Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/21

 Law down to King Edward the Firſt, though Abuſions and Court-Practices had broken in upon the Law.

Now 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 Robert Cotton’s Abridgment of the Records in the Tower. And there in the very firſt Page, 5. Ed. 2. 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 the Twice a Year is dwindled into Once or Twice.

The next is p. 93. of the fame Book, 36. Ed. 3. “The Print touching the Yearly holding of a Parliament,” cap. 10. agreeth with the Record. Now the Print is, “Item, for Maintenance of the ſaid Articles and Statutes, and Redreſs of divers Miſchiefs which Daily happen, a Parliament ſhall be holden every Year, as another time was Ordained by Statute.”

Now that Statute, as I find by the Statute-Book, for I cannot find it in Sir Robert Cotton, is thus. 4. Ed. 3. cap. 14. “Item, it is accorded, that a Parliament ſhall be holden every Year Once, and more Often if need be.” By