Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/23



OLITICAL exigencies led the Long Parliament to propound during the first two years of its existence two conflicting theories of the English constitution. In 1640 Parliament met the king’s claims to absolute power with the doctrine that the liberties of England were protected by fundamental law. In 1642, confronted with the necessity of waging war against the king, Parliament had to rid itself of the limitations that precedent had placed on its activity. It accomplished this end by claiming the right to interpret without appeal the fundamental laws of the kingdom. Soon all men could see that the right of interpretation as Parliament used it involved the right to make and set aside laws at pleasure. The power to interpret the constitution of the kingdom was the bridge that carried the Long Parliament from the doctrine of the supremacy of the law to the doctrine of the supremacy of Parliament.

But in 1640 the Parliament leaders were concerned with criticising the illegal acts of others, not with seeking legal justification for their own. In the expressed opinion of the leaders of the Long