Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large, 1763.djvu/17

Rh would stand with the Laws in Force, and did not tend to change or alter any Statute then in being, in such Case the Law was compleat by the Royal Assent on the Parliament Roll, without any Entry on the Statute Roll: And such Bills were usually termed Ordinances, being such as might at any Time be amended by the Parliament without any Statute; whereas one Statute could not be altered but by another: And this Distinction is clearly expressed in the Rolls here-under cited.

When the Commons had obtained Answers to their Petitions, such as were granted were framed into Acts, and frequently passed, without their Concurrence or Inspection. And their Assent, though an undoubted Right, was so far from being indisputably established in Practice, that we find it disputed in the most essential Points, and arbitrarily over-ruled during the Reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. Never-