[78] These expressions cannot appear too strong. But it is very remarkable that to the parliament of 18 Edward III. the writs appear to have summoned none of the towns, but only the counties. Willis, Notit. Parliament. vol. i. Preface, p. 13. Prynne's Register, 3rd part, p. 144. Yet the citizens and burgesses are once, but only once, named as present in the parliamentary roll; and there is, in general, a chasm in place of their names, where the different ranks present are enumerated. Rot. Parl. vol. ii. p. 146. A subsidy was granted at this parliament; so that, if the citizens and burgesses were really not summoned, it is by far the most violent stretch of power during the reign of Edward III. But I know of no collateral evidence to illustrate or disprove it. [79] Tallages were imposed without consent of parliament in 17 E. I. Wykes, p. 117; and in 32 E. I. Brady's Hist. of Eng. vol. ii. In the latter instance the king also gave leave to the lay and spiritual nobility to set a tallage on their own tenants. This was subsequent to the Confirmatio Chartarum, and unquestionably illegal. [80] Prynne's 2nd Register. It may be remarked that writs of summons to great councils never ran ad faciendum, but ad tractandum, consulendum et consentiendum; from which some would infer that faciendum had the sense of enacting; since statutes could not be passed in such assemblies. Id. p. 92. [81] 28 E. I., in Prynne's 4th Register, p. 12; 9 E. II. (a great council), p. 48. [82] Brady's Hist. of England, vol. ii. p. 40; Parliamentary History, vol. i. p. 206; Rot. Parl. t. ii. p. 66. [83] Carte, vol. ii. p. 451; Parliamentary History, vol. i. p. 234. [84] Rot. Parl. vol. i. p. 289. [85] Id. p. 430. [86] Id. vol. ii. p. 7. [87] Id. p. 289, 351, 430. [88] Id. p. 5. [89] Id. p. 86. [90] Rot. Parl. vol. i. p. 285. [91] 4 E. III. c. 14. Annual sessions of parliament seem fully to satisfy the words, and still more the spirit, of this act, and of 36 E. III. c. 10; which however are repealed by implication from the provisions of 6 Will. III. c. 2. But it was very rare under the Plantagenet dynasty for a parliament to continue more than a year. It has been observed that this provision "had probably in view the administration of justice by the king's court in parliament." Report of L. C. p. 301. And in another place:--"It is clear that the word parliament in the reign of Edward I. was not used only to describe a legislative assembly, but was the common appellation of the ordinary assembly of the king's great court or council; and that the legislative assembly of the realm, composed generally, in and after the 23rd of Edward I., of lords spiritual and temporal, and representatives of the commons, was usually convened to meet the king's council in one of these parliaments." p. 171.