EARLY PARLIAMENTS.


When the Saxon government was first established in England, there
was no distinction of freehold and copyhold; the latter, according
to Blackstone, was a possession acquired by a vassal subsequent to the
Norman feudal system. Copyholders being thus considered as slaves, were,
notwithstanding their possessions, deemed unworthy of the franchise; and
from this refinement, on the arbitrary principles of the Normans, every
copyholder was deprived of a vote, unless he could claim it by some
other tenure.

The term borough originally meant a company consisting of ten families,
which were bound together as each other's pledge. Afterwards boroughs
came to signify a town, having a wall, or some sort of enclosure round;
and all places that, in old times, had the name of boroughs, it is said,
were fortified or fenced in some shape or other.

In the time of the West Saxons, a parliament was holden by King Ina,
by these words: "I, Ina, King of the West Saxons, have caused all my
fatherhood, aldermen, and wisest commons, with the goodly men of my
kingdom, to consult of weighty matters."

William the Conqueror, in the fourth year of his reign, called a
parliament, which consisted of twelve representatives for each county,
and the cities and boroughs were wholly omitted. After the battle of
Lewes, in which Henry III. was defeated by the barons, they called a
parliament, and made the king sign an order to summon four knights to
represent each county, and four for the cities of London, York, and
Lincoln. These representatives were chosen by universal suffrage of