624 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



That the Irish Parliament under the Tudors could set an example 

 of the rapid despatch of business is shown by the proceedings on the 

 Eill for the royal title. " Por," says the Deputy, "the bill being 

 thi'ee tymes redd (in the Upper House), and with one voice agreed, 

 we sent the same to the Lower House, where in lyke wise it passed, 

 with no less joy and willing consent. And upon Saterday foloing 

 (being the next day) the same Bill being redd in playne Parliamente, 

 before the Lordes and Commons, it was by me, your most humble 

 servante, most joyously consentid." jN'ext day, June 19th, being 

 Sunday, " all the Lordes and Gentilmen rode to your Church of Sent 

 Patrikes, where was song a solempne Masse by the Archbishop of 

 Dublin, and after the Masse the said Acte proclaymed ther in 

 presens of 2,000 parsons, and Te Deum song with great joy and 

 gladness to all men."^ 



From the dissolution of St. Leger's Parliament, an interval of 

 over fifteen years elapsed before another meeting of the Legislature 

 took place. No Parliament was called in Ireland in the reign of 

 Edward VI., though as appears from a letter of the Protector 

 Somerset to the Deputy, it was intended that St. Leger, who in 

 1550 was re-appointed to the Irish Grovernment, should "cause a 

 Parliamente of the Lords and Commons to be summoned."^ But 

 St. Leger's appointment being revoked before he had done so, no 

 summons was issued for a meeting of the Legislature. It was not 

 until the third year of Philip and Mary that Parliament again met. 

 The Earl of Sussex called the only Parliament of the latter reign in 

 1557. Of this Parliament we only know, apart from its statutes. 



your Highness' affairs." His resignation of the Judgeship he held in the Common 

 Pleas, and his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1536, lend colour to 

 the supposition that his first election to the Chair was in that year. 



As regards the times and hours at which Parliament met, sittings were held 

 every week-day while Parliament was in session, excepting the principal feasts of 

 the Church. The hours, which were from 8 a.m to 11 a.m. (the afternoons being 

 devoted to Committees), were apparently governed by the difficulty of providing 

 artificial light. Hooker, in his account of the proceedings in Sydney's Parliament, 

 mentions the sitting of the House of Commons till 2 p.m. as quite exceptional. 

 "The time and day was so far spent above the ordinary hour, being well nigh two 

 of the clock in the afternoon, that the Speaker and the Court rose up and departed." 

 This is the nearest approach in Tudor times to an all-night sitting in the Irish 

 House of Commons. Holinshed, vol. vi., p. 345. 



1 State Paperfi, Henry VIII., vol. iii., pt. iii., p. 304. 



- See Hardiman's Introduction to his Notes to the Statute of Kilkenny in Tracts 

 relating to Ireland,, p. xv. 



