Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/282

236, frivolous and fruitleſs delays. And if in this kingdom, delays in pleas, which are not to the purpoſe, ſhould be uſed, they may, in every parliament, be cut off. Yea, and all other laws uſed in the realm, when they halt, or are defective in any point, they may, in every parliament, be ſet to rights. Whereupon it may be rightly concluded, that the laws of England are the beſt in the world, either actually or potentially, ſince they can eaſily be brought into act or being. To the performance whereof, as often as equity ſo requires, every King is bound by an oath ſolemnly taken at the time of receiving his crown.”

of this laſt paſſage I will not trouble you with any more obſervations than theſe:

, That parliaments are the remedy againſt delays in law proceedings; but how, if parliaments themſelves ſhould be delayed?

, That if any or all our laws ſhould halt, and our parliaments, at the ſame time, ſhould be crippled too, and not be able to come together; they could not help one another.