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THE

Parliamentary History

OF

ENGLAN D,

FROM

THE EARLIEST PERIOD

ΤΟ

THE YEAR

1803.

FROM WHICH LAST-MENTIONED EPOCH IT IS CONTINUED
DOWNWARDS IN THE WORK ENTITLED,

"THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES."

VOL. IV.

A. D. 1660-1668.

"LONDON:

PRINTED BY T. C. HANSARD, PETERBOROUGH-COURT, FLEET-STREET :

FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, & BROWN; J. RICHARDSON; BLACK,
PARRY, & CO.; J. HATCHARD; J. RIDGWAY; E. JEFFERY; J. BOOKER;
J. RODWELL; CRADOCK & JOY; R. H. EVANS; J. BUDD; J. BOOTH;
AND T. C. HANSARD.

1808.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

THE present Volume embraces that period of our Parliamentary History, which is, perhaps, the most interesting of any; namely, from the Restoration of Charles the Second in the year 1660, to the Revolution, in 1688. For this period, the Proceedings and Debates, in both Houses, have been, for the most part, collected from 'the following works: 1. The Journals of the House of Lords; 2. The Journals of the House of Commons; 3. That portion of the Parliamentary, or Constitutional History of England, which contains the proceedings of the Convention Parliament, from its meeting on the 25th of April, 1660, to its dissolution, on the 24th of December following, at which epoch the editors of this able performance conclude their labours; 4. The Life of the Earl of Clarendon, written by himself, containing some interesting Debates, in both Houses, during the period between the Restoration of the King and the banishment of the said Earl, in the year 1667, which Debates never yet found their way into any Collection; 5. The Proceedings of the House of Commons touching the Impeachment of the Earl of Clarendon, with the many Debates in that House upon the subject; 6. The Works of the celebrated Andrew Marvell, who, from 1660 to 1678, regularly transmitted to his constituents of Hull, a faithful account of each day's proceedings; 7. The Debates of the House of Commons, from 1667 to 1694, collected by the Honourable Anchitell Grey, who was thirty years a member for the town of Derby; 8. The Debates in the House of Commons on the Bill of Exclusion, in the year 1680, first published in 1681, in a small duodecimo volume, and afterwards republished in 1716, and again in 1807, with the addition of the Debates in the Short Parliament held at Oxford, in the month of March, 1680-1, the proceedings of which related chiefly to the same subject; that is to say, the Exclusion of the Duke of York from the succession to the crown; 9. Timberland's History and Proceedings of the House of Lords; and, 10. Chandler's History and Proceedings of the House of Commons.

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It will, doubtless, have been observed by most persons who have much attended to the matter, that, for the period from the Restoration to the year 1743, the two last mentioned works, that is to say, those of Timberland and Chandler, have hitherto been regarded as a regular and complete collection, and the only regular and complete collection, of the Proceedings in Parliament; and that, as such, they have been introduced into, and enjoyed a distinguished place in, almost every public and great private library in the kingdom. Therefore, in preparing the present volume for the press, it might naturally have been expected, that considerable assistance would have been afforded by these works. It is, however, a remarkable fact, which may be verified by a reference to the proceedings of any single session, that very little assistance indeed has been received from them. To say the truth, a discovery of the extreme imperfectness of these works produced one of the motives which led to the present undertaking. On comparing their contents with those of the authentic works before enumerated, they were found to be so extremely defective and incorrect, that they could, in hardly any case, be relied upon with safety. In them, King's Speeches are, in numerous instances, either wholly omitted, or very much curtailed. Scarcely any of the Speeches of the different Lord Chancellors, delivered at the opening of the several Sessions, though those speeches generally contain an outline of the state of the national affairs, are preserved. The Journals appear to have been rarely consulted. Scarcely a Motion or Resolution, is given as it stands in those authentic records. Explanatory notes there are none; and, in only one or two instances have the compilers deemed it necessary to favour the reader with information as to the source, whence they have drawn their materials; which would seem, indeed, to have been moulded into the form of volumes for the mere purpose of filling up a chasm in a book-case.

Besides resorting to the above-recited works, recourse has been had to the best historians, and contemporary writers. From Burnet, Echard, Kennet, Oldmixon, Rapin, North, Ralph, Marvell, Reresby, Temple, Walpole, and the Work of the late Mr. Fox, recently published, many Notes, historical and biographical, have been introdu ced; and, for the sake of connection, a short account of the principal Occurrences, during each recess of Parliament, has, where necessary, been inserted.

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