Page:An Essay Concerning Parliaments.djvu/32

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finiſhing of many other Matters, and treating about the Petition of the Yearly Tribute, which is a great Grief to me; and ſo by reaſon of my ſaid Illneſs, (from which by the Grace of God, in whoſe Hands are the Iſſues of Life and Death, I begin to Recover) That Parliament was Diſſolved, and hereupon I could not Treat with the Prelates and Peers aforeſaid about this Tribute.

From this long Quotation I ſhall only make this Obſervation at preſent, That in this Parliament begun in the Octaves of Eaſter (perhaps upon May-Day) there was a great deal of Buſineſs done, and a great deal of Buſineſs left undone; amongſt the reſt the Pope’s, becauſe of the King’s Sickneſs, who thereupon could not give Anſwers to Bills or Petitions; and that the Nuncio’s Petition was Unanſwered, went to the King’s Heart. But upon Occaſion of that Sickneſs it was that the Parliament was Diſſolved, and the Pope’s Buſineſs hindred, to the King’s great Regret. What, could not the King keep this Parliament alive till the Nineteenth of June, when he himſelf began to be well again, which is the Date of the Letter? It is no more than Fifty Days from their firſt ſitting down to the Date of his Letter, and yet though he ſet his Heart upon the Buſineſs that lay before that Parliament, it was Diſſolved; and to ſtop

that