PREFACE. A POPULAR History of the House of Commons, furnishing biographical notices of those members who have been most distinguished in its annals, and describing the changes in its internal economy, powers, and privileges, appears to be still wanting in our literature. In vain we look for many a likeness in the national portrait-gallery of senators who have achieved greatness within the walls of St. Stephen's Chapel;-the long array of Speakers, lawyers, country gentlemen, and men of the sword, marshalled in the procession of England's worthies, seems far from complete. How little is comparatively known of those who claimed precedence as first commoners in the land! The name of Powle, to whom belonged the peculiar honour of presiding over the Convention, sounds almost strangely in our ears; Sir John Trevor is chiefly remembered by the erroneous statement of Granger, that he put the question to the vote on his own expulsion; of the virulent declaimer Foley, the scheming Lyttleton, the "one Smith," who occupied the chair of the first Parliament of Great Britain,-scarcely more than a few empty titles and barren dates are recorded! Nor have the great lawyers, who informed the debates with their constitutional knowledge, and whose |