In St. Stephen's Chapel
The Elizabethan House of Commons. By J. E. Neale (Cape. 18s.) SrunEmrs of Parliament of all ages, and especially those who have read Professor Neale's Queen Elizabeth, must have looked forward eagerly to this book since its first advertisement. They will not be disappointed. This is a wine which Professor Neale has blended and refined from his experience of a lifetime spent in the Elizabethan vineyard. It carries all the qualities which wide knowledge and fine scholarship can give it. The author tells us at once that we have here only half the vintage. This volume is concerned with the membership, habits and procedure of the House ; the next will cover the parliamentary history of the reign. The book clears up some of our most recurrent perplexities. We all know that sheriffs sometimes played hanky-panky at the elections, particularly of knights of the shire. Professor Neale reveals just what happened in the county courts. He has dug deep into Star Chamber cases brought by disappointed candidates. First came the nominations, decorous or rowdy according to local circumstances. In contested elections the next stage was the " election by voices," when the rival parties bawled each other out and the sheriff might jump a verdict. Then " the view " when voters were marshalled into groups and surveyed (perhaps with a purblind eye) from a point of vantage. Finally, in default of a result, the poll was taken, when each side could challenge voters of doubtful qualifications to perjure themselves with an oath. The sheriff had many tricks up his sleeve, such as sitting on the writ or suddenly switching the venue ; and humorous details abound, like the encounter in the churchyard at Wrexham in i6o1.
Without propounding any strikingly new theories the author pro- vides much good, fresh evidence. He conclusively supports the late Professor Pollard in showing that Elizabeth did not create new boroughs to pack her Parliaments, but that the impetus came from the boroughs themselves, or from the class of country gentlemen behind them, pressing for entry into an ever more popular institu- tion. Here he emphasises the incalculable advantages which accrued to England from the establishment of the system now known as " carpet-bagging," by which, in spite of categorical laws demanding local residence, " foreigners" from outside the constituency, includ- mg many of the ablest and most nationally-minded elements in the nation, were often elected to the House of Commons. " 9ne of the anomalies," remarks the author, " which every age tolerates and only posterity finds baffling."
The picture of the Elizabethan House of Commons contained in the final chapters is stimulating. We learn the ages and professions of the members who cipwded the Chapel of St. Stephen ; the hours they sat and their manners in debate ; how they hammered out their procedure an how many supported ME Queen's Government ; even how their §Erjeant at Arms so btllliantly inserted his spoon into their cnd-of-session charitable conCtions. The .description bears an added interest si Ce mane an he read for any earlier period. The curtain of our i norance mops at *out 155o with scarcely a chink in its folds. Two abiding impressions are: first, as usual, a haphazard development, decisions flickering this way and that until at long last they harden into accepted usage; secondly, a Parliameht growing up, a splendid membership, eager, able and loyal, gradually forgetting the tremulous fears of their fathers, maturing their pro- cedure, learning to hold their own even against their mighty sovereign.
There is plenty of human interest in this book. The technical evidence is examined against the authentically flamboyant Elizabethan backcloth with its potent and characteristically-named individuals strutting across the stage—Bess of Hardwick, Sir Bassingbourne Gawdy, Ralph Sekerston and Sir John Perrot, gigantically strong, courageous and quarrelsome, " a goodly gentleman, and of the sword." Otte wonders anew and topically what gave that little nation at that time the strength and energy for its resounding successes. Was it religion ; or the point of honour which culminated in the " bloody pride " of a Raleigh or an Essex ; or the wisdom and courage of its matchless Queen ; or only the healthy rock from which it was hewn ? But to return to Professor Neale ; the best news is that there is another bottle to come from his cellar.
STRATHEARN GORDON.
Previous page
