PAR 



PAR 



considered not only as their own peers, 

 but as the peers of the whole nation. 



Much has been said and written upon 

 the question of parliamentary reform, 

 and the actual state of the Parliament. 

 The result of a candid inquiry will be 

 this ; namely, that the Parliament, which 

 has been, and now is the guardian of the 

 liberties of the people, may hereafter by 

 corruption become the means of their 

 destruction, or the cause of their being- 

 surrendered, and the Parliament itself 

 have only a nominal existence. To pre- 

 vent this, the people can only depend 

 upon the frequent necessity of their re- 

 presentatives appealing 1 to them for a re- 

 newal of their powers ; that is, upon the 

 frequency of elections, which, in order 

 also to be free, should be made by as 

 large a body of voters as possible, and 

 that what are called rotten boroughs 

 should at once be abolished. To object 

 to this, that it is an infringement of char- 

 tered rights, is an insult to common 

 sense ; for all charters are void that are 

 against common right, and the only ob- 

 ject of elections is for the benefit of the 

 many, not for the private advantage of 

 the few. That the present state of the 

 representation of the people is not such 

 as it ought to be has been too generally 

 admitted to be insisted upon here ; but 

 let it never be forgotten, that amongst 

 those who have considered it as defec- 

 tive we must number Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, 

 and the commentator Blackstone. In any 

 future revision of the laws against bribery 

 and corruption, it would be well to make 

 the elected as well as the electors take 

 the oath against bribery ; and still fur- 

 ther to narrow, though not wholly to ex- 

 clude, the admission of placemen and 

 contractors to seats in the House of Com- 

 mons. If the freedom of the press can 

 be fully preserved, or obtained, we may 

 venture to hope that every thing will 

 ultimately be effected which the rational 

 friends of freedom can desire ; but a 

 knowledge of our history will teach us, 

 that little is to be gained for liberty by ad- 

 herence to any precedents drawn from 

 proceedings before the Revolution, the 

 true principles of which are the only ge- 

 nuine grounds on which to rest the foun- 

 dation of British liberty. 



PARNASSIA, in botany, a genus of 

 the Pentandria Tetragynia class and or- 

 der. Natural order of Capparides, Jus- 

 sieu. Essential character: calyx five- 

 parted ; petals five ; nectaries five, cor- 

 date, ciliate, with globular apexes ; cap- 

 sule four-valv,ed. There is but one spe- 



cies, viz. P. palustris, common marsh par- 

 nassia, or grass of Parnassus. 



PARODICAL, degrees of an equation, 

 inalg-ebru, are the several regular terms 

 in quadratic, cubic, biquadratic equations, 

 &.c. the indexes of whose powers ascend 

 or descend orderly in an arithmetical pro- 

 gress, asjs3_f_r2 m-{-rr=5, is a cubical 

 equation, where no term is wanting, but 

 having all its parodic degrees, the in- 

 dexes of the terms regularly descend- 

 ing. 



PARODY, a popular maxim, adage, or 

 proverb. Parody is also a poetical plea- 

 santry, consisting in applying the verses 

 written on one subject, by way of ridicule, 

 to another; or in turning a serious work in- 

 to a burlesque, by affecting to observe, as 

 nearly as possible, the same rhymes, 

 words, and cadences. It comes nearly 

 to what some of our late writers call tra- 

 vesty ; and was first set on foot by the 

 Greeks, from whom we borrow the 

 name. 



PAROLE, a term signifying any thing- 

 done verbally or by word of mouth, in 

 contradistinction to what is written : thus, 

 an agreement may be by parole. Evi- 

 dence also may be divided into parole evi- 

 dence and written evidence. A parole- 

 release is good to discharge a debt by 

 simple contract. The holder of a bill of 

 exchange may authorize another to in- 

 dorse his name upon it by parole ; and 

 generally all agreements by parole arc 

 good, except such as are within the sta- 

 tute of frauds, and particularly such as 

 relate to lands, and agreements for any 

 term beyond three years in lands or 

 houses, and also all executory agree- 

 ments for the sale of goods above 101. not 

 forfeited by delivery. See AGREEMENT 

 and LEASE. 



PARRA, the jacana, in natural history, 

 a genus of birds of the order Grallse. Ge- 

 neric character : bill slender and sharply 

 pointed, the base carunculated ; nostrils 

 in the middle, and somewhat oval ; wings 

 spinous ; toes four, very long, and claws 

 sharply pointed and long. There are six- 

 teen species mentioned by Gmelin. La- 

 tham notices nine. 



P. jacana, or the chesnut jacana, is the 

 size of the water rail, frequents the wa- 

 tery places of South America, and is ex- 

 tremely clamorous. These birds often 

 wade up to the thighs in water, are par- 

 ticularly shy, scarcely ever seen but in 

 pairs, and when separated, incessantly 

 calling for each other till a reunion is ac- 

 complished. They are called by the 



