Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/13

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

( 5 )

Secondly, That if any or all our Laws ſhould Halt, and our Parliaments at the ſame time ſhould be Crippled too, and not able to come together; they could not help one another.

In the next and laſt Chapter of that Book, Fol. 129. b. the Prince immediately replies. “Princeps. Leges illas, nedum bonas ſed & optimas eſſe Cancellarie, ex proſecutione tuâ in hoc Dialogo certiſſimè deprehendi. Et fiquæ ex illis meliorari depoſcant, id Citiſſimè fieri poſſe. Parliamenttorum ibidem Formulæ nos erudiunt. Quo realiter, potentialiterve, Regnum illud ſemper præſtantiſſimis Legibus gubernatur. Nec tuas in hâc concionatione doctrinas futuris Angliæ Regibus inutiles fore Conjicio; dum non delectent regere legibus quæ non delectant. Says the Prince, My Lord Chancellor by the Tenour of your Diſcourſe in this Dialogue I am throughly ſatisfied, that the Laws of England are not only Good, but the Beſt in the World. And in caſe any of the Laws want to be mended or improved, the Rules of the Engliſh Parliaments do inſtruct us, That that may be done forthwith. Whereupon the Realm of England is always Governed by the very beſt Laws, either in Reality or in Poſſibility. And beſides I conjecture that the Doctrines that have been held forth in this Dialogue will be very uſeful to

the