PARLIAMENT. 
was enacted by statutes 7 and 8 Will. III. 
c. 15, and 6 Anne, c. 7, that the Parlia- 
ment in being, shall continue for six months 
after the death of any King or Queen, un- 
less sooner prorogued or dissolved by tlie 
successor. That if the Parliament be, at 
the time of the King’s death, separated by 
adjournment or prorogation, it shall not- 
A vrithstanding assemble immediately ; and 
that if no Parliament is then in being, the 
members of the last Parliament shall as- 
semble and be again in Parliament. Lastly, 
a Parliament may be dissolved or expire 
by length of time. 
The utmost extent of time that the same 
Parliament was allowed to sit by the statute 
of 6 William, c. 3, was three years ; after 
the expiration of which, reckoning from 
the return of the first summons, the Parlia- 
ment was to have no longer continuance. 
But by statute 1 George I. c. 38, in order, 
as it was alleged, to prevent the great and 
continued expenses of frequent elections, 
and the violent heats and animosities conse- 
quent thereupon, and for the peace and se- 
curity of the government just then recover- 
ing from the last rebellion, this term was 
prolonged to seven years. So that as our 
constitution now stapds, the Parliament 
must expire, or die a natural death, at the 
end of every seventh year, if not sooner 
dissolved by the royal prerogative. In fa- 
vour of liberty, however, it were much to be 
wished that this statute had never been 
passed. The pretexts which it assigns, as the 
grounds upon which it was passed, are adl 
fallacious. 
Parliament, the High Court of, is the 
supreme court of the kingdom, not only for 
the making, but also for the execution of 
laws, by the trial of great and enormous of- 
fenders, whether lords or commoners, in the 
method of parliamentary impeachment. An 
impeachment before the Lords, by the 
Commons of Great Britain in Parliament, 
is a prosecution of the already known and 
established law, and has been frequently 
put in practice ; being a presentment to the 
most high and supreme court of criminal 
jurisdiction, by the most solemn grand in^ 
quest of the whole kingdom. A commoner 
cannot, however, be impeached before the 
Lords for any capital offence, but only for 
high misdemeanors ; a peer may be im- 
peached for any crime. And they usually, 
in case of an impeachment of a peer for 
treason, address the crown to appoint a 
lord high steward, for the greater dignity 
and regularity of their proceedings ; which 
high steward was formerly elected by the 
peers themselves, though he was generally 
commissioned by the king; but it has of 
late years been strenuously maintained, that 
the appointment of a high steward in suck 
cases is not indispensably necessary; but 
the house may proceed without one. The 
articles of impeachment are a kind of bill* 
of indictment, found by the House of Com- 
mops, and afterwards tried by the Lords; 
who are in cases of misdemeanors consider- 
ed not only as their own peers, but as the 
peers of the whole nation. 
Much has been said and written upon the 
question of parliamentary reform, and the 
actual state of the Parliament. The result 
of a candid inquiry will be this; namely, 
that the Parliament, which has been, and 
now is the guardian of the liberties of the 
people, may hereafter by corruption be- 
come the means of their destruction, or 
the cause of their being surrendered, and 
the Parliament itself liave only a nomi- 
nal existence. To prevent this, the people 
can only depend upon the frequent neces- 
sity of their representatives appealing to 
them for a renewal of their powers ; that is, 
upon the frequency of elections, which in 
order also to be free should be made by as 
large a body of voters as possible, and that 
what are called rotten boroughs should at 
once be abolished. To object to this, that 
it is an infringement of chartered rights, is 
an insult to common sense ; for all charteis 
are void that are against common right, and 
the only object of elections is for the benefit 
of the many, not for the private advantage 
of the few. That the present state of the 
representation of the people is not such as 
it ought to be has been too generally ad- 
mitted to be insisted upon here; but let it 
never be forgotten, that amongst those who 
have considered it as defective we must 
number Mr. Pitt, Mr. Fox, and the coni* 
mentator Blackstone. In any future re- 
vision of the laws against bribery and cor- 
ruption, it would be well to make the elected 
as well as the electors take the oath against 
bribery ; and still further to narrow, though 
not wholly to exclude, the admission of 
placemen and contractors to seats in the 
House of Commons. If the freedom of the 
press can be fully preserved, or obtained, we 
may venture to hope that every thing will 
ultimately be effected which the rational 
friends of freedom can desire; but a know- 
ledge of our history will teach us, that little 
is to be gained for liberty by adherence to 
any precedents drawn from proceedings be- 
