Parliament 449

work undisturbed, whether the great ministers, the heads
of those departments, were essentially baronial or royal
appointees. We may say that the baronage was not na-
tional or popular — only, consciously or unconsciously,
posed as such. Yet the birth in the thirteenth century
of a conception of national, popular control of government
and its appropriation by the baronage were eyents of
great significance for the future. While not going the
length of some present-day scholars and regarding
Parliament to the end of the middle ages as a kind of ad-
dendum to baronial factions, yet the voice of the aris-
tocracy was heard in Parliament as no other voice. The
English barons grasped after privilege and power and
there are dark places in their history, but on the whole
from the time of Magna Carta they played a game that
was constructive and upon a high plane of intelligence.
How they came to be what they were and their share in
the making of the English constitution have yet to be
adequately told. EngUsb. kings jiadmade no_stangng
army ; to all appearance they had not tried. Perhaps the
SaronM and well-

constderedtohave given them, after the decline of the
feudal army, an opportunity. Butjsi^^
not use a militia_tojtgke taxes_withotit. consent, the people
were safe f romjMaJkind of despotism, except the rich who
migjikJb£^^
Also thenow"""^^

taxation without^ consent of Parliament no doubt had

The part played

by the people in English government went back, in some
of its phases, beyond record; but since the Conquest the
use of the people, especially in local government, had
worked into a settled royal policy. A share in govern-
ment, even at the end of the middle ages, was not felt to
be a privilege except in the case of a few: the great minis-
ters, possibly some members of Parliament or the local
magistrates, and minor officials who received stipends and
to whom government service was a means of livelihood.