526 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



not only do we possess more than one narrative of its proceedings, but 

 it may even be said that we reach the dawn of Parliamentary report- 

 ing. Two writers of importance have devoted considerable space to 

 their notices of the proceedings of this Parliament, which met on 

 January 17, 1568-9, and, holding three sessions, did not terminate till 

 December, 1570. And the State Papers contain a despatch which 

 describes the scene at the commencement of the session in considerable- 

 detail. 



In Holinshed's Chronicles of Ireland j a lengthened narrative 

 is supplied by one who himself held a seat in the Parliament, 

 John Hooker, the well-known antiquary, and uncle of the eminent 

 theologian. Judicious Hooker, who happened to be in Ireland in 1569 

 in connexion with Sir Peter Carew's litigation about his Irish estates, 

 was returned to the House of Commons for the borough of Athenry. 

 Hooker was member for Exeter in the English Parliament ; and in 

 the controversies which arose as to procedure, his experiencejwas of 

 great use to his fellows in the Irish House. For their benefit, he 

 drew up a booke of the orders of the Parliaments used in England,"^ 

 which is of great interest and value as among the earliest, if not 

 actually the first, treatise ever written on Parliamentary Practice and 

 Procedure. But, in addition to this service, we owe to Hooker the- 

 first authentic report of the proceedings of Parliament. In his 

 description of what passed at the opening of the first session of 

 Sydney's Parliament, he not only describes the scene on the first day 

 of the sitting, but he supplies an epitome of the speeches made by the- 

 Lord Chancellor on the opening day, and by the Speaker and 

 Sydney, three days later, when Stanihurst presented himself to 

 receive the Lord Deputy's approbation of the choice of the Commons.^ 



1 Holinshed, vol. vi., pp. 345-362. 



2 Hooker's interest in Irish Parliamentary proceedings led to his obtaining from 

 the Irish Privy Council a license to print the Irish statutes, with an exclusive 

 monopoly of the copyright for ten years, in the following terms : — 



Whereas divers Parliaments have been holden within Ireland, and divers laws,, 

 statutes, and Acts made in the same, which laws, being hitherto never put in print, 

 have been altogether turned into oblivion, motion has therefore been made to us by 

 the Speaker of the Lower House, now lately assembled at Dublin, that the said 

 statutes might be in print. And forasmuch as John VoweU, alias Hooker, gent., 

 being one of the said assembly, has offered at his own charges to imprint all the 

 said statutes and Acts heretofore made, we grant him the sole privilege and license 

 to imprint the same for ten years next ensuing." — 20 Mar., 1568-9, Carew Cal.,. 

 vol. i. 387. 



