Meanwhile, in evidence that the Session of the Parliament up to this
point, notwithstanding the great business of the _Petition and
Advice_ and the Kingship question, had by no means been barren in
legislation, the House had gathered up all the Bills already passed,
but not yet assented to, for presentation to his Highness in a body.
On the 9th of June thirty-eight such Bills, "some of the public, and
the others of a more private, concernment," were presented to his
Highness by the whole House, assembled in the Painted Chamber, the
Speaker, "after a short and pithy speech," offering them as some
grapes preceding the full vintage, and his Highness ratifying all by
his assent.--Among these was one very comprehensive Act with this
preamble: "Whereas, since the 20th of April, 1653, in the great
exigences and necessities of these nations, divers Acts and
Ordinances have been made without the consent of the People assembled
in Parliament--which is not according to the fundamental laws of the
nations and the rights of the People, and is not for the future to be
drawn into example--yet, the actings thereupon tending to the
settlement of the estates of several persons and families and the
peace and quiet of the nations: Be it enacted by his Highness the
Lord Protector and this present Parliament," &c. What is enacted is
that about a hundred Acts and Ordinances, all duly enumerated, out
of those made by the Barebones Parliament in 1653 or by Oliver and
his Council after the establishment of the Protectorate in Dec. 1656,
together with all acts and ordinances of the same touching customs
and excise, shall by this Act be confirmed and made good, either
wholly and absolutely (which is the case with nearly all) or with
specified modifications--"all other Acts and Ordinances, and every
branch and clause therein contained, not confirmed by these presents,
which have been made or passed between the 20th day of April 1653 and
the 17th day of September 1656" to be absolutely null and void. In
other words, the House had been revising long and carefully the Acts
of the Barebones Parliament and the arbitrary Ordinances of Oliver
and his Council from Dec. 1653 onwards, with a view to adopt all that
might stand and to give them new constitutional sanction. Among the
Acts of the Barebones Parliament so confirmed and continued was their
famous Act for the forms and ceremonial of Marriage and for the
Registration of Births and Burials (Vol. IV. p.