Not only were many formal statutes passed without
any mention of the consent or advice of parliament, but a simple
order of the king in council, or a simple proclamation, writ, or
letter under seal, issued by his command, had the same force as
what Coke calls "an act of parliament." And this practice
continued, to a considerable extent at least, down to Coke's own
time.
The kings were always in the habit of consulting their
parliaments, more or less, in regard to matters of legislation,
not because their consent was constitutionally necessary, but in
order to make influence in favor of their laws, and thus induce
the people to observe them, and the juries to enforce them.
The general duties of the ancient parliaments were not
legislative, but judicial, as will be shown more fully hereafter.
The people were not represented in the parliaments at the time of
Magna Carta, but only the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons,
and knights; so that little or nothing would have been gained for
liberty by Coke's idea that parliament had a legislative power.
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