Falkiner — Parliament of Ireland under Tudor Sovereigns. 529 



was entitled to stand within the house when sitting. Following the 

 English practice, this official was at first admytted and sworne to 

 sylence." But it being subsequently urged tbat this was a novelty 

 in Irish usage, the usher was called before the House, and " w"'. fayre 

 words for his diligence . . . was willed ... to depart thence and to stand 

 w^*". out the dore if he wold." So the Gentleman Usher **paciently 

 and courteously departed." The next day, to the obvious chagrin of 

 the Chancellor, the cloth of estate was also removed. "Me thought 

 hit a greate change," he mourned, " and the honor and beawtie of the 

 house gone w*^ all. But such good will we comonly beare to our old 

 rude and homelye fassins and condicons, that we are ill willing to 

 change them for the better, woorthie ever to drynke aid sower wyne, 

 and never to change o'^ old garments." The concluding words of 

 Weston's despatch are of interest for their reference to the defects of 

 Dublin as a place of occasional residence. " The assembly cryeth out 

 of the dearth of things here, as tliey be very dear indeede, and of their 

 intolerable charges and needs." 



Last in the roll of the Tudor Parliaments in Ireland stands the 

 well-known assembly summoned in 1585 by Sir John Perrott. 

 Perrott's Parliament, remarkable from the larger historical standpoint 

 mainly for the great Desmond and Baltinglas attainders, is of special 

 interest in the present connexion, because it is the first of whose pro- 

 ceedings there is anything like a full formal record. 'Not only do we 

 possess a full list of the members of the Upper House, and an almost 

 complete roll of the House of Commons, but there is endorsed on the 

 back of the latter a note of the " Orders to be kept and observed in 

 the Lower or Comen House of Parlyament."^ 



These orders follow very closely the regulations enumerated by 

 Hooker in his summary of the usages of the English House of Commons. 

 Each member was required to attend " apparayled in his goune, hav- 

 ing no armor nor weapon about him"; to make his " dutyf ull and 

 humble obeisance" on entering the House; and, "in uttering his 

 mynd to any bill, to use and frame his speache after a quyet and cur- 

 tyous manner, without any taunts or wordes tendyiug to the reproche 

 of any person." Misbehaviour in the house, or the disclosure of its 

 secret proceedings, was punishable at the Speaker's discretion with 

 the assent of the House. Each member might speak once, and once 

 only, on each reading of a bill ; and, while addressing the House, was 



1 Printed in Appendix to Hardiman's " Statute of Kilkenny" in Tracts relating 

 to Ireland, ii., 143 ; and in Lynch's Legal Institutions of Ireland, p. 350. 



