and elected proctors; the barons summoned severally in person by the king’s special writ, and the commons summoned by writs addressed to the sheriffs, directing them to send up two elected knights from each shire, two elected citizens from each city, and two elected burghers from each borough. The writ by which the prelates were called to this parliament, contained a famous sentence taken from the Roman law, “That which touches all should be approved by all,” a maxim which might serve as a motto for Edward’s constitutional scheme, however slowly it grew upon him, now permanently and consistently completed. [Sidenote: House of Lords. ] The House of Commons was not the only part of the parliamentary system that benefited by his genius for organization. The House of Lords became, under the same influence and about the same time, a more definitely constructed body than it had been before. Up to this reign, the numbers of barons specially summoned had greatly varied. When they were assembled for military service they had been summoned by special writ, whilst the forces of the shires were summoned by a general order to the sheriff. Although a much smaller number were requisite for purposes of counsel than for armed service, the two functions of the king’s immediate vassals were intimately connected, and for a long period, every baron or land-owner who was summoned by name to the host, might perhaps claim to be summoned by name to the parliament. But such a summons was a burden rather than a privilege. The poorer lords, the smaller land-owners, would be glad to escape it, and to throw in their lot with the commons, who were represented by elected knights; nor were the kings very anxious to entertain so large and disorderly a company of counsellors. The custom of calling to parliament a much smaller number of these tenants-in-chief than were called to the host, must have grown up during the reign of Henry III., as the idea of representation grew. From the reign of Edward I. it became the rule to call only a definite number of hereditary peers; and, although that rule was not based upon any legal enactment or any recorded resolution of government, it quickly gained acceptance as the constitutional rule; the king could increase the number of lords by new writs of summons, and the special writ conferred hereditary peerage. This limited body was the House of Lords, and the dignity of the peerage descended from father to son, no longer tied to the possession of a particular estate or quantity of land held of the king. [Sidenote: Representation of the clergy. ]