The knights, therefore, acted apart in this petition.

See Cotton, Abridg.p.13.Chief baron Gilbert thinks, that the reason why taxes always began with the commons or burgesses was, that they were limited by the instructions of their boroughs.

See Hist, of the Exchequer, p.

37.] [Footnote 5: NOTE F, p.105.The chief argument from ancient authority, for the opinion that the representatives of boroughs preceded the forty-ninth of Henry in., is the famous petition of the borough of St.Albans, first taken notice of by Selden, and then by Petyt, Brady, Tyrrel, and others.

In this petition, presented to the parliament in the reign of Edward II., take town of St.Albans asserts, that though they held "in capite" of the crown, and owed only, for all other service, their attendance in parliament, yet the sheriff had omitted them in his writs; whereas, both in the reign of the king's father, and all his predecessors, they had always sent members.