THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. CHA P. III. Of the Proceedings of the Commons of Ireland from 1634 to 1666. TH SECTION I. III. HE first feffion, which was held by CHAP. lord Strafford, began on the 14th of July, one thousand fix hundred and thirty- 1634. four. When the lords and commons had ́ proceeded to Saint Patrick's church, in a very pompous proceffion, with the lord de VOL. II. B puty, CHAP. III. puty, the judges, and a large military escort*, they returned to their respective rooms in 1634. the Castle; and on the next day, after the lord deputy had made a fpeech, which is not entered in the journals, they made choice of Mr. Catelyne, the recorder of Dublin, for their speaker; who was prefented, and approved, on the following day, by the lord deputy. On the 17th, committees for privileges were appointed to meet on Fridays in the Court of Chancery at two o'clock; and after a debate whether they should first decide upon the legality of elections, or proceed to read bills, it was decided for the latter propofition by one hundred and twentynine to one hundred and feven voices. On the 19th, Sir Thomas Bramfton was ordered upon a question to be expelled, as he was fovereign of Belfaft, for which place he had been returned; and he was required to make reftitution of fixteen * Commons Journals, vol. i. p. 102. pounds III. pounds to the inhabitants, which he had CHAP. probably received for wages *• On the 23d of July, a bill that this parliament should not terminate by the royal affent received a first reading. This measure has been explained in the account of the lords' proceedings †, and originated from a change in the old method of paffing laws in both kingdoms; but at what precife period this change was made in legiflation in either kingdom, I have not yet been able to discover. On the 29th, the lords propofed a conference for appointing the time of the meeting of the next parliament, and for an humble recommendation to the lord deputy for that purpose. 1634. * As fovereign of this corporation, Sir Thomas Bramfton could not return himself; but in early periods this rule, perhaps, was not so clearly laid down, and generally admitted, as it is at present. + See vol. i. p. 319. СНАР. On the 31ft, fir William Reeves, attor ney-general, defired admittance; and ac1634. quainted the house, that the towns of Fower, Clonmynes, Taghmon, and Bannow, had fent members, though there were no charters on record whereby they were fo privileged; and these burgeffes were ordered to attend in the Exchequer chamber, and to fhew by what right they were returned to ferve in parliament. During the short time that the Chief Baron Gilbert prefided in the Exchequer in Ireland, before he was removed to a fimilar fituation in England, he seems to have made very accurate inquiries into the early state of the Irish representation: but though his works were published after his death, and feem to want the finishing hand of the author, yet the following account throws great light upon the fubject. * "In Ireland, the pale depending on the king, the clergy feemed to have complied with * Till the 13th year of Henry VIII. the English go. vernment extended only to five fhires; which diftrict was III. with the model of Edward I. in fending CHA P. proctors to parliament; and the archbishops and bishops, and mitred abbots, fat 1634. in the upper house, and the proctors in the lower house. Hence by the 36th of Henry VI. c. 1. it appears that they made a law, that beneficed parfons fhould forfeit their benefices if they were abfent without leave; which fort of regulation was made in England by ecclefiaftical authority before the fubmiffion of the clergy in the 25th year of Henry VIII. So that the parliamentary establishment in Ireland in relation to the clergy, differed from that of England, for this reafon; that Edward the firft projected the reprefentatives of the clergy in proportion to the number of the temporal body, and because there were many corporations that held on burgage tenure in England, therefore the deans, archbishops, and proctors of chapters, were let in, to make an equivalent was called the pale. The five counties were, Dublin, Kildare, Lowth, and Meath; afterwards divided into Eaft and Weft Meath in one thousand five hundred and forty-three, by an act of the 34th year of that king. number: B 3 |