THE right of the leffer barons to a feat in the fupreme court of the realm, was at first looked upon as a burthen to which their small eftates were unequal: they defired to be exempted as often as poffible. In order therefore to accommodate the matter, and at once to fecure to the king a fufficient number of members, and to fave his vaffals from an unneceffary burden, an eafy expedient was found out; the obligation to perfonal attendance was continued upon the greater barons; from which the leffer barons were exempted, on condition of their electing in each county a certain number of representatives to appear in their name. The great barons were fummoned to the general council, fingulatim, by a particular writ, and the leffer barons, under which appellation the knights and freeholders. were comprehended, were only called, aggregatim, by a general fummons of the fheriffs; and as the sheriffs, who were the vicegerents of the earls, were named by the king, and removable at his pleasure, he found them more dependent upon him, and endea

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endeavoured, in order to diminish the credit, and fupprefs the influence and exorbitant power of the great barons, to throw the whole authority and jurifdiction into their hands; who, by the confidence repofed in them by the king, being much fuperior to the earls, undermined their influence in their own jurisdiction. For the earls, as I mentioned before, like the barons, exercifed jurifdiction within their county, and were at once both civil and military officers, and their dignity was territorial and official. But the king, in order to bring these haughty chiefs more under his power, invefted the sheriffs, creatures of his own, with fo much power. And as the earls had a right to a third of the fines in their different counties, the king in creating an earl gave a fixt falary, commonly about 20l. a year, in lieu of his third of the fines; and the diminution of the power kept pace with the retrenchment of their profit; and the dignity of an earl, instead of being territorial and official, dwindled into perfonal and titular; and as the great barons were

fum

fummoned to the general council by a par→ ticular writ, fo the nomination of the small barons and knights was at the discretion of the king's minifter, the sheriff. It was customary for the prince to require, by a particular fummons, the attendance of a baron in one parliament, and to neglect him in future parliaments. Camden tells us, that the prudent king Edward the firft, fummoned to his parliament thofe of antient families that were moft wife, and omitted their fons after their death, if they did not come up to their parents in understanding; nor was this uncertainty ever complained of as an injury. He attended when required, but was better pleased to be exempted from the burthen. As he was acknowledged to be of the fame order with the greatest barons, it gave them no furprize to see him take his feat in the great councils, whether he appeared of his own accord, or by a particular fummons from the king.

In Richard the fecond's time there were fo few that came to parliament, that the king

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king was obliged to make a ftatute willing and commanding all perfons, which fhall have fummons to parliament, to come from henceforth as they are bound, and have been accustomed within the realm of England of old times. He called up one John Beauchamp of Holt, to parliament; having created him a baron by his royal letters patent. In one parlia ment held at Shrewsbury, he created five dukes, one marquis, and four earls by letters patent. These new created nobles called themselves peers of parliament, and are theonly nobility we now have, and constitute the house of peers, having juftled out the barons, who are the hereditary house of peers of this realm, and have as much right to fit in that house as the king has to St. James's. The barons by feudal tenure are now, in effect, excluded from having any share in the legislature. Beauchamp was the first man ever known to have been created a baron by royal letter patent. It is true, indeed, our ancient Saxon kings did generally call

up

up to parliament, by fome mode of creation, some few of their menial domestics; such as the steward of the household, the baker and the chamberlain; but then they did not call them up by the style and title of earls, which in the Saxon reigns was coequal and congradual with that of the barons in the Norman reigns; but they called them up by the ftyle and title of thanes; which in England, though not in Scotland, always carried with it the idea of meniality: for the word Thane then fignified no more than menial fervant. Of these thanes

Every alderman

there were three orders. did, or might appoint his thane; and this thane was one of the lowest order. Every lord of a manor, or baron, had his thane, who was one of the fecond order. The king alfo had his thane, who was the thane of the first order.

The barons by writ began gradually to intermix themselves with the ancient barons from tenure. After the battle of Evesham a pofitive law was enacted, prohibiting every baron to appear in parliament who

was