Excerpt from The Unreformed House of Commons, Vol. 1: Parliamentary Representation Before 1832 These volumes are concerned with Parliamentary representation in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Ireland before 1832. My aim has been to trace the changes that representation in all four countries underwent from the time that the House of Commons in England began to have a continuous existence until the Reform Act of 1832. With the Houses of Lords in England and in Ireland I have had no concern, except in so far as touches the relations which in both countries existed between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. In treating of the Parliament of Scotland I have described the place of the First Estate. This has been necessary to an adequate presentation of the organisation and working of the Parliament of Scotland, as the peers and the representatives of the shires and burghs sat in one chamber. But in regard to the Parliaments of England and Ireland I have concerned myself only with the elected members. My care has been exclusively with the Houses of Commons and the representative system on which the Commons were chosen. In regard to all four countries my purpose has been to trace the changes which came about in the representative systems from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth, and to show how these changes affected both the House of Commons and municipal life. In a word, I have attempted such a history of Parliamentary representation as would enable a student of constitutional developement to realise what the representative system actually was when, in 1831, Grey, Russell, Althorp, and Brougham undertook the great work of Parliamentary Reform. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.