Commons
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Commons. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the people who have a right to sit or a right to vote for representatives in the English House of Commons, and all who in England are under the rank of peers without reference to their voting privileges. English House of Commons is that one of the two Houses of the English Parliament which consists of representatives duly elected according to law in prescribed numbers by the burgh, county, and university constituencies of the United Kingdom. The name Commons is given to its members to distinguish them from the Peers of the United Kingdom who sit in the House of Lords. History. The earliest traces of the English House of Commons are in A. D. 1265. The year previously (on May 12, 1264), Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, who was of French origin, but brother-in-law to King Henry III., defeated his sovereign at the Battle of Lewes, and made him prisoner. In 1265 the victor issued writs in the King's name requiring each sheriff of a county to return to a Parliament which he proposed to hold, two knights for the shire under his jurisdiction, two citizens for each city within its limits, and two burgesses for each borough. A Parliament had exof lords and other dignitaries isted previously; county representatives may occasionally have sat almost from 13th century, the commencement of the and an assembly of knights and burgesses, nicknamed the Mad Parliament, had met in A. D. 1258, but no writs are Montfort's, summoning extant before De the representatives of cities and boroughs to attend. The Parliament thus called together met in London on Jan. ou 22, 1265, but on Aug. 4, De Montfort was slain at the battle of Evesham, and the royal government restored. The victory was obtained for the king mainly through the military ability of Prince Edward, afterward King Edward I., who, at least as early as 1294, i. e., the 22d year of his reign, himself called together a parliament of the De Montfort type. The borough representatives were 246, those fro from the counties or shires 74. Under Edward III. these members had altered to 282 and 74. Each place represented sent two members, without reference to its population. universal suffrage; members There was required no property qualification, and were paid. In the eighth year of Henry VI., the county franchise was narrowed in its operation, no one now being al lowed to vote unless he possessed freehold worth 40 shillings, a sum the purchasing power of which would have been about the equivalent of £12 ($60) at the beginning of the 18th century, and £20 ($100) at the beginning of the 19th. The Act 23 Henry VI. c. 14, made it an indispensable qualification for election as a member of Parliament that the person should be a knight, or eligible to be one, by which was meant that he should have a freehold of £40 ($200) a year. James I., by his royal prerogative, conferred two members on the University at Oxford and the same number on that of Cambridge. All along till the revolution of 1688, efforts were made insidiously to reduce, or, if not, then at least to damage, the burgh representation. But in 1694 the 6 and 7 William and Mary, c. 2, enacted that Parliaments in future should be triennial, an alteration which much tended to render the House of Commons independent of the royal authority. A similar passed in 1641, but repealed in 1664. The Act 9 Queen Anne, c. 5, established a landed property qualification for members, whether for counties or boroughs, and by the first George I., passed in 1716, the Septennial Act was established which made the legal duration of a Parliament seven instead of three years. It is still in force. At the beginning of the 18th century, England and Wales had 513 members of Parliament. The union with Scotland in 1707 added 30 county and 15 borough members to the House of Commons, that with Ireland on Jan. 1, 1801, 64 for counties, 35 for cities, and one for Dublin University. This made up the entire representation of the United Kingdom to 658, a number which was nominally preserved until 1885, though the suspension nsion of writs_in individual constituencies for proven flagrant bribery occasionally slightly reduced the number. The Act of 1885 made radical reforms, placing the basis of representation at about one member for every 9,000+ electors. The number of members for the entire realm of Great Britain and Ireland is now (1920): England and Wales, 495; Ireland, 103; Scotland, 72. In 1917 women were enrolled in the Parliamentary franchise. Present state. A Parliament cannot spring into life by any effort of its own; it requires to be summoned by the sovereign. During an interregnum a Convention Parliament, sometimes called simply a Convention, can do so, and has done it twice in English history, once in 1660, the other time in 1688. The House of Commons is presided over by a Speaker. The first one, called Peter de la Mere, was elected in A. D. 1377. Most of the important legislation which emanates from the Imperial Parliament has its origin in the House of Commons. By the Septennial Act a Parliament which has escaped what may be termed a violent end dies a natural death in seven years. A general election of representatives to serve in the new House of Commons then takes place, and when a new Parliament assembles, the House of Lords, as an essential part of the complex machinery, is also summoned to meet. Few Parliaments, however, die a natural death. When the Ministry is defeated on what they deem a vital point, and they are of opinion that the country agrees with them and not with their adversaries, the sovereign generally receives and acts upon the advice to dissolve Parliament, an act which formally submits to the judgment of the constituencies the disputed point which caused the ministerial crisis.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in Great Britain , all who are not members of the House of Lords , that is to say, the general people. In a more restricted sense, the term applies to the lower house of Parliament, the members of which are elected by and represent the commons. The House of Commons now consists of 495 members for England and Wales, 72 for Scotland, and 103 for Ireland. See Parliament ; Oxford