Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/30

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( 22 )

But I will ſay no more upon this Head, being intent upon another.


CHAP. III.

Shewing, That the Yearly Parliaments were Freſh and Freſh.

There are ſeveral ways of proving that there was a New Election every Year. They tell me there are Writs extant for New Elections for Fourſcore Years Succeſſively, where there are but about Six wanting. What if they had been all loft, imbezelled or made away? What then, is our Conſtitution loft, when Bundles of Writs are loſt? No, I will go no farther than this laſt Letter to ſhew that there is a great Appearance that while there were Two Parliaments in a Year, the Second muſt be new Called. Though I hate the word New applied to a Parliament; for a Parliament is a Parliament, and our Anceſtors would no more have dream’d of a Stale or Old Parliament, than of an Old Moon cut out into Stars. I will cite the words of King Edward’s Letter, dated the 19th of June in the third of his Reign,

and