cortes, their sanction was not deemed essential to the validity of
legislative acts; [31] for their presence was not even required in many
assemblies of the nation which occurred in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. [32] The extraordinary power thus committed to the commons was,
on the whole, unfavorable to their liberties. It deprived them of the
sympathy and co-operation of the great orders of the state, whose
authority alone could have enabled them to withstand the encroachments of
arbitrary power, and who, in fact, did eventually desert them in their
utmost need. [33]

But, notwithstanding these defects, the popular branch of the Castilian
cortes, very soon after its admission into that body, assumed functions
and exercised a degree of power on the whole superior to that enjoyed by
it in other European legislatures. It was soon recognized as a fundamental
principle of the constitution, that no tax could be imposed without its
consent; [34] and an express enactment to this effect was suffered to
remain on the statute book, after it had become a dead letter, as if to
remind the nation of the liberties it had lost. [35] The commons showed a
wise solicitude in regard to the mode of collecting the public revenue,
oftentimes more onerous to the subject than the tax itself. They watched
carefully over its appropriation to its destined uses. They restrained a
too prodigal expenditure, and ventured more than once to regulate the
economy of the royal household. [36] They kept a vigilant eye on the
conduct of public officers, as well as on the right administration of
justice, and commissions were appointed at their suggestion for inquiring
into its abuses. They entered into negotiation for alliances with foreign
powers, and, by determining the amount of supplies for the maintenance of
troops in time of war, preserved a salutary check over military
operations. [37] The nomination of regencies was subject to their
approbation, and they defined the nature of the authority to be entrusted