And this by the antient ſtatutes of the realm[1], he is bound to do every year, or oftener, if need be. Not that he is, or ever was, obliged by theſe ſtatutes to call a new parliament every year; but only to permit a parliament to ſit annually for the redreſs of grievances, and diſpatch of buſineſs, if need be. Theſe laſt words are ſo looſe and vague, that ſuch of our monarchs as were enclined to govern without parliaments, neglected the convoking them, ſometimes for a very conſiderable period, under pretence that there was no need of them. But, to remedy this, by the ſtatute 16 Car. II. c. 1. it is enacted, that the ſitting and holding of parliaments ſhall not be intermitted above three years at the moſt. And by the ſtatute 1 W. & M. ſt. 2. c. 2. it is declared to be one of the rights of the people, that for redreſs of all grievances, and for the amending, ſtrengthening, and preſerving the laws, parliaments ought to be held frequently. And this indefinite frequency is again reduced to a certainty by ſtatute 6 W. & M. c. 2. which enacts, as the ſtatute of Charles the ſecond had done before, that a new parliament ſhall be called within three years[2] after the determination of the former.
II. The conſtituent parts of a parliament are the next objects of our enquiry. And theſe are, the king’s majeſty, ſitting there in his royal political capacity, and the three eſtates of the realm; the lords ſpiritual, the lords temporal, (who ſit, together with the king, in one houſe) and the commons, who ſit by themſelves in another. And the king and theſe three eſtates, together, form the great corporation or body politic of the kingdom[3], of which the king is ſaid to be caput, principium, et finis. For upon their coming together the king meets them, either in perſon or by repreſentation; without which there can be no beginning of a parliament[4]; and he alſo has alone the power of diſſolving them.
