Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/35

 my Time retained about Nineteen Years with Penſions, and another for fewer Years with Places and turning out of Places: But if a Parliament were corrupted neither of theſe ways, yet a ſtanding Parliament will always Stagnate, and be like a Country-pond which is over-grown with Ducks-meat. The worſt King one of them that ever the Nation had, was ſo limited by the Conſtitution, that he did not know how to compaſs along Parliament, and therefore he was fain to take other indirect Ways to gain the ſame Point as if he had one. It was Rich the 2d. who in the Articles alledged againſt him, and confeſſed by him, lets us know it was by influencing Elections and falſe Returns. The words as they ſtand in the Rolls 1 H. 4. m. 20. are theſe.

“19. Item, Licet de Statuto, & conſuetudine Regni ſui in Convocatione cujuſlibet Parliamenti populus ſuus in ſingluis comitatibus regni debeat eſſe liber ad Eligendum & deputandum milites pro hujuſmodi comitatibus ad intereſſendum Parliamento, & ad exponendum eorem gravamina, & ad proſequendum pro remediis ſuperinde prout eis videretur expedirel tamen præſatus Rex ut in Parliamentis ſuis liberius conſequi valeat ſuæ temerariæ Voluntatis effectum, direxit mandata ſua frequentis Vice Rh