Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/15

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there was an end of all Parliaments. Yes, ſays Heylin, ſo they might well, the King having been troubled with their Impertinencies, and having an Example in France before his Eyes, where Parliaments have been ſo much diſcontinued, that it is become a Proverb amongſt them, Voyons le Jeu de Troi Eſtats, as the ſtrangeſt Sight which cm be ſeen in an Age. I have not the Book now by me, but I will be anſwerable for the Subſtance of this Quotation, having retained this Paſſage in my Head above theſe Five and Twenty Years.

I can only touch ſeveral other Arguments which might be enlarged upon. The High Court of Parliament is the Dernier Reſort in this Kingdom; and if that fail, there may be a failure of the Engliſh Juſtice.

Bracton ſays of an Ambiguous or Diffilut Cauſe, Reſpectuetur ad magnam Curiam; but unleſs Parliaments be Frequent, ſuch a cauſe is Adjourned to a long Day.

Every Body that underſtands the Engliſh Conſtitution knows that it is exactly the ſame as it was laid down in Parliament 8 Ed. 4. by the Lord Chancellour that then was. You have it in Sir Robert Cotton’s Abridgment of the Rolls in the Tower, p. 682. in theſe words. “He then declared the three Eſtates to comprehend the Governance of

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