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AN
ESSAY
ON
PARLIAMENTS.
CHAP. I.
Shewing that the frequent meeting of parliaments is the baſis of our conſtitution, and the true of the government, and that the intermiſſion of them is inconſiſtent with the body of the Engliſh law.
If a man would have an entire view of the Engliſh conſtitution, he muſt have recourſe to thoſe able and approved authors who have written purpoſely on that ſubject. For it is a rule, Parva eſt authoritas aliud agentis; and what is ſaid by the by, is of leſs weight, than what is profeſſedly handled; provided it have been maturely conſidered, by a competent judge of that matter which he treats. And in this kind we do not find a man better qualified than the learned lord chancellor Fortescue, who was an aged lawyer, and had been lord chief juſtice of Eng-
land
