558 



Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



constitution of what is still called the High Court of Parliament, though 

 we no longer think of it by that name. It contains particulars much 

 more exact than those given in the narrative in Holinshed of the 

 balance of parties in the Lower House ; and it gives the precise figures 

 of two divisions in that assembly on the crucial issues which divided 

 it ; from which it appears that the number of members attending was 

 about ninety, exactly that number voting in one division, and ninety- 

 two taking part in the other. ^ 



I desire to take advantage of the opportunity which this addendum 

 to my former paper presents, to correct, in the light of fresh informa- 

 tion, a statement I then made as to the period from which the separation 

 of the two Houses of Parliament, and the independent existence of the 

 House of Commons in Ireland, can be safely dated. I then observed that 

 it was in connexion with Lord Leonard Grey's Parliament of 1536-7 

 " that we first find clear proof that the Commons sat as a separate 

 assembly, and that we first find specific mention of the Speaker as the 

 mouthpiece of the Lower House." ^ I have since had the satisfaction 

 of obtaining conclusive proof that the separate existence of the House 

 of Commons is of very much greater antiquity, and of recovering not 

 only the name, but even some particulars of the formalities attending 

 the election of the Speaker of the Parliament of the 27th year of 

 Henry VI., or not far from a century prior to the earliest hitherto 

 known mention of the office in Ireland. 



The Statute Rolls at the Public Eecord Office contain, as I have 

 lately ascertained, an entry of the proceedings at the opening of a 

 Parliament held in Dublin in 1449, before Sir Richard i^^'ugent. Baron 

 of Delvin, as Deputy for the Lord Lieutenant, Richard Duke of York. 

 In this it is set forth that, on the Tuesday following the opening of 

 Parliament, "the Commons presented one John Chevers for their 

 Speaker, and the said Deputy Lieutenant graciously agreed and well 

 accepted of him : and hereupon the said John delivered to the said 

 Deputy a schedule of his protestation, supplicating him most humbly 

 that his said protestation be CEtered of record in the roll of Parliament,, 

 which schedule of the said protestation was read in Parliament. And 



^ At p. 518, supra, I have spoken of the vote rejecting the bill for the repeal 

 of Poynings' Act, in Perrott's Parliament, as "the first division of the Irish 

 House of Commons of which any particulars] have been preserved" — a statement 

 which must now be corrected in the light of the details given by Hooker. 



' Froceedings R.I. A., vol. xxv., sect. C, p. 519. 



