Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/190

the moſt flouriſhing towns to ſend repreſentatives to parliament. So that as towns encreaſed in trade, and grew populous, they were admitted to a ſhare in the legiſlature. But the misfortune is, that the deſerted boroughs continued to be ſummoned, as well as thoſe to whom their trade and inhabitants were transferred; except a few which petitioned to be eaſed of the expenſe, then uſual, of maintaining their members: four ſhillings a day being allowed for a knight of the ſhire, and two ſhillings for a citizen or burgeſs; which was the rate of wages eſtabliſhed in the reign of Edward III^[1]. Hence the members for boroughs now bear above a quadruple proportion to thoſe for counties, and the number of parliament men is increaſed ſince Forteſcue’s time, in the reign of Henry the ſixth, from 300 to upwards of 500, excluſive of thoſe for Scotland. The univerſities were in general not empowered to ſend burgeſſes to parliament; though once, in 28 Edw. I. when a parliament was ſummoned to conſider of the king’s right to Scotland, there were iſſued writs, which required the univerſity of Oxford to ſend up four or five, and that of Cambridge two or three, of their moſt diſcreet and learned lawyers for that purpoſe^[2]. But it was king James the firſt, who indulged them with the permanent privilege to ſend conſtantly two of their own body; to ſerve for thoſe ſtudents who, though uſeful members of the community, were neither concerned in the landed nor the trading intereſt; and to protect in the legiſlature the rights of the republic of letters. The right of election in boroughs is various, depending intirely on the ſeveral charters, cuſtoms, and conſtitutions of the reſpective places, which has occaſioned infinite diſputes; though now by ſtatute 2 Geo. II. c. 24. the right of voting for the future ſhall be allowed according to the laſt determination of the houſe of commons concerning it. And by ſtatute 3 Geo. III. c. 15. no freeman of any city or borough (other than ſuch as claim by birth, marriage, or ſervitude) ſhall be intitled to vote therein, unleſs he hath been admitted to his freedom twelve calendar months before.

1. 4 Inſt. 16.
2. Prynne parl. writs. I. 345.

2. Our