Page:Political Tracts.djvu/38

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28
THE FALSE ALARM.

How this favours the doctrine of readmiſſion by a ſecond choice, I am not able to diſcover. The ſtatute of 30 Ch. II. had enacted, That he who ſhould ſit in the Houſe of Commons, without taking the oaths and ſubſcribing the teſt, ſhould be diſabled to ſit in the Houſe during that Parliament, and a writ ſhould iſſue for the election of a new member, in place of the member ſo diſabled, as if ſuch member had naturally died.

This laſt clauſe is apparently copied in the act of Anne, but with the common fate of imitators. In the act of Charles, the political death continued during the Parliament, in that of Anne it was hardly worth the while to kill the man whom the next breath was to revive. It is, however, apparent, that in the opinion of the Parliament, the dead-doing lines would have kept him motionleſs, if he had not been recovered by a kind exception. A ſeat va-

cated,