No. IX, No. X.

Number of Parliaments held in each Reign, from 27th Edward I. A.D. 1299, to the End of the Reign of George IV.; also the respective length of each Reign.

From this table it appears that in the 461 years preceding the reign of George III. there were 202 parliaments, whose average duration was 21/2 years; and that in 210 years preceding the reign of Henry VIII. there were 143 parliaments, averaging rather less than 11/2 year each. In the 69 years of the reigns of George III. and IV. there were only thirteen parliaments, averaging five years and one-third each. Hence we learn how greatly the duration of the same parliament has been extended in these latter days, resulting, no doubt, from the better understanding subsisting between the ministers of the Crown and the representatives of the people, which rendered frequent dissolutions unnecessary.