Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/289

Rh parliaments within the law; but I never did, nor ever will ſay to the end of my life, that the King can hinder parliaments appointed by law. Theſe frequent parliaments were to meet at London in time of peace. We ſee then what has interrupted our parliaments both as to time and place. For London was after in the hands of the Dane, and foreigners’ wars and tribulations came on.

Bur the beſt way is to let an author explain himſelf; which the Mirror does, in telling us likewiſe the abuſions of the law, or the contrarieties and repugnances to right; or, as he calls it, the fraud and force which is put upon law. This way of writing law is the beſt that can be invented; for it is the way of preaching by poſitive and negative, which is a two edged ſword, and cuts both ways. And the truth of it is, the negative part of the law, which lies in a little compaſs, oftentimes teaches us a world of the poſitive. For inſtance, the 33 articles in the roll, 1 IV. m. 20, which K. II. ſolemnly acknowledged of his own mal-adminiſtration, do give us more light into the conſtitution, than a book of ſix times the bigneſs could do.

to come to the abuſions of law which are in the Mirror, p. 282. he ſays, That the firſt and ſovereign