PARLIAMENT

(In modem 'Latin parlia?nenium, in French parlement; from the Fr. parler, to speak.) The supreme legislative a embly of Great Britain and Ireland. Origin qf Parliament. — By the principles of the feudal system, every sovereign and every great feudatory had his council, composed of his greater and le er va als, which occasionally a embled to a ist him both injudicial and legislative matters; and which was held in theory to be permanent, so that its a ent was nece ary to the validity of his acts. And it was also an ancient custom, in several of the western kingdoms of Europe, for such potentates to hold a emblies of their barons at the great festivals of the year, termed cours plenieres and parle mens; principally, however, if not entirely, for the mere purpose of show 'and magnificence. But occasionally such special a emblies were summoned for more important purposes; and the meeting in 1146, at which the crusade of Saint Louis was imdertaken, is said to funilsh the first occasion in which the word parliament is used for a deliberative a embly. In France, however, the word was afterwards transferred to signify the principal judicial courts of that country. {See Parliament.) The only realms in which it appears to have become appropriated to the great legislative a emblies are England, Scotland, and the Norman kingdom of Sicily. The parliament of the latter country consisted, in the 13th century, of spiritual and temporal barons summoned by the king's writ; and occasionally, but not uniformly, of deputies from the towns similarly summoned. All the extensive and laborious researches which have been made, of late years, towards dispelling the obscurity which rests over the commencement and early constitution of our parliaments, have only shown that little new Information is attainable on tlie subject. We can Indeed, conjecture pretty accurately tiie proce by which PARLIAMENT. meetings of delegates for the purpose of apportioning taxation became gradually a emblies, granting or refusing supplies with absolute authority; and that by which a convention summoned for the object of representing grievances to the sovereign, and giving their approbation to his acts, became a sovereign legislative body. But to investigate the internal changes in the a embly itself, the mode by which it became divided into distinct chambers, the manner in which the peerage was formed as a distinct body out of the free baronage of the country, and that in which the lower house acquired the features of a regular representative body, may be safely pronounced, with our present knowledge, impo ible. The Norman and Plantage net kings had two councils, — the great council of the kingdom, and the le er or privy council; and it may be freely stated, after making all deductions from the principle on the score of arbitrary powers occasionally exercised by the sovereign, that, ever since the Norman conquest, the supreme legislative power in England has been placed in the king and great council conjointly. It was, moreover, in early times, a court of criminal judicature also, and aided the sovereign in all the more important transactions of his government. It interfered even in matters of ecclesiastical discipline; in questions of peace and war, of grace and justice; and, by way of advice, in the appointment to vacant offices, civil or ecclesiastical. The meetings of the great council were at stated festivals under the Norman kings; but after the civil wars in the reign of Stephen they were summoned at irregular periods. The inferior or privy council, which, as well as the great council, is indifferently termed curia reg is in early writers, was composed of members named by the king, and constantly attended on his person j and this inferior body usurped, during the decadence of the great council, and before the full establishment of parliament, many of the legislative functions of the former: but by Magna Charta all aids and scutages were to be a e ed by the great council; which thus, in principle at least, po e ed a control over the extraordinary revenues of the crown. Any meeting of the great council, or of a portion of it, went by the ordinary name of a " parliament," or colloquy. But of the constituent parts of this a embly, and the changes which took place in it, no writers give a satisfactory account. All we know is, that it was supposed to consist of all the tenants in chief of the crown; but, by the charter of King John, the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons, were to be summoned personally; the other tenants in chief by the sheriffs and bailifls. From this distinction is supposed to have arisen the institution of the peerage as a separate body from the le er nobility, which so peculiarly distinguishes the constitution of England from those of all other feudal monarchies. From these mixed a emblies to a representative body the change proceeded by steps, which it is impo ible wholly to trace. The first vestiges, perhaps, of representation, appear in the 15th year of King John, when, for a particular purpose, writ's were i ued to the sheriffs, commanding them to return four knights for each county, " ad loquendum cum rege de negotio regni," at Oxford. But the better known and more distinct evidence of the beginning of the system is found in the Earl of Leicester's parliament after the battle of Lewes, in 48 Hen. 3., when four knights for every county (except nine) were summoned to attend with the barons, probably as representatives of the inferior nobility or le er barons; and in the following years were i ued the earliest writs of summons to parliament. These were to archbishops, bishops, and abbots; to certain earls and barons of the party of the Earl of Leicester; and to the sheriffs of counties and boroughs, to return two kniglits and burge es, besides four from each of the Cinque Ports. And although no subsequent writs directed to the sheriffs for the purpose of county elections are in existence earlier than 18 Edw. I., nor of borough elections earlier than the 23d of the same reign, yet it is at least highly probable that the example set by the rebellious Earl of Leicester was ever after substantially followed, and that the representatives of counties and towns were occasionally summoned to parliament; as well for the purpose of a e ing tallage and other aids demanded, as for that of giving their counsel respecting other affairs of the government. Edw. I. usually held four parlia^ ments in a year; nor does it appear that these were legislative a emblies: they were rather supreme courts of justice, clnefly attended by the ordinary or privy councillors of the king; while the legislative a embly, certainly composed, after the 23d of this reign, of lords spiritual and temporal and representatives of the commons, was summoned to meet the king occasionally during one of these parliaments. The constitutional law of the country, whatever it may have been in practice, was first declared by the statute 15 Edw. 2., which annulled the award against the king's favourites, the Despencers. lu this act the legislative"^ authority was declared to reside in the king, with the a ent of the prelates, earls, barons, and commons, as  II. The term marquis is derived from the LaAn marchio, signifying a military officer, governor of the mark or frontier. This dignity has been always conferred by letters patent. Dukedoms are the highest titles of the English peerage. The first was created 2 Edw. 3., when Edward the Black Prince was made Duke of Cornwall. It has been a question whether the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster were not duchies by tenure; but every other dukedom is a mere personal honour, and conferred by charter or letters patent. The term duke is derived from the Latin dux, leader of an army; answering to the German herzog, which has the same signification. All peerages are forfeited by attainder for high treason; and attainder is consequent either on judgment or on outlawry, upon an indictment for that offence. Nothing but a reversal of such act of attainder by parliament can restore an attainted person, or his posterity, to the lost dignity. But where a peerage is vested in a person in tail male, with remainder over to another in 891 tail male, if the first be attainted the peerage is forfeited as to him and his i ue male; but, failing such i ue male, the dignity becomes vested in the remainder-man, or his descendant. Peerages by writ are also forfeited by attainder for felony; but not peerages by charter or letters patent. By the twenty-second and twenty-third articles of the Union between England and Scotland, sixteen representatives are elected by the Scots peers to serve in every parliament of the United Kingdom. The eldest sons of Scottish peers were rendered, by a decision of the House of Commons shortly after the union, incapable of sitting in parliament. It was held for a long time that a Scottish peer could not sit in the House of Lords if he became a peer of Great Britain; but the point was decided the other way in 1780. By the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland (39 & 40 G. 3. c. 67.), twenty-eight lords temporal are elected for life by the peers of Ireland. Peers of Ireland, who are members of the House of Commons, are not eligible to serve as peers while they continue members of the former house. 2. Lords Spiritual — The right of the two archbishops and twenty-four bishops of England and Wales to sit and vote in parliament as members of the House of Lords, is generally said to belong to them as barons of the realm. It is undoubtedly probable that at the period of the Conquest a change took place in the tenure of the lands which were held by bishops and the high regular clergy; and that the Norman tenure by barony, then introduced for the first time, was made to comprehend both spiritual and temporal po e ions, which under the Saxon kings had been regarded in a different light. But it is most probable that the dignitaries of the church were constituent members of the great council of the realm, by the English as well as all other feudal constitutions, independent of their quality as barons (see Hallani, Middle Ages, c. viii. part 3.); but that the place which was a igned them in the House of Lords, when the two houses became separate, was in virtue of their baronial character. Under the Plantage net kings the clergy were summoned to meet by their representatives, as well as the laity, when subsidies were required; and under Edward I. (see Luders on Parliaments, chap, iii.) attempts were made to unite them and the laity together in parliament; but they were always resisted by the clergy, and at last they ceased altogether to attend in any capacity, retain tain ing their own a emblies. {,See Convocation.) At the period of the di olution of monasteries by Henry VIII., the spiritual lords consisted of the then archbishops and bishops, and of twenty-six mitred abbots, and two priors, all of whom were then removed on the di olution of their houses. The present spiritual lords have the same rights and privileges in every respect as the temporal, except that it is still a disputed point in constitutional law whether they have a right, on charge of treason and felony, to a trial by the peers; and it is also doubted whether they have judicial power, as peers, in capital cases. By the Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland, four lords spiritual from among the archbishops and bishops of that country sit in the House of Lords by rotation of se ion. House of Commons. — I. Persons qualified to serve in it. — Persons incompetent to sit as members of parliament are, first, those labouring under the incapacities of alien ship, attaint, outlawry in criminal proceedings, minority, lunacy, .; next, those who are disqualified by the po e ion of certain offices, or by certain other temporary causes. Clergymen, peers, Scotch peers, Irish peers for places in Ireland, the eldest sons of Scotch peers for places in Scotland, the fifteen judges of England, the Scotch judges and barons of the Scotch exchequer, are ineligible. Where the influence of government is supposed to have a direct control over the party, a disqualification has been created by various statutes. Persons concerned in the management of the revenues, with some few exceptions, are ineligible. So are persons holding new offices under the crown created since 1705, together with other persons mentioned in 6 Anne, c.7. So pensioners during pleasure or for a terra of years, police magistrates, government contractors, and placemen in public offices, specified in 15 G. 2. c. 22. There are also offices connected with the excise and customs which only disqualify the holder from sitting and voting, but not from being elected. Persons returned on a double return are not competent to sit until the return is decided by a committee. The acceptance of any office of profit from the crown by a member vacates his seat, by 6 Anne, c.7. And there are two places of no profit, tlie acceptance of which is considered to vacate a seat; viz. tlie stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, and the stewardship of the manor of East Hendred. Officers of the army and navy receiving new commi ions are excepted from this statute: so are those who accept a foreign employment, as amba adors. [s. 903]