figures, delegated to the Commons, who were to profit by it, the superintendence of the Exchequer—­thus named, according to some, after the table-cover, which was like a chess-board; and according to others, from the drawers of the old safe, where was kept, behind an iron grating, the treasure of the kings of England.  The “Year-Book” dates from the end of the thirteenth century.  In the War of the Roses the weight of the Lords was thrown, now on the side of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, now on the side of Edmund, Duke of York.  Wat Tyler, the Lollards, Warwick the King-maker, all that anarchy from which freedom is to spring, had for foundation, avowed or secret, the English feudal system.  The Lords were usefully jealous of the Crown; for to be jealous is to be watchful.  They circumscribed the royal initiative, diminished the category of cases of high treason, raised up pretended Richards against Henry IV., appointed themselves arbitrators, judged the question of the three crowns between the Duke of York and Margaret of Anjou, and at need levied armies, and fought their battles of Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, and St. Albans, sometimes winning, sometimes losing.  Before this, in the thirteenth century, they had gained the battle of Lewes, and had driven from the kingdom the four brothers of the king, bastards of Queen Isabella by the Count de la Marche; all four usurers, who extorted money from Christians by means of the Jews; half princes, half sharpers—­a thing common enough in more recent times, but not held in good odour in those days.  Up to the fifteenth century the Norman Duke peeped out in the King of England, and the acts of Parliament were written in French.  From the reign of Henry VII., by the will of the Lords, these were written in English.  England, British under Uther Pendragon; Roman under Caesar; Saxon under the Heptarchy; Danish under Harold; Norman after William; then became, thanks to the Lords, English.  After that she became Anglican.  To have one’s religion at home is a great power.  A foreign pope drags down the national life.  A Mecca is an octopus, and devours it.  In 1534, London bowed out Rome.  The peerage adopted the reformed religion, and the Lords accepted Luther.  Here we have the answer to the excommunication of 1215.  It was agreeable to Henry VIII.; but, in other respects, the Lords were a trouble to him.  As a bulldog to a bear, so was the House of Lords to Henry VIII.  When Wolsey robbed the nation of Whitehall, and when Henry robbed Wolsey of it, who complained?  Four lords—­Darcie, of Chichester; Saint John of Bletsho; and (two Norman names) Mountjoie and Mounteagle.  The king usurped.  The peerage encroached.  There is something in hereditary power which is incorruptible.  Hence the insubordination of the Lords.  Even in Elizabeth’s reign the barons were restless.  From this resulted the tortures at Durham.  Elizabeth was as a farthingale over an executioner’s block.  Elizabeth assembled Parliament as seldom as possible, and reduced