PARLIAMENT OF IRELAND. In Ireland, as in England, from the con quest of the country by Henry II. in the latter part of the twelfth century, meet ings of the barons were occasionally summoned to consult on public affairs, to which the old historians sometimes give the name of parliaments. But par liaments, in the modern sense, cannot be traced back in Ireland farther than to the latter end of the thirteenth century, or to a date about thirty years subsequent to that of the earliest parliament which is ascertained to have consisted both of lords and commons in England. Simon de Montfort's parliament, the first for which writs are extant summoning re presentatives of the counties and boroughs, met at Westminster in 1265, and the first Irish parliament to which, as far as is known, the sheriffs were directed to return two representatives for each county, was held in 1295. Represent atives of boroughs in Ireland cannot he traced much farther back than to the middle of the fourteenth century. They first make their appearance in 1341, and in an act or ordinance of 1359 they are spoken of as forming an essential part of the parliament.
At this time however and down to a much lower date it was only the small portion of Ireland occupied by the Eng lish settlers that was represented in the legislature. Even in the reign of Edward III. only the province of Munster and a part of Leinster were considered as shire land they were divided into twelve counties. But in the course of the fif teenth century the greater part of these districts had become independent of the English crown ; and in the reign of Henry VII. the English dominion and the par liamentary representation were alike con fined to the counties composing what was called the Pale. that is, to those of Dub lin, Louth, Kildare, and Meath (then comprehending both East and West Meath), with a very few seaports beyond these limits. The vigorous measures taken under Henry VIII. and succeeding kings however gradually extended the authority of the English institutions and laws. The possessors of some of the ori ginal Irish peerages, after maintaining for centuries an independence as com plete as that of the native chieftains themselves, were induced to attend the house of lords, and many new peerages were conferred, some on Englishmen or persons of English descent. some on the heads of the old Irish families. The twelve ancient counties were all reclaimed in the reign of Henry VIII., and others were added by Mary, Elizabeth, and James, till, in the time of the last-men tioned king, the whole island was divided into thirty-two counties, as at present, each returning two representatives. Of
these thirty-two counties however it is said there were seventeen in which there was not a single parliamentary borough, while in the remaining fifteen there were only about thirty. But either this ac count must be wrong or the common statement that James added only forty new boroughs mast be an under state ment, if, as appears, the entire number of the Irish commons in 1613 was 232. In this number however would be in cluded the two representatives of Trinity College, Dublin. Subsequent new char ters to boroughs augmented the house by the year 1692 to 300, at which number it remained stationary. In 1634 the number of peers was 122, and more than 500 Irish peerages were created between that date and the Union. Some however also became extinct.
It was only for a very short period of its existence that the Irish parliament was held to be a supreme legislature. Ire land being regarded as a conquered dependency, it was maintained that its par liament was in all respets subordinate to that of England, and subsequently to that of Great Britain, which might make laws to bind the people of the one country as well as of the other. The received legal doctrine used to be, that King John, in the twelfth year of his reign (A.D. 1210), ordained by letters-patent, in right of the dominion of conquest, that Ireland should be governed by the laws of England ; in consequence of which both the common law of England and all English statutes enacted prior to that date were held to be of the same authority in Ireland as in England. With regard to English acts passed subsequently to that date, it was also held, in the first place, that Ireland was 'bound by all of them in which it was either specially named or included under general words. But further, inas much as one of the Irish acts called Poy ning's Laws, passed in the tenth year of Henry VII. (A.D. 1495), in the lord lieutenancy of Sir Edward Poyning, or Poynings, declared that all statutes " lately " made in England should be deemed also good and effectual in Ire land, it was held that this established the authority in Ireland of all preceding English statutes whatsoever ; making those enacted since the 12th of John of the same force with those enacted before that date. This however was admitted to be the last general imposition of the laws of England upon Ireland. Of the English statutes passed since the 10th of Henry VII., it was allowed that those only were binding upon Ireland in which that country was specially named or in cluded under general words.