under the limitations which the Engliſh conſtitution has preſcribed: ſo that, on the one hand, they may frequently and regularly come together, for the diſpatch of buſineſs and redreſs of grievances; and may not, on the other, even with the conſent of the crown, be continued to an inconvenient or unconſtitutional length.
2. A parliament may be diſſolved by the demiſe of the crown. This diſſolution formerly happened immediately upon the death of the reigning ſovereign, for he being conſidered in law as the head of the parliament, (caput, principium, et finis) that failing, the whole body was held to be extinct. But, the calling a new parliament immediately on the inauguration of the ſucceſſor being found inconvenient, and dangers being apprehended from having no parliament in being in caſe of a diſputed ſucceſſion, it was enacted by the ſtatutes 7 & 8 W. III. c. 15. and 6 Ann. c. 7. that the parliament in being ſhall continue for ſix months after the death of any king or queen, unleſs ſooner prorogued or diſſolved by the ſucceſſor: that, if the parliament be, at the time of the king’s death, ſeparated by adjournment or prorogation, it ſhall notwithſtanding aſſemble immediately: and that, if no parliament is then in being, the members of the laſt parliament ſhall aſſemble, and be again a parliament.
3. Lastly, a parliament may be diſſolved or expire by length of time. For if either the legiſlative body were perpetual; or might laſt for the life of the prince who convened them as formerly; and were ſo to be ſupplied, by occasionally filling the vacancies with new repreſentatives; in theſe caſes, if it were once corrupted, the evil would be paſt all remedy: but when different bodies ſucceed each other, if the people ſee cauſe to diſapprove of the preſent, they may rectify it’s faults in the next. A legiſlative aſſembly alſo, which is ſure to be ſeparated again, (whereby it’s members will themſelves become private men, and ſubject to the full extent of the laws which they have enacted for others) will think themſelves bound, in intereſt as
