the general interests of the state. The body met only when convoked by the king. The Great Thus it appears, that the government was a limited monarchy, that the great body of the people had no voice in its administration, that the local institutions afforded considerable liberty to the lower classes of freemen, and were designed to secure justice to all. The Feudal The Norman Conquest (1066) wrought some most important changes. The Feudal System was introduced. By this the king was considered the proprietor of all lands, and distributed them among the people as he chose. To some he gave lands for which they were to pay a fixed rent; but most held estates on condition of rendering a stipulated amount of military service. The holders were called the king's vassals, and held the property for a specified time, or for life; and later the title became hereditary. As king's vassals they were entitled to a seat in his council. These men granted portions of their estates to subordinates on similar terms. Besides the mili re Feudal Abuses. Many abuses crept into the system. tary service, the king's vassals were quired to furnish money to ransom the king's person, and on the marriage of his eldest daughter. If a vassal died, the king received money of the heir on coming to the property: if the heir was not of age, the king became his guardian, and received the revenues of the estate. Often, in place of the military service, the kings demanded money. Two Councils. This latter Besides the great council composed of the king's vas sals, there came to be a smaller one consisting of those officers of state who were immediately attached to the king's person. body came to exercise all the administrative part of the government under the authority of the king. The king interfered in the local administration by withdrawing an important part of the business from the county courts, and giving it to justices of his own appointment. Some of the county officers also came to be appointed by the king. In all these ways the Norman sovereigns oppressed their subjects; and person and property Norman Oppreswere not secure from their arbitrary rule. sion. During all this time the barons struggled against the unjust exactions; and each king, on coming to the throne, granted a charter in which he solemnly promised to respect the ancient laws, and to refrain from oppressive acts. But these promises were never kept. During the reign of John, who was both weak and mean, the barons, under arms, compelled Magna Charta. him to sign the famous instrument called Magna Charta (1215). The larger part of this consisted of concessions to the barons, remedying feudal abuses. It also established a fixed mode of administering justice, setting up in the counties a court to be held by two judges appointed by the king, and four knights chosen by the county. The most important declaration was as follows: "No freeman shall be arrested, or imprisoned, or dispossessed of his tenement, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any wise proceeded against; we will not place or cause to be placed hands upon him, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. Justice shall not be sold, refused, or delayed to any one." It will be seen that here was a promise of complete civil liberty to every freeman. But John and the kings who succeeded him evaded these charters in every possible way, and, though repeatedly taking oath to respect them, were always violating them. Origin of the It had always been a fundamental principle, that the king could lay no taxes without the consent of his council, though every king had done so. In the early part of the thirteenth century, the lesser vassals of the king, though not attending the council, had considerable prominence in the counties; and associated with them was an important class of land-owners who held their property on other than feudal terms. These were the so-called English yeomanry. The kings, hoping to secure a party in the council in their interest, began the practice of summoning a certain number of men from the counties, to be chosen by those smaller land-owners as their representatives. These men were called knights of the shire. About the same time, many towns had acquired wealth and importance; and to secure their influence, and also that they might be taxed with their own consent, they were invited to send deputies to the assembly (12501300). These were called borough members. There was no system in the matter. Those boroughs which were called upon were represented, and only those. The right came to be based upon custom, so that in process of time many large towns grew up without representation, while old but decayed boroughs retained the ancient privilege. This was the cause of the evil of "rotten boroughs," which created so much agitation in the early part of the present century. Thus it appears that during the thirteenth century the limiting body came to consist of three Parliament. parts, first, the barons and bishops, sitting by their own right; second, the knights of the shire, elected by the land-owners of the counties; third, the borough members, elected by those who managed the local affairs in the towns. The last two classes, having interests in common, after a time united, and formed the House of Commons; the other constituted the House of Lords: the whole made up the Parliament. Power of the Commons. At first the Commons had little share in the government except to assent to taxation. If they had grievances to be redressed, or new measures to propose, they framed petitions, and presented them to the king through their presiding officer, for this reason called Speaker. These requests were so frequently disregarded, that they gradually adopted the surer method of framing their wishes into statutes, and then presenting them to the king for his approval. They claimed the right of free discussion, and then the right to examine into public expenditures, and to hold the king's ministers responsible for maladministration. All these were signs that the idea of the government's responsibility to the state was gaining ground. of the Tudors. On the accession of the Tudors (1485), they found Arbitrary Rule the nobility greatly weakened by the long civil wars that had preceded, and the commons had not yet acquired the courage to defend their rights stoutly. The result was, that under Henry VII. and Henry VIII. the people suffered the most gross and oppressive exactions. When Parliament objected to voting money, the king's ministers raised it by illegal modes of taxation. One of these ministers told the merchants whom he was trying to fleece, that those who lived expensively thus showed their wealth, and those who lived prudently must have grown rich by economy, and so both classes could afford to be taxed. Personal security was no more inviolate than property. Hallam says, "A single suspicion in the dark bosom of Henry VII., a single cloud of wayward humor in his son, would have been sufficient to send the proudest peer of England to the dungeon and the scaffold." During the reign of these two men, the authority of the king was more nearly absolute than at any other period of English history. The complete establishment of civil and political liberty came after a century and a half of agitation respecting religion. The Roman Catholic was the only religion in England and on the Continent. Immense estates were connected with the churches and Power of the |