III. 1662. When the duke of Portland fucceeded CHA P. the earl of Carlisle in the middle of the feffion in one thousand feven hundred and eighty-one, it was then faid, that the parliament should neceffarily be prorogued from this event; that the crown lawyers had debated the question in council, and had grounded fome opinions upon this precedent of lord Mountrath. This report I cannot authenticate; but the parliament was continued, and the public convenience not interrupted; nor could I ever fee any grounds for opinions which were then adopted by fome in converfation: for in one thousand fix hundred and thirty-nine the earl of Strafford continued the parliament, which began under the government of lord deputy Wandesford; and when lord Capel died in the government in one thoufand fix hundred and ninety-five, it appears from the lords' journals, that the feffion continued under the chancellor, fir Charles Porter, who was elected lord juftice by the council, under an act of Henry VIII, in Ireland. VOL. II. I The CHAP. The parliament met for the fixth time in one thousand fix hundred and fix-one for 1662. only two days, on the 21ft and 22d of Ja nuary. An answer was received from the duke of Ormond to this letter in the laft feffion, and his majefty's answers to the inftructions of the parliamentary commiffioners were entered in the journals. On the 22d the parliament was farther prorogued; a committee was appointed to wait upon the lords juftices to request that a bill might be sent to England to take away the wards and liveries, and for fettling on his majesty, in lieu thereof, the customs and excife, as they were granted by the English parliament. These were unhappily granted afterwards in perpetuity; and they form the principal part of the hereditary revenue in Ireland; nearly half the aggregate revenue of which, it is but too well known, is granted for ever. The parliament was farther prorogued to the 4th of March, to the 21st of March, and from thence to the 17th of April one thousand fix hundred and fixty-two, when they 1 they met under the chancellor Euftace and CHAP, lord Orrery, before the arrival of the duke III. of Ormond. SECTION IX. Proceedings in the House of Commons in 1662 and 1663. WHEN we confider that the parliament was occupied with the fettlement and arrangement of the whole property of the kingdom, when we reflect upon the variety of claims of jarring and discordant interefts, we shall not be furprized that parliament fat, without interruption, from the 15th of April one thousand fix hundred and fixty-two, to the 17th of April one thousand fix hundred and fixty-three. The labour they must have undergone will appear aftonishing, from the following accurate statement: The house of commons fat two hundred and eight days in that period, which is nearly five days in the week for a year; and twenty I 2 1662. III. 1662. CHAP. twenty days they fat in the morning and afternoon. It was a custom in early times to meet at eight o'clock in the morning; and if there was much business before them, to adjourn for an hour or two at twelve o'clock, or thereabouts, for dinner, to the afternoon; at which time committee business was usually tranfacted. This was also the early practice in the English parliament, as is evident not only from the journals of the two houses, but alfo from the parliamentary debates and parliamentary history; and poffibly this was a more convenient practice than the custom which neceffity has introduced of members adjourning individually, if I may use the expreffion, and retiring for refreshment, when the business had become tedious and uninteresting, or when dinner invited a temporary feceffion. The arrangement of that voluminous law, the act of fettlement, which takes up one hundred pages and more of the ftatute book, may be confidered as the proceedings upon private bills; as every clause in it ad jufts III. 1662. jufts the property of different individuals. CHA P. The tranfactions of this feffion have a great fameness and monotony, and even to those who take the trouble and pains of an accurate and attentive furvey, very few particulars are worthy of preserving which can ferve as useful examples to pofterity; among them fome may be selected, and the following paffages will not, it is hoped, be confidered by those who may favour this abridgement with their perufal as unworthy of their attention: The parliament met on the 15th of April one thousand fix hundred and fixty-two; but it was not opened with a speech and in the ufual form by the lords juftices. On the first of May the speaker, fir Audley Mervyn, reaffumed the chair, after an abfence of nine months, as a parliamentary commiffioner. He was congratulated upon his arrival; a very handsome teftimony of his merit was entered in the journals; and the deputy speaker, fir John Temple, was thanked for his fervices alfo, and compenI 3 fated |