sixty-three articles was drawn up. The barons then went to the King at Runnymede and compelled him to sign the Magna Charta-the Great Charter. We trace our liberties back to the Magna Charta since English history before the American Revolution is our history. While the Magna Charta says nothing of representation, it went into great detail in guaranteeing the ancient rights and customs, chief among which was the right of trial by jury. It was the method of choosing juries in local courts which later suggested the general idea of representation.

The Representative Parliament. After the death of King John, his weak, incompetent son, Henry III, repeatedly violated the provisions of the Great Charter and was compelled to sign it not less than six different times during his reign of fifty-six years. This king, too, was always needing money and frequently called upon the Great Council, composed of nobles and higher clergy, to vote funds for his use. Sometimes he called upon the shire-reeves, later called sheriffs, to send two knights from each shire to represent the common people in the Great Council. The King called these representatives of the shires because he thought he could get money from the people more readily if they had, in the Great Council, representative who had agreed to the levy.

At one of these meetings the Great Council made the King sign a charter before granting any of his requests. This document provided that a committee of the Great Council should rule the country for the King. He soon refused to be bound by this agreement and war followed. The barons defeated the King's forces, captured the King and took charge of the government. They compelled him to call another meeting of the Great Council to which two representatives

from each town and two knights from each shire were invited to meet with the nobles and clergy. This body known as Parliament, unlike the Great Council, included representatives from all classes of Englishmen-lords, clergy, representatives of the towns and counties (shires). The King called Parliament very often as he was frequently in need of money. As the nobles and clergy met in one hall and the representatives of the towns and counties in another, Parliament became the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The Petition of Rights. Membership in Parliament was not a popular official position. Men were not anxious to pledge themselves and their neighbors to pay taxes. Leaders soon learned to bargain with the King; they secured the right to examine the accounts of the King's officers and impeach unworthy officials. Parliament became very strong and sometimes deposed kings.

About the time the Puritans were settling New England, Parliament compelled Charles I to sign the second great charter of English liberty known as the Petition of Rights. This charter among other things provided that “no man hereafter should be compelled to make or yield any gift, loan, or benevolence, tax, or such like charge without common consent by act of Parliament." This was another way of saying that there should be no "taxation without representation."

Bill of Rights. After signing the Petition of Rights King Charles, who was very obstinate, sent Parliament home and ruled in violation of his agreement. Finally, he needed money so badly that he was compelled to call Parliament again The new Parliament quarreled with Charles, refused to furnish him money, and after a long struggle put him to death. England was ruled for a time without a king. The two sons of

Charles who later became kings had not learned to respect the rights of Parliament or the people. The second of these, James II, stubbornly persisted in disregarding these rights and was driven from England. The newly elected King was compelled to sign the "Bill of Rights," the third great charter of English liberty. This document, like its predecessors, enumerated the things that it was illegal for the King to do. Among them it mentions: levying money without the consent of Parliament, suspending laws passed by Parliament, or interfering with the election of members of Parliament. It also declared that freedom of speech and debate in Parliament ought not to be called in question in any other place. All these provisions made possible more complete representation of the wishes of the people.

A New Idea of Representation. The next great development of representative government came in America. In most of the states of Europe where there was any pretense of representation, the representatives of each class were assembled in separate halls. Each group voted yes or no upon such measures as the King saw fit to put before it. Two of the three houses could carry or reject a measure. The advantage was clearly with the privileged classes, the nobles and clergy, who usually had common interests and always had two of the three houses. As we have seen, this plan was somewhat changed by the peculiar growth of Parliament in England. There the same idea of representation by classes is found, but two of the classes, the nobles and clergy, became united in the House of Lords and the representatives of the towns and shires met together, forming the House of Commons. Every clergyman in the House of Lords represented his class, that is, all the clergymen in England; every

noble in the House of Lords represented his class, that is, all the nobles in England; and every man in the House of Commons represented his class, that is, every man in England not a clergyman or a noble.

When the English settled America no political class distinctions developed. There were few nobles or clergymen of the established church among the colonists. Representation was considered by the Americans to be one of the rights of Englishmen guaranteed in the early charters. In 1619 the first representative assembly of Americans met in Virginia. The members of the House were elected from the various counties and thus came to think of themselves as representing their respective counties. They soon represented the rights of the colony as a whole in its relations with the mother country. Thus developed the idea that a representative stood for the best interests of his colony as a whole and at the same time he was in a peculiar sense the representative of his particular district or county. In this way the idea of representation of the people in territorial units instead of classes of society developed in America. One of the chief causes of the American Revolution grew out of the difference of opinion in regard to territorial as opposed to class representation.

It

The Constitution of the United States. Our greatest charter of liberty is the Constitution of the United States. might be called a charter of liberty for the world, since practically all civilized nations have adopted representative government modeled after either the American or the English plan.

The Constitution provides for the organization of a government. It then prohibits this government from doing any

of the things the other three great charters of liberty had prohibited the English king from doing. Instead of a king, it provides for a representative of the sovereign people of the United States, elected by them, to represent them in the execution of the laws. It provides for a Congress composed of two houses, both of which are representative of territorial units. It also provides for a supreme court and such inferior courts as Congress may establish; the courts represent the people in the interpretation of the laws. Thus the Constitution of the United States marks a great epoch in the development of representative government by providing for an organization, every part of which is representative of the people.

Representation and the Ballot. To be represented in a government one must have a voice or vote in choosing officials. As representative government has developed, the question of who was qualified to choose the officers has always been important. In early history the right to vote was limited to the few. The benefits of the Magna Charta were extended to all freemen, but five-sixths of the English people of that time were not free; they were serfs and not included in its provisions. Even at the beginning of the nineteenth century when the population of England was 9,000,000, it is estimated that 15,000 voters elected a majority of the members of the House of Commons. As late as 1865 only one in six of the adult male population was permitted to vote. In America at the beginning of the nineteenth century many of the states limited suffrage by requiring property qualifications or church membership.

Something more than a century ago the Industrial Revolution caused the common man to feel the need of being repre