The constitution of parliaments in England deduced from the time of King Edward the Second, illustrated by King Charles the Second in his Parliament summon'd the 18 of February 1660/1, and dissolved the 24 of January 1678/9 : with an appendix of its sessions / observed by Sr. John Pettus ... Knight.

Observations.

1. ALL their Patents and Writs (ex∣cept the mutation of their Names and Titles) are verbatim the same, espe∣cially in the words, Ʋnum & Ʋni, viz. one of the Justices, signifying that they were all so equally presum'd to be just, that they are rendered to us rather by an Unity than a Priority, viz. by one and one, and not by 1st. 2d. 3d. and 4th. yet in the 30th. and 39th. of Eliz. and 1. Jacob. I find the word alter, next to Ca∣pitalis, & Ʋnus, in the Kings Bench and Common Pleas only, but in the Exchequer, in the 43. Eliz. next Capitalis Baro, is Se∣cundus & tertius Baro.

2. Of these fourteen which are of the first and second Rank of the Professors of the Law, two of them are properly Judges of matters of Equity, viz. the Lord Chancellor, and Master of the Rolls, the other Twelve are call'd the Twelve Judges of the Common-Law; the two Judges of Equity have been constantly Summon'd to Parliaments; (except as I have shewn) but as to the Twelve, some∣times all, and sometimes but some of them are Summon'd, according to the Kings Pleasure, or the vacancy of their

Places, or imployed in their Itinerances. I need not begin higher than Henry the 8. and then there were nine Summon'd, and the 30th. of Henry the Eighth, twelve; the 36th. of Henry the Eighth, but six; the first of Edward 6th. nine; the 6th. of Edward the Sixth, nine; the 7th. of Edw. 6th. but seven; the first of Mary, but eight; the first of Mary, but five; the first and second of Phil. and Mary, but 6. the second and third of Phil. and Mary, 8. the 4th. and 5th. of Phil. and Mary, but eight; the 28th. of Eliz. eleven; the 30th. Eliz. eleven; the 35th. Eliz. twelve; the 39. Eliz. eleven; the 43. Eliz. ten; the first of James, the full number of 12. (but in respect of the changing of them before the Parliament sate, there were two Writs made for the several Judges before the Parliament sate;) the 21. Jac. eleven; the first Car. primi, twelve; the 15th. Caroli primi, eleven; and the 13th. Caroli Secundi, also eleven; as I said, accounting the two Chief Justices and chief Barons in all these years.

3. In all these Writs, I do not so much trust to the several Pawns, as to the Writs themselves, where I doubt of any mistakes in the Clerks.

4. To conclude this Section; as in all the Judicial and Equitable Courts, (before mention'd) there are distinct Jurisdictions and methods of managing the concerns of their respective Courts; so in many things, there are also excellent intermixtures and concurring Authorities of their Courts and Powers, whereby they make up the Harmony of Justice, (as in cases of Con∣sult in the Chequer Chamber, Writs of Er∣ror, and other matters which I have hint∣ed) and whoever will take a full survey, not only of their Jurisdictions, but of the number of their Clerks, Attorneys, or other Officers of various Appellations, belonging to their respective Courts; may think that they are so many Principalities within our Kingdom, and thereby see how necessary it is for these Assistants (who have so great influence over the whole Kingdom) to be Summon'd to this Supream Judicatory, to Advise either the Corroborating the old Laws, or altering them or making new, where there is just occasion (as I have shewn) of Reviv∣ing, Correcting, or inlarging them, accord∣ing to the fluctuations of Affairs, which not only happens in this Kingdom, but in all other Kingdoms and States, so as Laws are still suited to the tempers and disposi∣tions of those who are to be govern'd; for

Tempora mutantur, & nos mutamur in illis, there being a secret confederacy between time and human affairs, which can scarce be discovered; the time was, is, and to come, being so nice, that the future reverts into a Prae-existence, that to an existence, and so into a circular perpetuity of notio∣nal gradations.

And thus having, as briefly as I could, dispatch't the first and second Orb of Pro∣fessors of Law; I proceed to the third, which consists of the Kings Serjeants at Law, the Kings Attorney General, his Solicitor General, and his Secretaries.