address, the name of the Speaker, and the titles of the Acts passed, including the subsidies. There are no details of deliberation, or discussions- on petitions. There are no Journals of either House ; there is nothing in the shape of writs or returns to indicate the composition of the House of Commons; and little, if indeed anything, to show how the composition of the House of Lords was able to influence legislation or administration. Not that we are entirely in the dark as to these matters : we know from the character of the Acts passed, and from the nature of the political measures of the reign, what sort of influences must have been at work : but we have no documentary details, nothing of personal or sensational import. The ministerial changes of the reign are not in themselves important : the chancellorship, after having been held for a few months by Bishop Alcock, early in i486 devolves upon Archbishop Morton, who is the minister of the reign: he retains the great seal as long as he lives, and during the rest of the reign it is held only by Dene and Warham, succes sively archbishops of Canterbury. The treasury in the same way sees few alterations ; whilst Alcock is chancellor, Sir Reginald Bray is treasurer ; under Morton, Lord Dynham ; and from 1500 to 1509 Thomas Howard, who, as Earl of Surrey and Duke of Norfolk, remains at the head of finance during his life and leaves the position to his son, who holds it until 1546. The tenure of these great offices by prelates and magnates of this sort, of course, implies that a great deal of the business of the country was conducted by means of subordinate officials; it also means that the king and his council took such direct part in it, that the nominal ministers had a some^what diminished responsibility ; and it probably means further, under Henry VII at least, that the king dealt directly with the subordinate officials without much concert