9. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this Act and all and every the matters and things therein contained, be and shall for ever be holden and adjudged to be a fundamental and essential part of any Treaty of Union to be concluded between the said two Kingdoms, and also that this Act shall be inserted in express terms in any Act of Parliament which shall be made for settling and ratifying any such Treaty of Union, and shall be therein declared to be an essential and fundamental part thereof.

10. May it therefore please your Most Excellent Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted etc. that all and every the said Articles of Union . . . and also the said Act of Parliament of Scotland for establishing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church government within that Kingdom ... shall be, and the said Articles and Act are hereby for ever ratified, approved and confirmed.

II. [The Act for securing the Church of England as by law established and the Act of Parliament of Scotland intituled Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church government are essential and fundamental parts of the Articles of Union. The Articles of Union, confirmed by the two Acts just enumerated, are ordained to be and continue in all times coming the complete Union of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland.]

12. [The sixteen peers shall be named by the peers of Scotland out of their own number by open election and plurality of voices of the peers present and of the proxies for such as shall be absent, the said proxies being peers and producing a mandate in writing duly signed before witnesses, and the proxy being qualified according to law. Of the forty-five representatives of Scotland in the House of Commons, thirty shall be chosen by the shires or stewartries, and fifteen by the royal boroughs, as follows, viz. :— One for every shire and stewartry excepting (three pairs of shires which are each to choose in turn): and the fifteen representatives for the royal burghs shall be chosen as follows, viz., the town of Edinburgh shall send one member, but each of the other burghs shall elect a Commissioner in the same manner as they are now used to elect Commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland, and these shall be divided into fourteen districts, and one member shall be elected for each district by the Commissioners for the burghs within that district. None shall be capable to elect or be elected but such as are twenty-one years of age complete and Protestant, or such as are now capable by the law of this Kingdom to elect or be elected as Commissioners for shires or burghs to the Parliament of Scotland.]

13. [The Privy Council of Scotland, acting under a writ issued to them under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, shall require

the peers to assemble at such time and place within Scotland as the Crown appoints, to elect the sixteen Peers, and the Lord Clerk Register or two of the Clerks of Session shall attend, administer the oaths, take the votes and make the return to the Clerk of the Privy Council of Scotland: And the Privy Council shall require the freeholders to meet at the head burgh of their several shires to elect their commissioners, and the clerks of the meetings shall send the names of the persons elected to the Clerk of the Privy Council, and the royal burghs shall send their elected Commissioners to the burghs appointed for their meeting within the district, and the common clerk of the burgh where they meet shall send the names of the persons elected to the Clerk of the Privy Council, who shall return all the names of the elected to the Court from whence the writ did issue.]

XVI

THE UNION OF GREAT
BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Poynings' Law (10 Henry VII. c. 4) (1495)

An Act that no Parliament be holden in this Land until the Acts be certified into England

the

the land of Ireland, be it ordained, enacted and established, that at the next Parliament that there shall be holden by the King's commandment and licence, wherein amongst other, the King's grace entendeth to have a general resumption of his whole revenues sith the last day of the reign of King Edward the Second, no Parliament be holden hereafter in the said land but at such season as the King's lieutenant and counsaile there first do certifie the King, under the great seal of that land, the causes and considerations,

and all such acts as them seemeth should pass in the same Parliament, and such causes, considerations and acts affirmed by the King and his counsail to be good and expedient for that land, and his licence thereupon, as well in affirmation of the said causes and acts, as to summon the said Parliament under his great seal of England had and obtained: that done, a Parliament to be had and holden after the form and effect afore rehearsed: and if any Parliament be holden in that land hereafter, contrary to the form and provision aforesaid, it is deemed void and of none effect in law.

Explanation of Poynings' Act by 3 and 4 Philip and Mary, c. 4 (1557)

That no Parliament be summoned or holden within this realm of Ireland until such time as the lieutenant, lord deputie, lord justice, lords justices, chiefe governour or governours or any of them and the counsail of this said realm of Ireland for the time being, shall have certified the King and Queen's Majesties, her heyres and successours, under the great seale of this said realme of Ireland, the considerations, causes and articles of such acts, provisions and ordinances as by them shall be then thought meet and necessary to be enacted and passed here by Parliament, and shall have also received again their Majesties' answer, under their great seale of England, declaring their pleasure, eyther for the passing of the said acts, provisions and ordinances, in such