I.--Narrative of an Expedition to the Polar Sea, in the Years 1820-23; commanded by Lieutenant, now Admiral Ferdinand Von Wrangel, of the Russian Imperial Navy. Edited by Major Edward Sabine, II.-Elevation of the Cathedral Church of St. Chad, Birming- ham. By A. W. Pagin. London. 1840. III.-1. Changes produced in the Nervous System by Civiliza- tion, considered according to the Evidence of Physi. ology and the Philosophy of History. By Robert Verity, M.D., Member of the Universities of Edin- burgh and Gottingen. Second Edition, enlarged. 2. The Anatomy of Suicide. By Forbes Winslow, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London ; author of “ Physic and Physicians.” London. 1840. 348 IV.-1. The Sportsman in France. By Frederick Tolfrey, 2. The Encyclopædia of Rural Sports. By D. Blaine, scripte von Hanover, den lateinischem text zur Seite ; ubersetzt von Dr. Rass und Dr. Weis, 3te. vermehrte Auflage. gr. 8vo. Maintz. 1825. 3. Exposition de la Doctrine de Leibnitz sur la Reli- gion (ouvrage Latin inédit, et traduit en Français), avec un nouveau Chois de Pensées sur la Religion et VI. The Poetical Works of Thomas Moore, collected by himself. London. 1841. Vols. I to VII. - - 429 VII. Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries, by Henry Hallam, F.R.A.S., Foreign Associate of the Aca- demy of Moral and Political Sciences in the French - THE DUBLIN REVIEW. FEBRUARY 1841. Art. 1.-1. The Impossibility of Civil or Religious Liberty under the Papal Supremacy.-Popery the Enemy of God and Man. Tracts by the Protestant Association. 1840. 2. Popery as opposed to Knowledge, the Morals, the Wealth, and the Liberty of Mankind—“ A prodigious structure of imposture and wickedness.” London : 1838. 3. The Homilies appointed to be reud in Churches ; to which are added, the Articles of Religion, Constitutions, and Canons Ecclesiastical. Printed for the London Prayer Book and Homily Society. 1833. broke off in our last number. We shall be told that though parliament may have possessed great powers in the times to which we were referring, it was the upper and not the lower House that possessed ihem. Ought not the anthorities we have already cited to shame the parrot-ers of such pretences into silence? In fact the Parliament rolls, since ihe period they have been regularly preserved, seem little more, with regard to matters of legislation, than journals of the House of Commons. We now consider it a most important matter that money bills should originate in the Commons; but from the reign of Edward III to that of Henry VII-almost all bills, from the entailing of the crown to the enclosing of a common, originated with them. The “qe la communalte aura eslu” clause, in the coronation oath, was not a mere unmeaning formula. The business of legislation was left almost entirely to them, the Lords confining themselves, generally, to their duties as judges, and as counsellors to the king. The rolls of Parliament are the best authority on this question. For the first year of Edward III they are not preserved. All the states concurred simultaneously VOL. X.-NO. XIX. B The first entail of the crown in the election of Henry IV.* originates solely and expressly in the Commons, as if they, as the representatives of the entire community, had the best-we may almost say, the only-right to originate such a proposal. The second entail originates also expressly with them. The right of inheritance to the crown is determined as a judicial question by the Lords alone, but to the subsequent arrangements the Commons are parties. Again, the settlement of the crown in the first year of Edward IV, originates with the Commons. The bill for settling it on Richard III, appears as the work of Lords and Commons, without any data to shew with which it originated.§ That for settling it on Henry VII originates with the Commons, || as does also the proposal to put an end to all controversy respecting it, by his marriage with the daughter of Edward IV; which last, being merely a verbal request, the Lords repeat after the Commons in an humble tone.¶ Petitions for the confirmation of a queen's dowry, and of the gift of the reversion of Richmond castle to the Duke of Bedford by Henry V, for the reversal of attainders, for grants of lands aud privileges, &c. &c. when addressed to the king, are, in the first instance, referred to them, and after the significant entry, 66 a cest bille les communes sount assentuz," are taken into consideration by the King and Lords.** The best possible criterion of their power, is the opinion entertained of them by their contemporaries, as indicated by the number of petitions presented to them. In early times most petitions were addressed to the king, or to the king and his council. In the reign of Henry IV many of them are addressed to the Lords and Commons, and some to the Commons only: in the reign of Henry V almost every petition on the rolls from commoners is addressed to the Commons, except a few from the universities and the king's own tenants. The same observation applies, but not with exactly the same strictness, to the subsequent reigns, up to that of Henry VII. Not only do all commoners petition them, but many persons belonging to *See Rot. P. I Hen. 4, 423. + See the entire proceedings, Id. 8 Hen. 4, 574, 5, 6; 580, 1, 2. § See Rolls, 1 Ric. 3, 240, &c. Ib. 278. "Eandem requestam fecerunt voce dimissa." "The faction which raised Henry insisted, for their own protection, on his marriage with Elizabeth." "The marriage was humiliating to him."--Brod. Hist. vol. i. p. 21. ** See Id. 11 & 12 Hen. 6, 459, 461, 463, 465, 473-1; 4 Edw. 4, 518-9, 555; 14 Edw. 4, 166, &c. &c. |