Lecture Xxi.--Page 463

Of petitions during the early times of representative government.

Regulations on the subject.

Transformation of the right of petition possessed by the Houses of Parliament into the right of proposition and initiative.

Petitions ceased to be addressed to the king, and are presented to Parliament.

Origin of the right of inquiry.

Necessity for representative government to be complete.

Artifices and abuses engendered by the right of petition.