The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-01-20
ENGLAND THE BIRTE1PLACE OF PARLLAA1ENTARY GovERNA1EsNT

This year will mark the 700th an nlversary of Magma Chartas the Great Charter of the liberties of England, the document wrested by the barolis Of England from an unwilling mon arch and which marked the beginning of a new political and governmental era, not only for England buff or the world. One Of it's results was the in Stitution of arIiame ntary Eoyernment half asce1tury after, the craven King John yielded to the demands of the 1lobles at Runnymede.
 It was just six and a half centuries ago today, on Jan 20. 1265, that the first of English paTliRments, properly so called, was convened in the mag nificent hall at Westminster. In June l,of a1258 a great national council had been held at Oxford, to which the name of parliament had been official l " applied. but this was an asssenblage of baronsz only It marked a mi ghty protest against the, supreme power and arbitrary government of royalty.
 but ii was not in the least democratie ] irs it's ma atire
 The delegates to this council took upon themselves powers and rights | which Henry III protested The i'm I dignant king appealed to the arbitra- ktion of Saint Louis, who decided in
 his favor. The barons had taken no ] part in the arbitration, and they re- l fused to accept the decision. Instead 1 they again took up arms against the monarch, with simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester as their leader. In I 1264 the royalists and the reb ellious
 barons fought a battle at Lewes in (which the former were defeated. and the king and his son were taken pris- I 6ners
 I The. Earl of Leicester=the Cron- I well Of the period, although he gov
 erned in the name of the king he held as prisoner ganized the first I leonnplete representation Of the Eng I fish people. By or r1inance he pre-
 .seribed the election to this historic I parliament of two knights for each Ecounty and of two citizens for each l city or borough of each county This
 was the first clear Acknowledgements Il Of the right of the commons to repre- in the govern rnent.
 The representatives Of the Com tnaons sat in the same hall with theil noble associates. Like little children 4 they may have been warned that thes
 were s.to be seen and not heards' anc lin any event, they did not manifes E parliament. and did not join in the .| voting But they were there, an ad .l rnitted power in the state, entitled tt be consulted in the affairs of the gov ernment and to have their say in mat ters of taxation.
 
 toric parliament Leicester and his as lsociates were overthrown and execu {, fed: but the Commons retained thei sl representation in parliament, grad IlIIy increasing their power, until nov Ithey overshadow the Lords ant threaten the abolition of the ancien House.
 Thus England. to it's eternal glory
 became the birthplace of modern par
 hamentary governement. Until tn : great revolution, France >was a Ian, q Of despotisrn, and the commoner
 were but cattle; until the beginnin
 lof the nineteenth century, two-third
 of all Prussians were serfs, bound b
 feudalisrn to the soil they tiled. an, , similar conditions prevailed through ], out the greater part of Europe. Man
 Ireasons have been suggested for tn
 political radicalisTn of the s.conserva ] tive, English; not the least potent Q
 these, perhaps being the fact tha
 English kings have never had larg ! stainding armies to keep their sub
 jects in subjection.