610 
PARLIAMENT. 
mons are commanded to choofe their Speaker; which 
done, two or three days afterwards he is prefented to the 
king, and, after fome fpeeches, is allowed, and fent down 
to the houfe of commons ; when the bufinefs of parlia¬ 
ment proceeds. 12 Rep. 115. 
A parliament may be holden at any place the king fhall 
affign. 1 Comm. p. 153. 
The conftituent parts of parliament, next in order, are 
the fpiritual lords. Thefe confid of two archbifhops, and 
twenty-four biftiops; and, at thediflolution of monaderies 
by Henry VIII. they confided likewife of twenty-fix mi¬ 
tred abbots, and tw'o priors: a very confiderable body, 
and in thofe times equal to half the number of the tem¬ 
poral nobility. Co. Litt. 97. See 4 Iujl. 1. by which it 
appears, that the number of the temporal nobility was 
one hundred and fix. All thefe hold, or are fuppofed to 
hold, certain ancient baronies under theking. But,though 
thefe lords fpiritual are, in the eye of the law, a didinft 
edate from the lords temporal, and are fo diftinguifhed in 
mod of our afts of parliament, yet in praftice they are 
ufually blended together under the one name of the lords; 
and it has been doubted, by Dyer, Selden, and other emi¬ 
nent lawyers, whether the lords fpiritual make in them- 
felves a didinft edate of the realm. Whitelock, in his 
Book on Parliaments, contends, that the lords fpiritual 
and temporal make but one edate. The want of a fepa- 
rate afiembly and a feparate vote would feern to warrant 
this opinion ; but, in the eye of the law, the edates are 
certainly didinft, though a lingular record upon our 
datute-books proves the didinftion to be merely nominal. 
The Aft of Uniformity, 1 Eliz. chap. 2. was palled with 
the di-dent of all the bidtops, and therefore the dyle of 
“ lords fpiritual” is omitted throughout the whole. (Gib- 
fon’s Codex, 268.) Other indances of bills palling the 
houfe of lords, though every lord fpiritual voted againd 
them, are cited by Selden and Coke, (Baronage, c. 6. 
2 Ind. 585, 6, 7.) It is alfo a curious faft, that in the 
early part of the reign of Henry VIII. the judges gave 
it as their opinion, that the king might hold a parliament 
without any fpiritual lords; (Keilwey’s Reports, 184.) 
Their opinion was fully afted up to in a fubfequent reign : 
for the lird ten or twelve years no bilhops fat in the par¬ 
liaments of Charles II. in faft, no bifliops were fummoned 
to his two lird parliaments, nor until after the repeal of 
the 16th of Charles I. c. 27. which was repealed by virtue 
of the 13th Car. II. d. 1. c. 2. 
The lords temporal confid of all the hereditary peers of 
the realm, by whatever title of nobility didinguifhed ; 
dukes, marquifles, earls, vifeounts, or barons. Some of 
thefe fit by defcent, as do all ancient peers ; fome by crea¬ 
tion, as do all new-made ones; others, fince the union 
with Scotland and Ireland, by ele&ion ; which is the cafe 
of the fixteen peers who reprefent the body of the Scots 
nobility, and the twenty-eight temporal lords elefted for 
life by the peers of Ireland. The number of lords tempo¬ 
ral is indefinite; and may be increafed, at will, by the 
power of the crown; except that, by the union with Ire¬ 
land, the number of Irifli peers is limited, fp that by future 
creation it cannot exceed one hundred. 
The Commons confid of the knights, citizens, and bur- 
gefies, who are the reprefentatives, in the houfe of com¬ 
mons, of the various counties, cities, and boroughs, in 
the united kingdom. The counties are reprefented by 
knights, elefted by the proprietors of lands : the cities 
and boroughs are reprefented by citizens and burgeffes, 
chofen by the mercantile part, or trading intered, of the 
nation. 
The number of EngliOi reprefeptatives is 513, of Scotch 
45, of Irifh 100 ; in all, 638. And every member, though 
cholen by one particular didrift, when elefted and re¬ 
turned ferves for the whole realm ; and therefore he is 
not bound to confult with, or take the advice of, his con- 
dituents upon any particular point, unlefs he himfelf 
thinks it proper or prudent fo to do. 1 Comm. 157, 9. 
It is not to be underftood that the number of members 
in the houfe of commons has been always the fame ; for, 
fince the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII. that 
number has been more than doubled. In his fird par¬ 
liament, the houfe confided only of 298 members : 360 
have fince been added by afts of parliament, or by the 
king’s charter, either creating new or reviving old bo¬ 
roughs. Under the provifions of the afts 27 Hen. VIII. 
c. 26. § 29. and 34, 35, Hen. VIII. c. 26. § 27. there were 
added 29 for Wales ; 12 precifely by the fird aft: for the 
counties, and 12 under the provifion of the latter aft for 
the boroughs. Two for the county and two for the city 
of Cheder were added by dat. 34, 35, Hen. VIII. c. 13. 
Two for the county and two for the city of Durham, by 
dat. 25 Car. II. c. 9. 45 for Scotland by the Afts of 
Union with that kingdom ; and 100 forlreland, by the Afts 
of Union with that kingdom; and the remainder by charter. 
The power and jurifdiftion of parliament, thus com- 
pofed, and confidered as an aggregate body, is fo tranf- 
Cendant, fays fir Edward Coke, (4 Ind. 36.) that it can¬ 
not be confined, either for caufes or perfons, within any 
bounds. And of this high court he adds, it may be 
truly faid, Si antiquitatem Jpectes, eft vetufiiffima; Ji dig¬ 
nitatem, eft honorati fima; fjurifcliSlionem, eft capacijjima. 
It hath fovereign and uncontrolable authority in making, 
confirming, enlarging, redraining, abrogating, repealing, 
reviving, and expounding, of laws, concerning matters of 
all poflible denominations, ecclefiadical or temporal, 
civil, military, maritime, or criminal; this being the 
place where that abfolute defpotic power, which mud in 
all governments refide fomewhere, is entruded by the 
conditution of thefe kingdoms. All mifehiefs and grie¬ 
vances, operations and remedies, that tranfeend the ordi¬ 
nary courfe of the laws, are within the reach of this ex¬ 
traordinary tribunal. It Can regulate or new-model the 
fucceOion to the crown ; as was done in the reign of 
Henry VIII. and William III. It can alter the edablilhed 
religion of the land ; as was done, in a variety of indances, 
in the reigns of king Henry VIII. and his three children. 
It can change and create alrefli even the conditution of 
the kingdom and of parliaments themfelves ; as was done 
by the aft of union, and the leveral datutes for triennial 
and feptennial eleftions. It can, in (hort, do every 
thing that is not naturally impoffible; and therefore fome 
have not fcrupled to call its power, by a figure rather too 
bold, the omnipotence of parliament. So that, as Black- 
done oblerves, it is a matter mod edential to the liber¬ 
ties of this kingdom, that finch members be delegated to 
this important trud as are mod eminent for their probity, 
their fortitude, and their knowledge ; for it was a known 
apophthegm of the great lord-treafurer Burleigh, “That 
England could never be ruined but by a parliament;” and 
as fir Matthew Hale obferves, this being the highed and 
greated court, over which none other can have jurifdic- 
tion in the kingdom, if by any means a mifgovernment 
fihould any way fall upon it, the fubjefts of this kingdom 
are left without all manner of remedy. 
In order to prevent the mifehief that might arife from 
repolingfuch extenfive authority with incompetent per¬ 
fons, it is provided by the cudom and law of parliament, 
that no one fiiall fit or vote in either houfe, unlefs he be 
twenty-one years of age. 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 25. No 
member filial 1 fit or vote in either houfe, till he hath, in 
the prefence of the houfe, taken the oaths of allegiance, 
fupremacy, and abjuration, and fubferibed and repeated 
the declaration againd tranlubdantiation, and invocation 
of faints, and the facrifice of the mafs. 30 Car. II. dat. 
2. 1 Geo. I. c. 13. 6 Geo. III. c. 23. No alien, even 
though he be naturalized, fhall be capable of being a 
member of either houfe of parliament. 12 & 13 Will. III. 
c. 2. As to the qualifications of members of the houfe 
of commons, befides the above qualifications, it is de¬ 
clared and required by the law of parliament or fpecial 
datutes, thqt they mud not be any of the twelve judges, 
becaufe they fit in the lords’ houfe; nor of the clergy, be- 
caufe they fit in convocation; nor perfons attainted of 
treafon 
