adjournment are, that, the first concluding the feffion, all bills, or other proceedings depending in either houfe, in whatever ftate they are, are entirely put an end to, and muft, in the next feffion, be inftituted again, as if they had never been begun. -Whereas upon an adjournment, every proceeding remains entire, and may, at the meeting after the recefs, be taken up in the state, and at the period, where it was left.

A prorogation is either by the king's command, and in his prefence fignified by the lord chancellor, or fpeaker of the houfe of lords, to both houfes-or by writ under the great feal, directed to the lords and commons, or by commiffioners appointed by a special commiffion for that purpose.-The first is the ufual mode of proceeding, where the parliament is prorogued at the clofe of the feffion. Prorogation by writ does not take place except upon the meeting of a new parliament after a general election, and before a speaker of the house of commons is chofen: on this occafion, when the members of the house of commons come to the place appointed for administering to them the oaths, by the lord fteward or his deputies; on their being informed, that the parliament is to be prorogued by writ, directed to the lords and commons, they proceed directly, without entering their own houfe, or expecting any meffage from the lords, to the houfe of peers, where the writ for proroguing the parliament is read. The entry of the tranfaction is made in the journal of the house of commons, without expreffing by whom, or on what authority, the information was conveyed. Proroguing by fpecial commiffioners is the ufual form, when the parliament meets, from time to time, during the recefs.

OPENING OF THE SESSION. On meeting after prorogation, it is irregular for the houses to proceed to bufinefs till the caufe of fummons has been declared, and the feffion opened by the king, or perfons authorized by him, in the houfe of lords; and if, from any caufe, the king does not come in perfon, or fend a commiffion for opening the feffion, or proroguing the parliament, the houfe of commons ought to do nothing, but adjourn to a future day.

It is not neceffary by law to give forty days notice of the meeting of parliament for difpatch of bufinefs after a prorogation, the statute 7th and 8th William III. requiring only that "there "fhall be forty days between the tete and returns of the "writs of fummons." When notice has been once given by proclamation, that parliament fhall fit for dispatch of business, if it is neceffary further to prorogue it, no renewed notice is neceffary, because it is fuppofed, that all the members attend in conformity to the first proclamation. But although no

pofitive

pofitive law requires forty days notice of the fitting for dispatch of bufinefs, the regular and established practice is, that the parliament is, in the courfe of the recefs, prorogued from time to time, by commiffioners authorized by his majefty, of which prorogations notice is given by proclamation, or by order in council publifhed in the Gazette; and, when it is intended that the parliament fhall actually fit for difpatch of business, notice is fpecified in the proclamation; and that proclamation generally bears date at least forty days before the day appointed for the meeting.

DISSOLUTION. By the act of the 1ft of George I. ftatute 2, c. 38, the crown is reftrained from continuing the existence of a parliament for a longer term than feven years; to be accounted from the day on which, by the writ of fummons, they were appointed to meet. This law, commonly called the Septennial Act, extended the duration of parliaments to feven years; which, by the act of the 6th of William and Mary, chap. 2. had been limited to three. Before this act of William and Mary, which paffed in 1694, there was by law no limitation of time for the duration of parliaments; the crown was at liberty, if it found a parliament fubfervient to its views, to extend its exiftence for any term; and, in fact the parliament which was elected in 1661, foon after the restoration, was not diffolved till January, 1678-9, having continued almost eighteen years. The acts in force before the reign of William did not limit the duration of each parliament to three years, but provided only that their fittings fhould not be fufpended beyond

that term.

But the king may diffolve the parliament at his pleasure, either during a fitting, an adjournment, or a prorogation; in perfon or by commiffion under the great feal, if the parliament be fitting; or, if prorogued, by proclamation. It has been the uninterrupted practice, fince the revolution, to prorogue the legislature to a certain day; and then issue a proclamation, difcharging the members from their attendance on that day, and diffolving the parliament. The reafon for this mode of proceeding is probably founded in a fentiment delivered by Charles I. in his fpeech in 1628. "That it fhould be a general maxim "with kings, themselves only to execute pleafing things, and to "avoid appearing perfonally in matters that may seem harsh "and difagreeable," For, however proper it may be frequently to appeal to the fenfe of the nation at large, by the election of a new parliament; and however flattering to the electors; to the elected, a diffolution is generally an unwelcome measure.

THE HOUSE OF LORDS.

How COMPOSED. The Houfe of Lords is compofed of the lords fpiritual and temporal of England, who are to be fummoned, ex debito juftitia. Sixteen peers of Scotland, and one archbishop, three bishops, and twenty eight temporal lords of Ireland, by virtue of the refpective acts of union, feverally reprefent those kingdoms. Befides thefe, the judges of England fit, by virtue of the king's writ of affiftance; the matters in chancery, by virtue of their office; and his majefty's attorney and folicitor general, and counsel learned in the law, attend on requifite occafions, to give advice; but none but the peers of parliament can vote on any question.

ORIGIN OF PEERAGE. The right to fit in the house of peers originated entirely in the poffeffion of land. At the conqueft, all perfons found in arms against the invader forfeited. their eftates; which he gave to Normans: and he compelled all those who were not in arms against him to take out patents to hold their lands of himfelf. To complete this meafure, he made a general furvey of the kingdom, which was called domefday, and changed the nature of the tenure, which, in the Saxon times, was allodial, into feudal, to be holden of himfelf by knights fervice. Thus he made the property of eftates depend on allegiance to him. All poffeffors who enjoyed the fruits or revenue of any eftate, held thofe privileges, either mediately or immediately, of the crown; and their property was conceived to be, in fome degree, conditional. The land was ftill apprehended to be a fpecies of benefice, which was the original conception of a feudal property; and the vaffal owed, in return for it, ftated fervices to his baron, as the baron himself did for his land to the king. The vaffal was obliged to defend his baron in war; and the baron, at the head of his vaffals, was bound to fight in defence of the king and kingdom. But, befides these military fervices, which were casual, there were others impofed of a civil nature, which were more conftant and durable. The king, when he found it neceffary to demand any fervice of his barons, or chief tenants, beyond what was due by their tenures, was obliged to affemble them, in order to obtain their confent: and when it was necessary to determine any controverfy which might arife among the barons themselves, the question must be difcuffed in their prefence, and be decided according to their opinion or advice. In these two circumftances of confent and advice, confifted chiefly the civil fervices of the ancient barons; and thefe implied all the confiderable incidents of government. In one view

the

the barons regarded this attendance as their principal privilege; in another, as a grievous burden. That no momentous affairs could be tranfacted without their confent and advice, was, in general, esteemed the great fecurity of their poffeffions and dignities: but as they reaped no immediate profit from their attendance at court, and were expofed to great inconvenience and charge, by an abfence from their own eftates, every one was glad to exempt himself from each particular exertion of this power; and was pleased, both that the call for that duty fhould feldom return upon him, and that others fhould undergo the burden in his ftead. The king, on the other hand,. was ufually anxious, for several reasons, that the affembly of the barons fhould be full at every ftated or cafual meeting. This attendance was the chief badge of their fubordination to the crown; and drew them from that independence which they were apt to affect in their own caftles and manors; and where the meeting was thin or ill attended, its determinations had lefs authority, and commanded not fo ready an obedience from the whole community. The archbishops, bifhops, and barons, which included earls, the highest title of nobility then known, were thus obliged to fit in the great council, or, as it was afterwards called, parliament; but another clafs of military tenants, thofe who held in capite, by knights' fervice, had right, though they were not compellable, to attend. All the immediate military tenants of the crown amounted not fully to feven hundred, when doomfday-book was framed: and as the members were well pleased, on any pretext, to excuse themfelves from attendance, the affembly was never likely to be come too numerous for the difpatch of public bufinefs.

CREATION. Diftinctions of nobility thus proceeding from land, were taken as titles from the conqueft; and the poffeflors of them were called to parliament by fummons. Since that time peers have been created by inveftiture, and by patent, which laft mode was introduced by Richard II. in the eleventh year of his reign, and is now most generally used: but peerages are created both by writ and patent, without any regard to tenure or eftate. The creation by writ, or the king's letter, is a fummons to attend the houfe of peers, by the ftile and title of that barony which the king is pleafed to confer: that by patent is a royal grant to a fubject of any dignity and degree of peerage. The creation by writ is the more ancient way; but a man is not ennobled thereby, unless he actually takes his feat in the house of lords: and fome are of opinion, that there must be at least two writs of fummons, and a fitting in two diftinct parliaments, to evidence an hereditary barony: and therefore the moit ufual, becaufe the fureft, way is to grant

the

the dignity by patent, which enures to a man and his heirs according to its limitation, though he never himself makes use of it. Yet it is frequent to call up the eldeft fon of a peer to the house of lords by writ of fummons, in the name of his father's barony; because in that cafe there is no danger of his children lofing the nobility, in cafe he never takes his feat; for they will fucceed to their grandfather. Creation by writ has alfo one advantage over that by patent: for a perfon created by writ holds the dignity to him and his heirs, without any words to that purport in the writ; but in letters patent there must be words to direct the inheritance; elfe the dignity enures only to the grantee for life. The form of creation by patent is thus defcribed: Firft, the king's warrant iffues for making out the letters patent; which, when made out, are carried to the chancellor to be paffed under the great feal; and he immediately indorfes on them his recepi. Whenever they are afterwards fealed, the date of paffing them under the great feal must be the fame with that of the recepi. A peerage by creation does not commence till this indorfement takes place; and if either the king, or the perfon to be created, should die before it, no benefit could accrue to the intended peer or his heirs, even though the warrant fhould have been figned. But as foon as the recepi is indorfed, the peerage takes place; because the chancellor, or keeper of the great feal, muft, by the statute of the 18th of Henry VI. when he fixes the great feal to the patent, ante-date it to the day of the recepi. If the king were to die after the day of that date, the great feal might be put to the patent; or, if the intended peer were to die in the fame period, his heirs would have the benefit of the peerage.

The ceremony of admitting a peer into the house, is thus: he is brought in between two lords; a king at arms bears his patent or writ of fummons, and prefents it kneeling to the lord. chancellor, who, having read it, congratulates the peer on becoming a member of the houfe, and invests him with his parliamentary robe. The patent is then delivered to the clerk of the parliament; and the oaths having been administered, the new peer is conducted to his feat on the proper bench.

LORDS SPIRITUAL. The lords fpiritual in parliament are: for England, two archbishops, and twenty-four bishops; and for Ireland, one archbishop and three bishops: the English for life; the Irish by rotation. In the Saxon times, the lords fpiritual held by frankalmoigne, but yet made great part of the grand council of the nation, being the most learned perfons,

At the diffolution of monafteries by Henry VIII. there were likewife twenty-feven mirred abbets, and two priors: a very confiderable body, and in those times equal in sumber to the temporal nobility.

that