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CHAP. date till one thousand fix hundred and

V.

forty, parliaments were not convened: feffions were held till near the king's death in one thousand fix hundred and forty-eight; but in the interregnum a parliament for the three kingdoms was held during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, of which a lift shall be given in the Appendix.

The Irish parliament met after the Reftoration, in one thousand fix hundred and fixty-one, and fat till one thousand fix hundred and fixty-three, with few intervals: they met afterwards in one thousand fix hundred and fixty-five, and were diffolved in the following year, on account of a difpute between the two houfes at a conference.

From one thousand fix hundred and fixty-fix a parliament was not held in Ireland till one thousand fix hundred and ninetytwo; it was foon diffolved by lord Sydney, and did not re-affemble till one thoufand fix hundred and ninety-five: from thence

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PERIODS OF ASSEMBLING.

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they were convened twice before one thou- CHAP.
fand fix hundred and ninety-eight; but they
did not meet for five years till one thou-
fand feven hundred and three; from hence
they have affembled biennially till one thou-
fand seven hundred and eighty-three, when,
in confequence of a refolution of the house.
of lords, and of the annual grants of the
duties, they have been annually convened
fince that period.

The Irish parliament was ufually convened in the fummer months in former times; and the long intervals in the feffions muft appear very inconvenient and unaccountable.

Even fo late as one thoufand feven hundred and feventy-nine-eighty they met in

* Lords Journals, die Lunæ, 3d Nov. 1783.-Refolved, That it is the opinion of this house, that in the present fituation of this kingdom, it will promote the general utility, and national welfare, contribute to amend, ftrengthen, and preserve the laws, and to give ample and speedy justice to the subjects of this realm, in his majesty's high court of parliament, if a feffion of parliament were held every year in this kingdom.

VOL. II.

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October,

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V.

CHAP. October, were prorogued in September, and fat every month in the year.

Three circumftances conduced to this inconvenience: The firft, the adjournment for about three weeks to prepare the public accounts, after parliament had fat for three or four days; the fecond, the delay in returning the bills; and the third, the want of due regularity in their proceedings.

The first has been corrected by preparing the public accounts before the feffions commenced; the fecond, by a proper difpatch in the English councils, where bills fince one thousand feven hundred and eighty are no longer debated and altered ; and the laft, by the attention of the present speaker and the following regulation :

The orders of the day were transcribed in the houfe of commons in one thousand feven hundred and eighty-five, and sent every morning to the house of each member, a regulation which the lords have fince

adopted;

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adopted; and in that feffion, they fat with- CHAP.
out any holidays (Sundays and the 30th of
January excepted) from Chriftmas till
Eafter; by which period, it is probable, a
feffion may in future be limited. These re-
gulations, which are due to the ability of
the present speaker of the house of com-
mons, are improvements in parliamentary
proceedings, even beyond those which have
been adopted in the British parliament.

CONFERENCES prevailed more in the Irish than in the British parliament. The propofitions for laws, which went under the prescriptions of Poyning's act, from either house to government, had only the weight and recommendation of one branch of the legislature; the weight of a joint recommendation could only be effected by them: hence the frequency of conferences in the annals of parliament.

From the

year one thousand fix hundred and thirteen, when the Journals of the com

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CHAP. mons commenced, till one thoufand feven hundred and thirty-feven, many conferences obtained in every feffion; but forms, ceremonies, idle etiquettes, and difgraceful altercations, marked their meetings. I have carefully avoided dwelling upon disputes, which amplify and extend the early parliamentary records,-whether they were to fit, or to ftand; to go firft, or fecond; to be covered, or uncovered; to stand in one fpot, or another, at conferences.

Some controverfies of this kind had been compofed by the authority of lord Strafford in one thousand fix hundred and thirty-four, and the two houfes acquiefced in his great knowledge of the forms and proceedings of parliament, as a commoner, and afterwards. as a peer in England. But the duke of Ormond was not fo fortunate in one thousand fix hundred and fixty-fix, and a diffolution and the vacation of parliament for above twenty-five years followed a difpute fo frivolous, that it is almost impoffible to collect fuch minute altercations, nor would any chronicle

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