end there maybe a frequent calling, aſſembling, and holding of parliaments once in three years at leaſt.” I do ſay, that if ever we came to low-water mark in our laws about parliaments, and if ever they run dregs, it was in the time of King Charles II. And yet it was enacted, and was the end of that law, that one ſhould be called once in three years at the leaſt. Now I leave it to the lawyers to tell, whether a proclamation can call a parliament, or any thing elſe beſides a writ of ſummons and a writ for elections.
And thus have I run through the law of parliaments till the other day, and conſidered what is the law at preſent. From K. Alfred’s time down to Edward I. it ſeems to have been the ſtanding law to have parliaments twice a year. I know that the invaſious of ſeveral nations, both Danes and Normans, and the revolutions and diſturbances of ſtate which happen, muſt needs cauſe frequent interruptions in the practice of it. But my reaſon to be of that opinion is this, becauſe Horne, who lived in thoſe times, ſays that parliaments at that time ought to meet twice a year, and that at London; and that the intermitting of parliaments was the greateſt abuſion of the law but one: though I think I have ſtill a greater authority than
