# An Essay Concerning Parliaments/Chapter 3

CHAP. III.
There are ſeveral ways of proving that there was a New Election every Year. They tell me there are Writs extant for New Elections for Fourſcore Years Succeſſively, where there are but about Six wanting. What if they had been all loft, imbezelled or made away? What then, is our Conſtitution loft, when Bundles of Writs are loſt? No, I will go no farther than this laſt Letter to ſhew that there is a great Appearance that while there were Two Parliaments in a Year, the Second muſt be new Called. Though I hate the word New applied to a Parliament; for a Parliament is a Parliament, and our Anceſtors would no more have dream’d of a Stale or Old Parliament, than of an Old Moon cut out into Stars. I will cite the words of King Edward’s Letter, dated the 19th of June in the third of his Reign, ​and when that’s done, let the Reader make his own Judgment upon them.
It was in the Interval betwixt his Eaſter and his Michaelmaſs-Parliament. “Set antequam eidem Parliamento propter negotiorum multitudinem quæ reformationis remedio indigebant finem imponere valeremus, eodem Capllano veſtro reſponſionem debitam ſibi fieri inſtanter poſtulante, quædam gravis nos invaſit, ſicut Domino placuit, infirmitas Corporalis, quæ perfectionem multorum aliorum negotiorum, & deliberationem petitionis Cenſus annui ſupradicti, de quo dolemus non modicum, impedivit; ſicque cum occaſione infirmitatis hujuſmodi, a qua per Dei gratiam, cujus eſt perinere & mederi, incepimus convaleſcere, idem Paliamentum fuerit diſſolutum, & ſuper hoc nequiverunus ſuper petitione Cenſus ejuſdem delibertionem havere cum Prælatis & Proceribus antedictis.” To this Senſe. But before we could put an end to that Parliament, becauſe of the Multitude of Grievances which lay before them, your Nuncio in the mean time diligently Solliciting your Buſineſs, a great Diſtemper as it pleaſed God befel me, which hindered the ​finiſhing of many other Matters, and treating about the Petition of the Yearly Tribute, which is a great Grief to me; and ſo by reaſon of my ſaid Illneſs, (from which by the Grace of God, in whoſe Hands are the Iſſues of Life and Death, I begin to Recover) That Parliament was Diſſolved, and hereupon I could not Treat with the Prelates and Peers aforeſaid about this Tribute.
From this long Quotation I ſhall only make this Obſervation at preſent, That in this Parliament begun in the Octaves of Eaſter (perhaps upon May-Day) there was a great deal of Buſineſs done, and a great deal of Buſineſs left undone; amongſt the reſt the Pope’s, becauſe of the King’s Sickneſs, who thereupon could not give Anſwers to Bills or Petitions; and that the Nuncio’s Petition was Unanſwered, went to the King’s Heart. But upon Occaſion of that Sickneſs it was that the Parliament was Diſſolved, and the Pope’s Buſineſs hindred, to the King’s great Regret. What, could not the King keep this Parliament alive till the Nineteenth of June, when he himſelf began to be well again, which is the Date of the Letter? It is no more than Fifty Days from their firſt ſitting down to the Date of his Letter, and yet though he ſet his Heart upon the Buſineſs that lay before that Parliament, it was Diſſolved; and to ſtop ​that Gap he promiſes to call Another Parliament at Michaelmaſs. Then it ſeems they did not underſtand the Method of Prorogations, and it is unknown to me by what Law it came in. If there be ſuch a Law, I never minded it, for I am ſpeaking of the Conſtitution, and not of Innovations.
But I believe the true Reaſon of the Abrupt Diſſolution of that Summer Parliament in Conjunction with the King’s Sickneſs, was this, That if they had been held till Michaelmaſs, though there was then to be Another Parliament, it muſt have been at the King’s Charge. For I am of Opinion by what I have ſeen even as low as Richard the 2d’s Time, that the Sitting of a Parliament was uſually Forty Days; and that the Quarantain was not duly kept in this Parliament 3. Ed. 1. of the Octaves of Eaſter. But there was a Concern in holding a Parliament above Forty Days about the Knights and Burgeſſes Wages. As appears by that Memorable Record which is in Knython p. 2682. being. the Meſſage ſent by both Houſes to K. Rich 2. at Eltham. The words are theſe. “Dicunt etiam quod habent ex antiquo Statuto quod ſi Rex a Parliamento ſuo ſe alienaverit ſua ſponte, non aliqua infirmitate aut aliqua alia de cauſa neseſſitatis, ſet per immoderatam voluntatem ​proterve ſe ſubtraxerit per abſentiam temporis 40. dierum tanquam de vexatione populi ſui & gravibus Expenſis eorum non Curans, extune licitum omnibus & ſingulis eorem abſq.; domigerio Regis dedire as propria & unicuiq.; eorem in patriam ſuam remare.” In ſhort, they ſay they have an Ancient Statute for it, that in caſe the King wilfully abſent himſelf and will not come to Parliament, As having no Care of vexing his People, nor Regard of their Great Expences, after Forty Days, they are Free to go Home, and the King has no Wrong done him.
Now what is the meaning of theſe Forty Days, but that they had waited a Juſt Seſſion? And how ſhould the Parliament-Mens Wages be otherwiſe adjuſted, when at the end of every Parliament in thoſe Times they were diſmiſſed, with deſiring them to ſue out their Writs for their Wages? And I leave it to the Antiquaries, becauſe I am not now able to Travel in that Point, to conſider how the ſeveral Proportions of Land which are allotted for the Knights and Burgeſſes in ſeveral Counties for their Wages, can be adjuſted, without a Certainty of the Length of their Seſſions.
But not a word of this is my preſent Buſineſs, which was to ſhew that Parliaments by the Conſtitution are not to be Stale; as I have ſeen one in ​my Time retained about Nineteen Years with Penſions, and another for fewer Years with Places and turning out of Places: But if a Parliament were corrupted neither of theſe ways, yet a ſtanding Parliament will always Stagnate, and be like a Country-pond which is over-grown with Ducks-meat. The worſt King one of them that ever the Nation had, was ſo limited by the Conſtitution, that he did not know how to compaſs along Parliament, and therefore he was fain to take other indirect Ways to gain the ſame Point as if he had one. It was Rich the 2d. who in the Articles alledged againſt him, and confeſſed by him, lets us know it was by influencing Elections and falſe Returns. The words as they ſtand in the Rolls 1 H. 4. m. 20. are theſe.
“19. Item, Licet de Statuto, & conſuetudine Regni ſui in Convocatione cujuſlibet Parliamenti populus ſuus in ſingluis comitatibus regni debeat eſſe liber ad Eligendum & deputandum milites pro hujuſmodi comitatibus ad intereſſendum Parliamento, & ad exponendum eorem gravamina, & ad proſequendum pro remediis ſuperinde prout eis videretur expedirel tamen præſatus Rex ut in Parliamentis ſuis liberius conſequi valeat ſuæ temerariæ Voluntatis effectum, direxit mandata ſua frequentis Vice ​comitibus ſuis, ut certas perſonas per ipſum Regem nominatas ut milites comitatuum venire faciant ad Parliamenta ſua, quos quidem milites eidem Regi favents inducere poterat, prout frequentius fecit, quandoq; per minas varias, & terrores, & quandoque per munera ad conſentiendum illis quæ regno fuerant præjudicialia, & populo quamplurimum oneroſa; & ſpecialiter ad concedendum eidem Regi ſubſidium lanarum ad terminum vitæ ſuæ, & aliud ſuſidium as certos annos, ſuum populum nimium opprimendo.”
19. Item, Although by Statute, and the Cuſtom of his Realm in the Calling of Every Parliament in every the Counties of England, his People ought to be free to Chooſe and depute Knights for the ſaid Counties to be preſent in Parliament, and to lay open their Grievances, and to proſecute for Remedies thereupon as they think fit, notwithſtanding the ſaid King that in his Parliaments he might obtain his Will which was Raſh, often directed his Mandates to his Sheriffs, that they ſhould Return certain Perſons nominated by the King himſelf as Knights of the Shires, which Knights indeed he could make Plyable to him, and as he very often did, ſometimes by various Threats and Terrors, and ſometimes by Gifts, to Conſent to thoſe Things which were Prejudicial to the Realm, ​and extreamly Burthenſom to the People; and particularly to grant the ſame King the Subſidy of Wool during his Life, and another Subſidy for certain Years, thereby too much Oppreſſing his People.
Now if he could have made Long Parliaments, he need not have made uſe of theſe mean Shifts. But he could make uſe of no other way, becauſe Parliaments, as I ſaid, were Freſh and Freſh, and Antiquity knew no other. And if any Man can make out of this Authentick Record, that it was any other wiſe, Than ſo many Parliaments ſo many elections, then I have done with Writing and Reading.