PARLIAMENT, 
countries of Europe, which they overran at the diffolu- 
tion of the Roman empire. 
In England, however, this general council hath been 
held immemorially, under the feveral names of michel- 
fynolh, or great council; michel-gemote, or great meet¬ 
ing; and more frequently wiltena-gemotc, or meeting of 
wife men. We have inftances of its meeting to order the 
affairs of the kingdom, to make new laws, and to amend 
the old, or, as Fleta expreffes it, novis injuriis emer/isnova 
conjlituere remedia, fo early as the reign of Ina king of the 
Well Saxons, Offa king of the Mercians, and Ethelbert 
king of JCent, in the feveral realms of the heptarchy. 
And after their union, the Mirrour informs us, that 
king Alfred ordained for a perpetual ufage, that thefe 
councils Ihould meet tw'ice in the year, or oftener if need 
be, to treat of the government of God’s people; how 
they Ihould keep themfelves from fin, fhould live in quiet, 
and fhould receive right. Our fucceeding Saxon and 
Danilh monarchs held frequent councils of this fort, as 
appears from the refpeftive codes of laws; the titles 
whereof ufually fpeak them to be enaftted, either by the 
king with the advice of his wittena-gemote, or wife men ; 
or by thofe fages with the advice of the king; or, laftly, 
by them both together. 
There is alfo no doubt but thefe great councils w r ere 
occafionally held under the firll princes of the Norman 
line. Glanvil, who wrote in the reign of Henry II. 
fpeaking of the particular amount of an amercement in 
the Iheriff’s court, fays, it had never yet been afcertained 
by the general affize, or affembly, but was left to the 
cuftom of particular counties. Here the general'affize is 
fpoken of as a meeting well known, and its flatutes or de- 
cifions are put in a manifefl contradiftinftion to cuftom, 
or to the common law. And in Edward Ill’s time, an 
aft of parliament, made in the reign of William the Con¬ 
queror, was pleaded in the cafe of the abbey of St. Ed¬ 
mund’s Bury, and judicially allowed by the court. 
Hence it indifputably appears, that parliaments, or 
general councils, are coeval with the kingdom itfelf. 
How thofe parliaments were conflituted and compofed, 
is another queltion, which has been matter of great dis¬ 
pute among our learned antiquarians; and particularly, 
whether the commons were fummoned at all ; or, if fum- 
moned, at what period they began to form a diltinft af¬ 
fembly. But, without entering into controverfies of this 
fort, it may be fufficient to obferve, that it is generally 
agreed, that, in the main, the conftitution of parliament, 
as it now Hands, was marked out fo long ago as the 17th 
year of king John, A. D. 1215, in the Great Charter 
granted by that prince; wherein he protnifes to fummon 
all archbilhops, bifhops, abbots, earls, and greater ba¬ 
rons, perfonally; and all other tenants in chief under 
the crown, by the fheriff and bailiffs ; to meet at a cer¬ 
tain place, with 40 days’ notice, to affefs aids and fcu- 
tages when neceffary. And this conftitution has fubfilted 
in faft at leaft from the year 1266, 49 Henry III. there 
being ftill extant writs of that date, to fummon knights, 
citizens, and burgeffes, to parliament. We proceed there¬ 
fore to inquire wherein confifts this conftitution of par¬ 
liament, as it now Hands, and has flood for the fpace of 
at leaft 500 years. 
The parliament is regularly to be fummoned by the 
king’s writ or letter, iflued out of chancery by advice of 
the privy council, at leall 40 days before it begins to fit. 
It is a branch of the royal prerogative, that no parlia¬ 
ment can be convened by its own authority, or by the 
authority of any except the king alone. Nor is it an ex¬ 
ception to this rule, that, by fome modern flatutes, on 
the demife of a king or queen, if there be then no par¬ 
liament in being, the laft parliament revives, and is to 
fit again for fix months, unlefs diflolved by the fucceffor: 
for this revived parliament mull have been originally 
fummoned by the crown. Indeed, by llatute 16 Car. I. 
c. 1. it was enafted, that, if the king neglefted to call a 
parliament for three years, the peers might affemble and 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1268. 
609 
iffue out writs for choofing one ; and, in cafe of negleft 
of the peers, the condiments might meet and eleft one 
themfelves. This aft, however, was deemed injurious 
to the royal prerogative, and repealed by llatute 16 Car. 
II. c. 1. 
There are, it mud be acknowledged, two capital ex¬ 
ceptions to this rule ; but they were juftifiable on a 
principle of neceffity, that fuperfedes all law’. The con¬ 
vention-parliament, that rellored king Charles II. met 
above a month before his return ; the lords by their own 
authority, and the commons in purfuance of writs iffued 
in the nameof the keepers of the liberty of JEngletudby the au¬ 
thority of parliament; and this parliament fat full feven 
months after the ret'loration, and enadled many laws ftill in 
force. But the fil'd thing done after the king’s return, was 
to pafs an aft declaring this to be a good parliament, not- 
withftanding the defefts of the king’s writs. And it w'as 
thought farther neceffary to confirm its afts in.the next 
parliament, by 13 Car. II. cap. 7. and cap. 14. The other 
exception occurs at the time of the revolution, A. D. 1688, 
when the lords and commons by their own authority, 
and upon the fummons of the prince of Orange (after¬ 
wards king William), met in a convention, and difpofed 
of the crowm and kingdom. The throne at this time was 
vacant by the abdication of king James II. and it was de¬ 
clared by W. & M. flat. 1. cap. 1. that this Convention 
was really the two houfes of parliament, notwithftanding 
the want of W'rits, and other defefts of form. So that, 
though we have thefe two capital exceptions, which were 
juftifiable only on a principle of neceffity (and each of 
which, by the way, induced a revolution in the govern¬ 
ment), the rule laid down is in general certain, that the 
king only can convoke a parliament. 
'And this, by the ancient llatutes of the realm, he is 
bound to do “ every year, or oftener if need be.” Not 
that he is, or ever was, obliged by thefe llatutes to call 
a new parliament every year ; but only to permit a par¬ 
liament to fit annually for the redrefs of grievances, and 
difpatch of bufinefs, “ if need be.” Thefe laft words are 
fo loofe and vague, that fuch of our monarchs as were 
inclined to govern without parliaments, neglefted the 
convoking them, fometimes for a very confiderable pe¬ 
riod, under pretence that there was no need of them. 
But, to remedy this, by the Hat. 16 Car. II. c. 1. it is 
enafted, that the fitting and holding of parliaments filial 1 
not be intermitted above three years at the moll. And by 
the flat. 1 W. & M. ft. 2. c. 2. it is declared to be one of 
the rights of the people, that for redrefs of all grievances, 
and lor the amending, llrengthening, and preferving, the 
law's, parliaments ought to be held frequently.” And 
this indefinite frequency is again reduced to a certainty 
by Hat. 6 W. & M. c. 2. which enafts, as the llatute of 
Charles II. had done before, that a new parliament lhall 
be called within three years after the determination of 
the former. But, as the mutiny-aft, and certain afts re¬ 
lating to the revenue, are paffed for one year only, the 
llatutes enforcing the meeting of parliament are now of 
little avail; for the parliament mull necellarily be fum¬ 
moned, for the difpatch of bufinefs, once every year. 
The conftituent parts of a parliament are—the king’s 
majefty, fitting there in his royal political capacity ; and 
the three eftates of the realm; the lords lpiritual, the 
lords temporal (who fit together with the king in one 
houfej, and the commons, who fit by themfelves in ano¬ 
ther. And the king and thefe three eftates together form 
the great corporation or body politic of the kingdom, 
of which the king is faid to be caput , principium, etfinis. 
For, upon their coming together, the king meets them, 
either in perfon or by reprefentation ; without which 
there can be no beginning of a parliament; and he alfo 
has alone the power of diffolving them. 4 L>Jl. 6. 1 
Comm. c. 2. p. 153. 
On holding a new parliament, the king, the firft day, 
fits in the upper houfe, and, by himfelf or the lord chan¬ 
cellor, Ihows the reafon of their meeting 5 then the com- 
7 Q mons 
