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 this Land, the Preheminence whereof was to the King as chief, the ſecond to the Lords and Biſhops, and the third to the Commons.” Now if we are at a loſs or uncertainty about our Parliaments, we are at a loſs or uncertainty about two Thirds of our Government.

But I will ſay no more upon this Head, intending to ſhew in the following Chapters, how the matter of Parliaments ſtood in former Ages.

Chuſe to begin with this Period of Time in King Alfred’s Reign, becauſe we have clear Law and Hiſtory to ſhew how Parliaments ſtood in his Time, and what Law was Ordained concerning them for ever.

It is in the Mirror of Juſtices, which as my Lord Coke ſays in his Preface to his Tenth Reports, was written in the Saxon Times, and it appears by the Book it ſelf: But ſeveral things were added to it by a Learned and Wiſe Lawyer Andrew Horne, who lived