Page:History of Manchester (1771), Volume 1, by John Whitaker.djvu/305

 * 7 4 THE HISTORY Book I. muft have been compofed only of hereditary members. An ele&ive eftate of the legiflature, that favourite branch of the conftitution to every genuine Englifhman, was a&ually and ei> tirely unknown. The commons of the Celtic kingdoms were of no confequence at all in the general eftimate of polity, and were allowed no fuffrages in the general affemblies of the coun- try lo. The commons of Britain, as I have already demon- ft rated, were abfolutely all in a ftate of villainage. And the conftituent members of the parliament in the days of Howel Dha, the only antient parliament among the Britons of which we have any records remaining at prefent, are exprefsly declared to have been the men of wifdom and the men of authority in the kingdom ". The feudatories of Britain, like the feudatories of Normandy, were obliged by the tenure of their fees to the performance of certain civil as well as military fervices to the crown, exprefsly denominated the Services of the Forum, and in && relating equally to ads of legiflation as to the admini- ftration of juftke * The cantrevs were equally continued under the Roman go^ vernment. This the continuance of them among the Britons pf Wales abundantly evinces. They muft have been originally ufed by the Siftuntii for many purpofcs of a civil and a military nature, the colleftion of taxes, the muftering of forces, and the adminiftration of juftice. And to thefe they muft have been ftiti applied by both the Romans and the Britons. The Roman quaeftor of Mancunium was perhaps charged with the colle&ion of all the Roman taxes, arid the Roman praefedt at Manguniun* was perhaps commiffioned to lit xipon all the capital offences, that arofe within the compafs of the eaftern hundred. But the inftitution of trevs commots and cantrevs muft have .been particularly fubfervientto the adminiftration of civil juftice* The territorial judicatures of later feuds were all exemplified among the Britons. Every cantrev commot and trev had a <iiftin& court of juftic*, the appropriated tribunal of the diftritt or the ieigniory. Thus the pofleflbr of a villain eftate under a royal or a private lord was exprefsly bound to his appearance in the