nd a controversy arising upon
that incident, the queen sent a message to the house, informing them
that it were impertinent for them to deal in such matters. These
questions, she said, belonged only to the chancellor; and she had
appointed him to confer with the judges, in order to settle all disputes
with regard to elections. The commons had the courage, a few days after,
to vote, "That it was a most perilous precedent, where two knights of a
county were duly elected, if any new writ should issue out for a second
election without order of the house itself: that the discussing and
adjudging of this and such like differences belonged only to the house;
and that there should be no message sent to the lord chancellor, not
so much as to inquire what he had done in the matter, because it was
conceived to be a matter derogatory to the power and privilege of the
house."[*] This is the most considerable, and almost only instance of
parliamentary liberty, which occurs during the reign of that princess.

Outlaws, whether on account of debts or crimes, had been declared by
the judges[*] incapable of enjoying a seat in the house, where they
must themselves be lawgivers; but this opinion of the judges had been
frequently overruled. I find, however, in the case of Vaughan,[**] who
was questioned for an outlawry, that, having proved all his debts
to have been contracted by suretyship, and to have been most of them
honestly compounded, he was allowed, on account of these favorable
circumstances, to keep his seat; which plainly supposes, that otherwise
it would have been vacated on account of the outlawry.[***]

When James summoned this parliament, he issued a proclamation,[****] in
which, among many general advices, which, like a kind tutor, he bestowed
on his people, he strictly enjoins them not to choose any outlaw for
their representative. And he adds, "If any person take upon him the
place of knight, citizen, or burgess, not being duly elected, according
to the laws and statutes in that behalf provided, and according to the
purport, effect, and true meaning of this our proclamation, then
every person so offending to be fined or imprisoned for the same." A
proclamation here was plainly put on the same footing with a law, and
that in so delicate a point as the right of elections; most alarming
circumstances, had there not been reason to believe that this measure,
being entered into so early in the king's reign, proceeded more from
p