I:  -Europa.  609  35.  Großbritannien  und  Irland.

a  LE  ms

usually  meets  at  2.45  p.  m.,  except  on  Fridays.  40  members  constitute  a  quorum,  and  should  this
number  not  be  present  by  4  p.  m.  the  House  is  adjourned  till  the  next  sitting  day!.

The  powerful  position  of  the  modern  House  of  Commons  has  only  been  obtained  by  many
and  long  struggles  with  the  Crown?,  and  in  the  last  two  centuries  by  radical  reforms  in  its  own
constitution.  To-day  a  gradual  but  sure  change  is  observable,  the  power  of  the  Commons  as  &amp;
whole  body  of  legislators  is  slipping  from  them,  and  concentrating  itself  in  the  hands  of  the
Cabinet;  the  average  Member  of  Parliament  of  to-day  is  little  more  than  a  dummy,  his  power
lies  less  in  being  able  to  address  the  House,  tlıan  in  being  able  to  address  the  public  throughı  it,  and
to  hold  speeches  outside  the  house,  and  to  develop  his  views  in  the  press?.

“The  Petition  of  Rights  (1628)  was  the  first  attempt  to  restate  the  rules  of  constitutionel
liberty  laid  down  in  the  Great  Charter”’*.  In  the  Declaration  of  Rights  (1  W.  and  M.  st.  2,  c.  2)
submitted  to  William  III.  on  coming  to  the  throne,  the  powers  of  the  House  of  Commons  are
clearly  defined.  Further  it  claimed  “That  the  pretended  power  of  suspending  of  laws,  of  the
execution  of  laws,  as  it  hath  been  assumed  and  exercised  of  late  by  royal  authority,  without
consent  of  Parliament  is  illegal’.  William  accepted  the  crown  with  the  acknowledgement  that
the  king  had  no  right  to  exercise  a  dispensing  power,  or  to  exact  money°,  or  maintein  a  standing
army®,  “save  by  consent  of  Parliament”.  The  vote  of  supplies  was  made  an  annual  one.  To
William  III.  also  belongs  the  credit  of  the  solution  of  the  difficulty  occasioned  by  the  growth  of  the
new  power  of  the  Commons,  when  he  began  to  choose  his  ministers  from  among  the  members  of  the
party  strongest  inithe  House  of  Commons.  This  change  is  the  origin  of  our  system  of  government
by  party  (“Constitutional  Year  Book’  1909).

In  1714  upon  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover,  the  power  of  the  House  of  Commons
was  well  established,  and  its  place  in  the  constitution  had  become  clearly  defined.  At  the
Restoration  (1660)  the  number  of  members  was  513,  they  were  increased  to  558  in  1707,  at  the
Act  of  Union  of  the  English  and  Scottish  Parliaments  (45  members  were  allotted  to  Scotland).
In  1800  (union  with  Irish  Parliament)  100  meinbers  were  added,  making  the  total  658.  By  the
Redistribution  of  Seats  Act  the  number  of  members  was  raised  to  670.  There  are  253  County
seats  in  England  and  Wales,  39  in  Scotland,  85  in  Ireland;  there  are  242  Borouglı  seats  in  England,
32  in  Scotland  and  18  in  Ireland”.

ı  The  time-table  of  the  House  is  as  follows:  —  2.45  p.m.  House  meets.  Prayers;  2.50
Private  business  till  3;  3.0  p.m.  Questions;  3.45  Urgent  questions.  Public  business;  8—8.30  informal
  adjournment,  8.15  consideration  of  adjournment  motion  or  private  business;  11.0  End
of  public  business.

8  «The  story  of  English  history  is  the  record  of  the  struggle  of  the  House  of  Commons,  first
for  freedom,  then  for  power.  The  long  contest  of  the  elective  chamber  with  the  aristocracy,  and
with  the  Crown,  is  that  which  lends  dignity  to  the  annals  of  our  race,  and  vies  in  interest  with  the
expansion  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  peoples  in  the  regions  outside  Europe‘.  Sidney  Low,  “The  Governance
  of  England‘,  Lond.  2nd.  ed.  1906,  p.  55/6.

®  Vide  Low  Chaps.  III  and  IV.

“  Anson,  vol.  I,  p.  22.

8  «The  issue  between  the  first  Stuart  and  his  subjects  turned  on  the  right  of  the  King  to  tax
without  Parliament  and  judge  without  the  Law  Courts.  The  issue  between  the  last  Stuart  and
his  subjects  turned  on  the  Kings  right  to  suspend  the  law  at  his  pleasure  and  by  his  individual
aot.  The  offer  of  the  Crown  to  William  and  Mary,  their  acceptance  of  it,  and  the  codification  in
the  Bill  of  Rights  of  the  limitation  on  the  royal  prerogative,  mark  the  beginning  of  the  modern
constitution.  Ib.  p.  24.

°  Vide  p.  618.

?  Besides  books  referred  to  above,  see  further:  Gneist’s  “English  Parliament”  (4th.
ed.  Lond.  1895);  Freemans  “A.B.C.  Guide  to  Parliamentary  Procedure”’  (Lond.  1906);
May’s  “Parliamentary  Practice’’  (11th  ed.  Lond.  1906);  “The  Laws  of  England”,  by  the  Earl
of  Halsbury,  Title:  “Parliament”;  Fraser’s  ‘“Parliamentary  Elections’  (Lond.  1906);  Loly
and  Foulke’s  “Parliamentary  Election  Act’  (Lond.  1885);  Ward  ’s  “Practice  at  Parliamentary’
  Elections”  (3rd.  ed  Lond.  1906);  Ackland  and  Ransome’s  “Handbook  of  Political
  History’  (Lond.  1901),  Anson,  “Law  and  Custom  of  the  Constitution”,  vol.  I  (Oxford
1892,  isted);  Blackstone’s  “Commentaries  vols  I  pp.  141,  147,  150,  177;  IV  259,  263,  412,
425,  428;  Stephen's  Commentaries  vol.  II  pp.  318—394;  Professor  Stubb’s  “Constitu-77

