comitum, baronum, et communitatis regni nostri nuper apud Lincoln, et quædam alia statuta postmodum apud Eborum facta, quæ indicta terra nostra Hiberniæ ad communem utilitatem populi nostri ejusdem terræ observari volumus; vobis mittimus, sub sigillo nostro mandantes, quod statuta illa in dicta cancellaria nostra custodiri, et in rotulis ejusdem cancellaria irrotulari, et ad singulasplaceas nostras in regno nostro prædicto ad singulos comitatus ejusdem terræ mitti facias per breve nostrum sub dicto sigillo nostro; ministris nostris placearum illarum, vice comitibus dictorum comitatuum mandantes, quod statuta illa coram ipsis publicari, et in omnibus, et singulis articulis observari firmiter faciatis. Teste meipso apud Nottingham 20. Novembris, anno regni nostri 17.” About the same time, and in the same place, at Nottingham, on the twenty-fourth of November, anno R. Edw. II. 17. the ordinances for the state of Ireland were made, which are to be seen in French in the second part of the ancient statutes printed at London, anno 1532. Add hereunto the statutes made at Westminster in the eleventh and twenty-seventh years of Edward III. the former touching drapery, and wearing of outlandish cloth and furs, extended as well to Ireland and Wales, as unto England: the other concerning the erection of staples at Dublin, Waterford, Cork, and Drogheda, and the establishment of the staple law in this land: but especially the statute enacted at Westminister, in the fourth year of king Henry V., touching promotion of clerks of the Irish nation, is to be considered: by which it is evident, that the kings of England, granting liberty of holding parliaments in this land, intended nothing less than to abridge their own authority thereby, or to exempt the inhabitants of this realm from the power of the laws, which should be made in the mother kingdom. In the second year of Richard III. the matter was first called into question upon this occasion. It was provided * Magna Charta, edit. anno 1532. et 1556. h Westmon. statut. anno 4. Hen. V. cap. 6. by a statute made at Westminster in the tenth year of Hen. ry VI. that if any wools, woolfells, hides, lead, tin, &c. should be found carried out of the realm of England, or the lands of Ireland, Wales, and Berwick upon Tweed, to any place beyond the seas, besides Calais; the one half of all such goods should be forfeited to the king; and the person, that espied, and proved the same, thould have the other. It fell out afterwards, that certain merchants of Waterford shipped divers merchandises of the staple, agreeing by indenture with the master of the ship, that he should transport the said merchandises to Sluce in Flanders; but contrary to their will the ship was driven into Calais; where Sir Thomas Thwayght, treasurer of Calais, seized the ship, one moiety for the king, and the other for himself, as the first finder. The merchants, by a bill preferred to the king in his council at Westminsteri, craved restitution; whereupon this question came to be debated in the Exchequer chamber: "Si villæ corporatæ in Hibernia, et ali habitantes in Hibernia, erunt legati per statutum factum in Anglia:" whereupon it was said Ireland had a parliament in itself, whereby it made laws, and changed laws, and was not bound by a statute made in England, forasmuch as it had not there any knights of the parliament. But the question being renewed the next term, which fell on the beginning of the reign of Henry VII. Hussey the chief justice resolved, that the statutes made in England do bind those of Ireland; which was in a manner agreed upon by all the other justices then assembled in the Exchequer chamber: "Nient-obstant, que ascunde eux fuerunt in contraria opinione te darre in terme enson absens," saith the reporter; notwithstanding that some of them were of contrary opinion the last term in his absence. There followed not long after, the parliament' held before Sir Edward Poynings at Drogheda, in the tenth year of Hen i 2 R. III. fol. 12. k M. 1. H. VII. fol. 3. Fitzherb. tit. Accion sur le statut. 6. Brook tit. parliament. and statutes, 90. I Stat. Hibern. 10. H. VII. cap. 22. ry VII. wherein it was ordained, and established, that all statutes late made within the realm of England, concerning or belonging to the common, and public weal of the same, should thenceforth be deemed good, and effectual in the law, and be accepted, used, and executed within this land of Ireland in all points, at all times requisite, according to the tenor, and effect of the same; whereby many have been induced to believe, that the statutes of England could have no authority in Ireland, without special confirmation of the parliament in this land: not considering, that in this self same parliamentm it was in like manner ordained, and established, that the statutes of Kilkenny, which were of full validity before the time of this confirmation, should be authorized, approved, confirmed, and deemed good, and effectual in the law, and be executed according to the tenor, and purport of them, and every of them: even as before this in a parliament" holden at Dublin in the eighteenth year of Henry VI. it was enacted, that all statutes made within this realm, and not repealed, should be holden and kept in all points: and in another parliament holden in the same place, the eleventh year of Henry IV. that the great charter and the statutes made in the time of the Duke of Clarence, and in the time of Thomas of Lancaster, lieutenant of Ireland, and all other good statutes, and reasonable ordinances made in the time of any justice or lieutenant of this land should be firmly holden, and kept: whereby it is manifest, that from the reviving, or confirming of any statutes, no sufficient argument can be drawn to disannul the authority of those acts before such confirmation. Lastly, whereas by authority of a parliament begun at London, in the twenty-first year of King Henry VIII. the act of Faculties was ordained not only for the realm of England, but also for all other the king's dominions, with this penalty annexed, that whatsoever m Stat. Hibern. 10. H. VII. cap. 8. "Ex Rotul. parliamentar. Hib. 18. H. VI. cap. 4. et 11. Hen. IV. cap. 4. ⚫ Stat. Angl. anno 25. Hen. VIII. cap. 21. person, subject, or resident within the realm of England, or within any the king's dominions, did sue to the court, or see of Rome, or to any claiming authority from thence, for any licence, or faculty, or put in execution any licence so obtained, or maintain, allow, admit, or obey any manner of censures, or other process from Rome, should incur the punishment comprised in the statute of præmunire: the states of Ireland, assembled in parliament in the twentyeighth year of the same king, thought it nothing strange, that the effects of the act, ordained in England, should be thus extended to the king's other dominions; but freely acknowledged so much in these words: "Forasmuch as it is mentioned in the said act, that the effects thereof should not only extend into the realm of England and to the commodity thereof, and to the subjects of the same, but also to all other the king's dominions, and his subjects; and that this the king's land of Ireland is his proper dominion, and a member appending, and rightfully belonging to the imperial crown of the said realm of England, and united to the same; and also like inconvenience hath ensued within this land of Ireland, as hath been within the said realm of England by reason of the usurpation of the bishop of Rome, like as is mentioned in the said act. Be it therefore enacted by authority of this present parliament, that the said act, and every thing, and things therein contained, shall be established, confirmed, taken, obeyed, and accepted within this land of Ireland, as a good and perfect law." Thus we see how the English laws were here established, and how from time to time the king's subjects of Ireland were ruled, not only by the common laws, but also by the statute laws of England: notwithstanding, for the ordering of their particular affairs, wherewith the nobility and commons of that other realm could not be so well acquainted, they have had always, as proper courts, so likewise proper parliaments of their own in this land. The first order out of England for this matter, that I Stat. Hib. 28. Hen. VIII. cap. 19. meet withal, is a constitution of King Edward II. in the twelfth year of his reign, remaining among the close rolls in the tower of London, that parliaments should be held every year in the land of Ireland; but that respecteth the determination of the time, rather than the first institution of parliaments in this country: for in the chronicles of Ireland, and especially in the annals written about the year 1370. which Phillip Flattesbury followed in his collections, and my learned friend Mr. Camden, at my entreaty hath lately published out of the Lord William Howard's library, there is mention made of sundry parliaments holden here in this same king's reign before this order was taken; as may be seen in the said annals at the years of our Lord 1309. 1310. 1315. and 1317. So likewise in the days of Edward I. anno 1294. "Richardus comes Ultoniæ," saith the same author, "cito post festum sancti Nicholai captus est per dominum Johannem filium Thomæ, et in castro de Lega, id est, Ley, detentus est usque ad festum sancti Gregorii papæ ; cujus liberatio facta fuit tunc per concilium domini regis in parliamento de Kilkenny." And, to ascend higher unto the time of Henry III. in the register of the archbishop of Dublin there is to be seen: "Inquisitio facta ad parliamentum de TristelDermod die Mercurii proxima post festum sancti Trinitatis, anno 48. H. III. coram D. Richardo de Rupella, capitali justiciario Hiberniæ, et coram Domino Hugone de Tachmone episcopo Midensi, tunc thesaurario," &c. Yet all parliaments, that we read of in the chronicles, are not to be accounted to have been of the same nature; but a distinction may be observed therein of petite, and grande parliaments for the name is sometimes given to such meetings, as were parlies, rather than parliaments; as in the foresaid annals, anno Domini 1368. R. Edw. III. 42. "In Carbria post quoddam parliamentum finitum inter Hibernicos, et Anglicos capti sunt frater Thomas Burley', prior de Killmaynan, cancellarius regis |