354 The Period of Constitution Making
of representation, and surely did not accompany it at
this time. The representative juries were used by the
king, and their choice by a royal officer would, in most
cases, in no way incapacitate them for uttering the
knowledge or opinion of their neighbourhood. Por it
must be clearly understood that for centuries after this
there was no thought of repiesentation or popular election
as governmental methods to be used by the people for
their purposes in government. The whole early devel-
opment of popular election in England was by the king
and to serve his interests.
Elections by groups of people were probably known to
the Anglo-Saxons—the manorial reeves were chosen by
the villagers, no one knows how far back, and as soon
as there were tithingmen they were probably elected by
their tithings. But the line of development which led
to elections to Parliament, to election and representation
as a notable feature of government, began with Henry II.
He was exalting the jury and he was suspicious of the
sheriff. Juries dealing with extremely important matters,
matters touching property and permanent rights, might
not safely be left to the direct and uncontrolled choice of
vent to the effect that the others who remained at home would regard as
valid whatever he [the prior] and those who came with him might do."
See W. and N., pp. 89, 90. But the whole local administration, especially
where the king touched it, was becoming shot through with the representa-
tive method. Indeed there could be no wide use of the people in govern-
ment in such a country as England without representation, and the Plan-
tagenet kings were determined to use the people widely. See above, Part
III., §11., 4. See B. Barker, The Dominican Order and Convocation, for
an attempt to prove that Parliament derived its representative principle
from the orders of Friars. Professor G. B. Adams has this to say of the
origin of representation: "Scholars have not yet come to an agreement
among themselves as to the source from, which the Idea embodied in
the representative system, as we understand it, was derived. It seems
altogether likely that the final decision will be that the idea was derived
from one source and the institutional forms, through which it was given
expression in the constitution of the state, from another. At any rate it
seems certain that the representative idea is first to be found expressed,
in language which conveys something like the modern meaning, in docu-
ments relating to the synods and councils of the church. On the other
hand it is equally clear that the preliminary, formal steps by which non-
feudal representatives were introduced into the great council were taken
entirely iree from influence of the church."—Constitutional History of
Englandt p. 173,