Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/11

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which relate to the Frequency of Parliaments. And the firſt I meet with is in his 18th Chap. concerning the Statutes of England in theſe words. “Et ſi Statuta hæc, tantâ ſolemnitate & prudentiâ edita, efficaciæ tantæ, quantæ conditorum cupiebat intentio, non eſſe contingant: Concitò reformari ipſa poſſunt, at non ſine Communitatis & Procerum Regni illius aſſenſu, quali ipſa primitùs emanarunt. And it theſe Statutes fall ſhort of their intended Efficacy, though deviſed with ſuch great Solemnity and Wiſdom of Parliament; they may very Quickly be Reformed, bur not without the Aſſent of the Commons and Peers of the Realm, which was their Source from the beginning.

Now I only deſire that the word Concitò may be taken notice of, which is the quickeſt Word that can be imagined, and ſhews that our Parliaments were always at Hand; and the whole Paſſage ſhews for what Wiſe and Juſt Reaſons they were ſo.

The next Paſſage is Chap. 53. Fol. 129. a. “Neque leges Angliæ frivolas & infructuoſas permittunt inducias. Et ſiquæ in Regno illo dilationes in Placitis minùs accommodæ fuerint uſicatæ, in Omni Parliamento amputari illæ poſſunt: etiam & Omnes Leges Aliæ in Regno illo uſitatæ, cum in aliquo Claudicaverint, in Omni Par-

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