Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/163

Ch. 2. upreme power is divided into two branches; the one legilative, to wit, the parliament, coniting of king, lords, and commons; the other executive, coniting of the king alone. It will be the buines of this chapter to conider the Britih parliament; in which the legilative power, and (of coure) the upreme and abolute authority of the tate, is veted by our contitution. original or firt intitution of parliaments is one of thoe matters that lie o far hidden in the dark ages of antiquity, that the tracing of it out is a thing equally difficult and uncertain. The word, parliament, itelf (or colloquium, as ome of our hitorians tranlate it) is comparatively of modern date, derived from the French, and ignifying the place where they met and conferred together. It was firt applied to general aemblies of the tates under Louis VII in France, about the middle of the twelfth century. But it is certain that, long before the introduction of the Norman language into England, all matters of importance were debated and ettled in the great councils of the realm. A practice, which eems to have been univeral among the northern nations, particularly the Germans ; and carried by them into all the countries of Europe, which they overran at the diolution of the Roman empire. Relics of which contitution, under various modifications and changes, are till to be met with in the diets of Poland, Germany, and Sweden, and the aembly of the etates in France : for what is there now called the parliament is only the upreme court of jutice, compoed of judges and advocates; which neither is in practice, nor is uppoed to be in theory, a general council of the realm. us in England this general council hath been held immemorially, under the everal names of michel-ynoth, or great council, michel-gemote or great meeting, and more frequently Rh