BIBLIOTHECA REGIA MONACENSIS. PRINTED BY HENRY EDMUND CARRINGTON, ST. JAMES STREET, AND WEYMOUTH STREET, BATH. TO HER MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY THE QUEEN. MADAM, THE condescension with which Your Majesty has been graciously pleased to sanction this first attempt to place in the hands of all Your Majesty's Subjects, a Digest of the Records which relate to the Parliamentary and Constitutional History of our Country, calls forth my warmest acknowledgments. At a Period, when, under the blessings of a continued peace, Knowledge is diffusing itself amongst all Classes of the Community, and when, by British energy and intelligence, the Sciences and Arts are making unexampled progress, it has been regretted that this important branch of our Historical Literature should have received little attention, and that the means of attaining authentic Constitutional information, should, therefore, still be inaccessible to a great majority of the Inhabitants of these Realms. It is hoped, that, by abridging the labour of research, the following Exposition of the Records which illustrate our Parliamentary History, may facilitate the acquisition of sound Political Knowledge, and that an acquaintance with the Principles and Practice of the British Constitution, may tend to give stability to Your Majesty's Throne, and to sustain the Prosperity and Magnificence, which, during so many Centuries, have distinguished the British Empire. That it may please the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe to grant Your Majesty a long and prosperous Reign, and that, by the exercise of those Personal Virtues which are hailed and acknowledged by all Your Majesty's loyal Subjects, it may be permitted You to promote the substantial welfare and glory of Your People, and Your own enduring Happiness and Renown, is, Madam, the earnest Prayer of Your Majesty's Most obedient and devoted Servant, CHARLES HENRY PARRY. Summer Hill, Bath, 1839. PREFACE. "PARLIAMENTARIA Scientia quærenda ab omnibus, incognita multis." The lapse of more than two centuries has not diminished the force of either of these Propositions advanced by Sir Edward Coke. It will scarcely be denied, that, in these times, such knowledge is desirable, or that upon few subjects of general interest, is the want of it more conspicuous, than in questions connected with the origin and developement of the Constitutional History of our own Country. This ignorance may generally be ascribed to one of two causes, either to a conceit which does not prevail to the same extent in any other department of inquiry, or to the difficulty of obtaining information on a subject of unquestionable importance. It was a saying of Socrates, that though no man undertakes a trade which he has not learned, in that of Government, the hardest of all trades, every one considers himself sufficiently qualified by the gifts which he has received from nature. It is no less true, in our own days, that, though in all other sciences and in every mechanical art, a long experience and much industry are considered necessary for the attainment of a moderate degree of excellence, in the difficult science of Legislation, these means are not unfrequently neglected in the pursuit of the same end. Hence it happens that many incompetent Persons, fancying themselves endowed with talents, which instinctively fit them for immediate action, enter, with confidence, upon the business of Legislation; and b |