Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/235

 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT. 1 99

theory, all the ' Commons of England,' has consisted, since 49 Hen. III., of knights of the shire, or representatives of counties; of citizens, or representatives of cities; and of burgesses, or repre- sentatives of boroughs, all of whom indistinctly vote together. Since the enactment of the statute 8 Hen. VI. c. 7, in the year 1429, regulating the election of knights of the shire, numerous Acts have been passed for the election of members of Parliament. Pre- vious to that statute, the Crown had a very large and absolute power in limiting and prescribing, by royal writs, the numbers and quali- fications of the persons to be elected, as well as of the constituencies. However, the distribution of the franchise in counties has always been far less variable and irregular than in boroughs, in nearly all cases two members being elected for every county. For cities and boroughs the constituencies varied greatly from time to time, and in incorporated boroughs depended chiefly on ancient customs and the terms of old charters and privileges. The number of cities and boroughs for which writs were issued in the time of Edward I., and thence to Edward IV., appears to have been 170. At the acces- sion of Henry VIII., the total number of constituencies, including counties, had become reduced to 147. In that reign the number was considerably increased, chiefly by the addition of representatives for Wales. In all the following reigns, up to the Restoration, large additions to the borough franchises were made. Previous to this period, members of Parliament had to be paid by their consti- tuencies ; but the practice growing up of members bearing their own expenses, many ancient boroughs, which had formerly been exempted from the returns on account of their poverty, became desirous of resuming their franchises. The additions from Edward VI. to Charles I. were almost entirely of borough members. In the fourth Parliament of Charles I., the number of places in England and Wales for which returns were made, exclusive of counties, amounted to 210; and in the time of the Stuarts, the total number of members of the House of Commons was about 500. The number of members was not materially altered from that time until the union with Scotland, in the reign of Queen Anne, when 45 representatives of Scotland were added. The next considerable change was at the union with Ireland, at the commencement of the present century, when the House of Commons was increased by 100 Irish represen- tatives. The number of members of the House since that period has remained nearly the same, fluctuating around the figure G50, with a slight tendency to gradual increase, through the extension of the suffrage and the formation of new classes of constituencies, such as universities. (See pp. 202-3.)

By the statute of 2 Will. IV. c. 45, commonly called the Reform Bill of 1832, the English county constituencies were increased from