PARLIAMENT, is the grand assembly of the three states of this kingdom, summoned together, by the king's authority, to consult of matters relating to the public welfare, and particularly to enact and repeal laws. It consists of the king, the lords spiritual and temporal, and
the commons, and is at once the seat of the legislative authority, and the highest court of justice in Great-Britain. In the house of lords, criminal causes are tried on the impeachment of the commons; and this house has an original jurisdiction for the trial of peers upon indictments found by a grand jury; the lords likewise try such causes as come thither on appeals from the court of chancery, and all their decrees are as judgments. The house of commons examine the right of elections; regulate disputes concerning them; may expel their own members, and commit them to prison. They are the grand inquest of the nation; and present public grievances or delinquents to the king and lords, in order to their being punished. In short, they are the representatives of all the commons in the kingdom; and in them their constituents have placed the highest confidence, by investing them with the power of making laws, and entrusting them with all their liberties and privileges.
Originally, new parliaments were called every year; but by degrees their term grew longer. In the reign of king Charles II. they were held a long time, with great interruptions between: but both methods were found of such ill consequence, that, in the beginning of the reign of king William III. an act was passed, by which the term of all parliaments was restrained to three sessions, or three years; this was hence called the triennial act: but since that time, from other views, the period of parliaments has been lengthened to seven years. A parliament is called by the king's writ or letter directed to each lord, commanding him to appear; and by other writs, directed to the sheriffs of each county, to summon the people to elect two knights for each county, and one or two burgesses for each borough. The number of the members in the house of lords is uncertain, as increasing at the king's pleasure. The members of the house of commons, when full, are five hundred and fifty-three; viz. ninety-two knights of the shires; fifty-two deputies for twenty-five cities, London having four; sixteen for the eight cinque-ports; two for each university; three hundred and thirty-two for an hundred and eighty boroughs; twelve for the boroughs in Wales, and forty-five members for Scotland. If three hundred of these members are met, it is reckoned a full house; and forty may compose a house for the dispatch of business.
Upon the holding of a parliament, the king, the first day, sits in the upper-house, under a canopy, with the crown on his head, and dressed in his royal robes; and there, by himself, or the lord chancellor, declares the reasons of their meeting, in the presence of both the lords and commons; and then the commons are required to chuse a speaker, who is presented to the king, and being approved by his majesty, the business of the parliament goes on.
The lords and commons sit each in a distinct apartment: in the house of lords, the princes of the blood sit by themselves on the sides of the throne; at the wall, on the king's right hand, the two archbishops sit by themselves on a form. Below them, the bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, and all the other bishops, sit according to the priority of their consecration. On the king's left hand the lord-treasurer, lord president, and lord privy-seal, sit upon forms above all dukes, except the royal blood; then the dukes, marquesses, and earls, according
according to their creation. Across the room are wool-sacks, continued from an ancient custom; and the chancellor, or keeper, being of course the speaker of the house of lords, sits on the first wool-sack before the throne, with the great seal or mace lying by him; below these are forms for the viscounts and barons. On the other wool-sacks are seated the judges, masters in chancery, and king's council, who are only to give their advice in points of law: but they all stand up till the king gives them leave to sit. The commons sit promiscuously; only the speaker has a chair at the upper end of the house, and the clerk and his assistant sit at a table near him. Before any business is done, all the members of the house of commons take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, &c. and subscribe their opinions against transubstantiation, &c. and if any member of that house votes, or sits there during any debate, after the speaker is chosen, without having first taken these oaths, between the hours of nine and four, in a full house, he is adjudged a Popish recusant convict, and incapable of any office, and forfeits five hundred pounds. The same test the lords too, though they do not take the oaths, are obliged to comply with. When the parliament is thus met, no members are to depart from it without leave. Upon extraordinary occasions, all the members are sometimes summoned; in which case every lord spiritual and temporal, and every knight, citizen, and burgess, is to come to parliament, except he can reasonably and honestly excuse himself; or be amerced; that is, respectively, a lord by the lords, and a commoner by the commons.
All members of parliament, in order that they may attend the public service of their country, have the privilege for themselves of being free from arrests, attachments, imprisonment, &c. for debts, trespasses, &c. but not from arrests for treason, felony, and breach of the peace.
As to the election of members, it is enacted, That candidates shall not make any presents of money to, or treat the electors, after the test of the writ of the summons, or the issuing out of the writs for elections, or after any seat for a member of parliament is become vacant; in case they do, they are declared incapable of serving as members, by 7 W. III. c. 4. And farther, an oath is to be taken by electors, That they have not either received, or had any money, gift, reward, or any office, place, employment, or even promise of money, gift, &c. to them or their use, to give their votes; and in these cases, if they ask, take, or contract for money or reward, either by gift or other device, to give or refuse their votes for any one; or if persons, by gift, &c. corruptly procure any elector to give his vote; they shall forfeit five hundred pounds, and be totally disabled to vote at any election of members of parliament, as also to hold any office, franchise, &c. Likewise officers who admit persons to vote without their taking the aforementioned oath, in case the same be demanded, incur a forfeiture of one hundred pounds; and an oath is to be administered to all the returning officers, that they have not received any money, gift, or place, for the making of their returns: 2 Geo. II. c. 24. 9 Geo. II. c. 38. A knight of the shire must be worth six hundred pounds a year in land, and all other members three hundred pounds.
Anciently all the people had votes in elections, till it was enacted by Henry VI. that none but freeholders, who had a yearly revenue of forty shillings, should be admitted to vote for knights of the shire.
The manner of debating upon, and passing bills in parliament, is as follows: Any member may move to have a bill brought in, which, upon a question put, being agreed to by the majority, this person, with others, is ordered to prepare and bring in the same. When it is ready, a time is appointed for its being read; and after the clerk's reading it, the speaker reads an abstract of it, and puts the question whether or no it shall have a second reading; and after a second reading, the question is put whether or no it shall be committed, which is either to a committee of the whole house if it be of importance, or to a private committee, any member naming the persons. The committee being appointed, and a chairman chosen, the chairman reads the bill paragraph by paragraph, puts every clause to the question, fills up the blanks, and makes amendments, according to the opinion of the majority. The bill thus gone through, the chairman makes his report at the side-bar of the house, reads all the additions and amendments, &c. and moves for leave to bring up the report to the table; which granted, he delivers it to the clerk, who reads the amendments, &c. The speaker then puts the question whether they shall be read a second time; and, if agreed to, he reads them himself. To so many of the amendments as the house acquiesces in, the question is now put. Whether the bill, thus amended, shall be ingrossed and written fair upon parchment, and read a third time? and the bill being ingrossed, the speaker holds it in his hand, and asks if it shall pass. If the majority be for it, the clerk writes on it, Soit baille aux seigneurs, "Let it be delivered to the lords;" or if in the house of lords, Soit baille aux communes, "Let it be delivered to the commons." If a bill be rejected, it cannot be any more proposed during that session. A bill for a general pardon has but one reading.
When a member of the house of commons speaks, he stands up uncovered, and directs his speech to the speaker only. If what he says be answered by another, he is not allowed to reply the same day, unless personal reflections have been cast upon him: but when the commons, in order to have a greater freedom of debate, have resolved themselves into a committee of the whole house, every member may speak to a question as often as he thinks necessary. In the house of lords they vote, beginning at the puius, or lowest baron, and so up orderly to the highest, every one answering Content or Not content. In the house of commons they vote by yeas and nays; and if it be dubious which are the greater numbers, the house divides. If the question be about bringing any thing into the house, the yeas go out; but if it be about any thing the house already has, the nays go out. In all divisions the speaker appoints four tellers, two of each opinion. In a committee of the whole house, they divide by changing sides, the yeas taking the right and the nays the left of the chair; and then there are but two tellers. If a bill pass one house, and the other demur to it, a conference is demanded in the painted chamber, where certain members are deputed from each house; and here the lords sit covered, and the commons stand bare and debate the case. If they disagree, the affair is null; but if they agree,
gree, this, with the other bells that have passed both houses, is brought down to the king in the house of lords, who comes thither clothed in his royal robes; before him the clerk of the parliament reads the title of each bill, and as he reads, the clerk of the crown pronounces the royal assent or dissent. If it be a public bill, the royal assent is given in these words, Le roy le veut, "The king will have it so;" if private, Soit fait comme il est désiré, "Let the request be complied with;" if the king refuses the bill, the answer is, Le roy s'avisera, "The king will think of it;" and if it be a money-bill, the answer is, Le roy remercie ses loyaux sujets, accepte leur benevolence, & aussi le veut; "The king thanks his loyal subjects, accepts their benevolence, and therefore grants his consent."