Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/18

8 /. F. Baldwin men named in the Parliamentary commission is declared in the ap- peals of treason made against them in the following year : that they did not sufifer the good councillors to approach or speak with the king except in their presence ; that they caused the king to remove him- self to distant parts so that the lords appointed could not counsel him; that they even procured an opinion of certain judges that the Parliamentary commission was unlawful.' After the impeachments and condemnation of the traitors in 1388, to safeguard the next council it was enacted with severe penalties that no person of whatsoever estate or condition, except those assigned and ordained in the present Parliament, should interfere with the government in any way, unless it be by order of the continual council and with the assent of the king.- The lords of the council were made to swear not to suffer any act of that Parliament to be annulled, re- versed, or repealed. Yet this council too was summarily changed on the king's declaring himself of age. In 1399, with these events remembered, it was Richard himself who was accused of refusing to be guided by his duly chosen councillors and of selecting men according to his own pleasure.^ 6. The personal conduct of councillors also became at this time a matter of supervision in Parliament. That councillors should not have personal interests in suits before the courts was an old and recurring subject of legislation.^ In the first year of Richard II. it was once again declared that no councillor should sustain by main- tenance any quarrel in the country or elsewhere, under penalty.' Likewise earlier acts against bribery were renewed with increased stringency. In the fiftieth year of Edward III. it was declared that whoever of the council be found taking a bribe should render the party from whom it was received double and the king six times the amount." In the first year of Richard II. with great particularity it was ordained that no councillor should receive any gift of escheat, wardship, marriage, rent, or other thing, except by consent of all the council or the greater part of them ; and that none should take anything from any party by promise or otherwise, except what was to eat and drink of small value, under the same penalty as before." That councillors did use the opportunities of their positions for private gain is shown in the several cases of Parliamentary impeach- ment that were held. In 1376 Lord Latimer, at the time that he was chamberlain and a member of the privy council, was accused ' /?of. Par/.. III. 232. 2/fei'(f., 246. ^/bi'rf., 399. ' Statutes of the Realm. I. 95, 256 ; Rot. Pari., II. 10, 166. '^Ibid.. III. 6; Nicolas, Proceedings of the Privy Council. I. 86. <-Rof. Pari.. II. 322. ^ Ibid.. III. 6.