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X. 



THE PAELIAMENT OF IRELAND UTOER THE TUDOR 

 SOVEREIGNS : WITH SOME NOTICES OF THE 

 SPEAKERS OE THE IRISH HOUSE OE COMMONS. 



By C. LITTON EALKINER, M.R.I. A. 



[Read May 8 ; Ordered for publication May 10 ; Published June 22, 1905.] 



Although few topics connected with the history of Ireland have 

 received more attention than that of the constitution of the Irish 

 Parliament, it is nevertheless true that the numerous writers on the 

 subject have left, sometimes from choice, more often of necessity, 

 considerable gaps in their accounts of the earlier phases of its develop- 

 ment. Eor the more modern period, of course, the materials are ample. 

 From the time when Molyneux initiated the discussion of the parlia- 

 mentary relations of Ireland with England to the present day, there 

 has been no lack of literature on the constitutional aspects of our par- 

 liamentary history ; and for the era of legislative independence, the 

 materials at the disposal of the historian are ample to the point of 

 superfluity. It is otherwise, however, with the earlier period, not- 

 withstanding that the nineteenth century has produced two works on 

 this subject by eminent j udicial personages, who were also distinguished 

 Parliamentarians. But neither Chief Justice Whiteside's vivacious 

 sketch of TJie Life and Death of the Irish Parliament^ nor Lord 

 Chancellor Ball's philosophical treatise on Irish Legislative Systems, 

 professes to analyse in detail the course of our early Parliamentary 

 procedure. The] "consideration of the Irish Parliament in its formal 

 aspect prior to the eighteenth century has, however, been undertaken 

 by several writers. William Lynch, in his View of the Legal Institu- 

 tions, Honorary Hereditary Offices, and Feudal Baronies of Ireland, 

 has discussedj with much learning the nature of the legislative 

 institutions introduced into Ireland after the Anglo-Norman Conquest. 

 By his examination of the writs of Parliamentary Summons issued by 

 the Plantagenet Kings, this writer has thrown considerable light 

 upon the constitution of those early assemblies which, though 



