Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/124

 114 PARLIAMENT tions the house of lords had as the representa- tive of the ancient concilium regis, or council of the king, which under the early Norman kings had jurisdiction both in civil and crimi- nal causes, especially in those relating to great persons and to officers of state, and by way of appeal from all other courts. In respect to the construction of the house for any legisla- tive purpose, there is no distinction between the lords temporal and the lords spiritual. The presence of three members who have been duly summoned and sworn constitutes a quo- rum ; and when a speaker has been appointed, the house may proceed to act either as a branch of the legislature or as a supreme court of ju- dicature. The lord chancellor or lord keeper of the great seal is speaker ex officio, and an ancient order declares it to be " his duty ordi- narily to attend the lords' house of parlia- ment." To make provision for his necessary absence, deputy speakers are appointed by commission from the crown, "to officiate from time to time during the royal pleasure in the room and place of the lord chancellor." The office is generally conferred upon the chief justice of the king's bench, or the chief baron of the exchequer. In the absence of both the lord chancellor or keeper and the deputy speakers, the lords themselves select a speaker pro tempore. The person who acts as speaker need not be a member of the house, nor in- deed of the peerage. Commoners have often been raised to the office. They may sit as speakers upon the woolsack, for constitution- ally that is not within the limits of the house. The lords answer " Content " or " Not con- tent" in voting, and on an equality of votes the effect is the same as if there were a ma- jority of " not content," for the maxim of the house is : Semper prcesumitur pro negante. Until the establishment of the supreme court of England (1873-'5) the lords had jurisdiction of writs of error and appeals from the com- mon law and equity courts. The former was of great antiquity ; the latter dates only from 1621, and was not acquiesced in until after angry and prolonged disputes between the two houses of parliament. The right to exercise it was questioned by some of the first lawyers of the time, including Sir Matthew Hale. The triumph of the peers is usually ascribed to the earl of Shaftesbury, who insisted that the lords' power of review extended over all the courts in the kingdom, civil, criminal, and ecclesias- tical. But from the last named courts appeals have never been entertained. So orders made on motion OP petition in matters of idiocy, lunacy, or bankruptcy were not carried up to the lords, but to the king in council. Writs of error to the lords were confined to matters of law. They might lie from all judgments of the courts of exchequer chamber in England and Ireland, and from all judgments in com- mon law of the court of exchequer of Scotland ; from all such judgments of the courts of queen's bench in England or Ireland as were not inter- mediately reviewable by the courts of exchequer chamber of the two countries ; from all judg- ments of the common law or "petty bag" side of the high court of chancery ; and from the decisions of the commissioners of error appoint- ed to review the common law proceedings of the London municipal jurisdictions. The act of 1873 (which as originally enacted was to take effect in November, 1874, but in August of that year was postponed to November, 1875), crea- ting the supreme court of England, takes from the house of lords its jurisdiction on writs of error and appeals from the several superior courts of England, and confers it upon " Her Majesty's Court of Appeal" thereby provided for. (See COUET.) House of Commons. The lowest branch of parliament, the third estate in dignity, but in fact the foremost in substan- tial power, is the commons ; or, to use the title which suggests the composition of this house, the knights, citizens, and burgesses. We have seen that the first clear intimation of two branches of parliament (not then necessarily sitting separate, however) is afforded by Mag- na Charta. That instrument provides a mode of summons according to rank. The greater barons were to be individually cited by special writs, while the other tenants in capite were to be called by general summons. That is to say, with regard to the former of these classes an individual and absolute right seems to be conceded; while with regard to the latter, those were considered to be entitled and sum- moned whom the general body should select as their representatives. Thus these inferior landed proprietors, or lesser barons as they have been called, ceasing gradually to be re- garded as peers, were allowed and sometimes directed to be summoned as knights of shires. Gradually, too, their privilege diminished, till they lost altogether the right of sitting with their superiors ; and, merging in the common- alty, they came, probably at the close of the 13th century, to form with the representatives of cities and boroughs the lower house. Du- ring the reigns of the first three Edwards, the power of the commons was materially enlarged and firmly established ; and to the time of Ed- ward IV. Hallam refers the foundation of the principle that the assent of the two houses is necessary to every legislative act. But owing to the jealousy of the upper house, and to its opportunities for defeating the rights of the commons, the principle was for a long time not carried out. In the reign of Henry VI. it first became true in fact, as it had long been in the theory of the government, that " the law of the land is made in parliament by the king and the lords spiritual and temporal and all the commonalty of the realm." It is the exclusive right of the commons to originate all bill; which either directly or by construction impos< any burden or charge on the people ; and thes< bills include not only those which provide sup plies for the general administration of the gov ernment, but also all those which contemplat