extremely ruinous, he built a temporary room for his parliament formed
with wood, covered with tiles. It was open on all sides, that the
constituents might see every thing that was said and done; and to secure
freedom of debate, he surrounded the house with 4,000 Cheshire archers,
with bows bent, and arrows knocked ready to shoot. This fully answered
the intent, for every sacrifice was made to the royal presence."

The place where the commons of Great Britain, now hold their assemblies,
was built by king Stephen, and dedicated to his namesake the
proto-martyr. It was beautifully rebuilt by Edward III. in 1347, and by
him made a collegiate church, and a dean and twelve secular priests
appointed. Soon after its surrender to Edward VI. it was applied to its
present use. The revenues at that period were not less than £1,085 a
year.

When the royal assent (says de Lolme) is given to a public bill, the
clerk says, _le Roy le veut_. If the bill be a private one, he says,
_soit fait comme il est désiré_. If the bill has subsidies for its
objects, he says, _le Roy remercie ses loyaux sujets, accepte leur
benevolence ainsi le veut_. Lastly, if the King does not think proper to
assent to the bill, the clerk says, _le Roy s'en avisera_; which is a
mild way of giving a refusal. This custom was introduced at the conquest,
and has been continued, like other matters of form, which sometimes exist
for ages after the real substance of things has been altered; and judge
Blackstone expresses himself on this subject in the following words:--"A
badge, it must be owned, (now the only one remaining) of conquest; and
which one would wish to see fall into total oblivion, unless it be
reserved as a solemn memento to remind us that our liberties are mortal,
having once been destroyed by a foreign power." (De Lolme.) Under the
walls of the _legal_ parliament, there is held an _illegal_ parliament,