Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/291

Rh of the people; without applying to the counties, and without following the rules of right: whereupon there are ſeveral of the preſent ordinances that are rather founded upon will, that upon right.”

this paſſage I ſhall only obſerve, that the place of the parliament’s meeting is fixed, and ſtill at London; and that the two times a year was a ſtanding law down to K. I. though abuſions and court practices had broken in upon the law.

let us ſee how the law ſtood afterwards; wherein I can only conſult the books I have by me, for I have not health enough to go and tranſcribe the records in the Tower, but take them upon content as they lie in Sir ’s abridgement of the records in the Tower. And, there in the very firſt page, 5 II. it is ordained, Que parliament ſerra tenus un ou deux foits per an. That a parliament ſhall be held one time or two times a year. Here you ſee twice a year is dwindled into once or twice.

next is p. 93. of the ſame book, 36 III. “The print touching the yearly