Parizade to Parolles

Parizade (4 syl.). A lady whose adventures in search of the Talking Bird, Singing Tree, and Yellow Water, are related in the Story of the Sisters who Envied their Younger Sister, in the Arabian Nights. This tale has been closely imitated in Chery and Fairstar (q.v.).

Parkership The office of poundkeeper; from parcus (a pound).

Parks There are in England 334 parks stocked with deer; red deer are kept in 31 of them. The oldest is Eridge Park, in Sussex, called in Domesday Book Reredfelle (Rotherfield). The largest private deer park is Lord Egerton's, Tatton, in Cheshire, which contains 2,500 acres. Blenheim Park contains 2,800 acres, but only 1,150 acres of it are open to deer. Almost as extensive as Tatton Park are Richmond Park, in Surrey; Eastwell Park, in Kent; Grimsthrope Park, in Lincolnshire; Thoresby Park, in Notts; and Knowesley Park, in Lancashire. (E. P. Shirley: English Deer Parks.) Woburn Park is 3,500 acres.

Parlance In common parlance. In the usual or vulgar phraseology. An English-French word; the French have parler, parlant, parlage, etc.- to speak, speaking, talk- but not parlance.

Parlement (French). A crown court, where, in the old régime, councillors were allowed to plead, and where justice was administered in the king's name. The Paris Parlement received appeals from all inferior tribunals, but its own judgments were final. It took cognisance of all offences against the crown, the peers, the bishops, the corporations, and all high officers of state; and, though it had no legislative power, had to register the royal edicts before they could become law. Abolished by the Constituent Assembly in 1790.

Parliament

“My Lord Coke tells us Parliament is derived from `parler le ment' (to speak one's mind). He might as honestly have taught us that firmament is `firma mentis' (a farm for the mind) or `fundament' the bottom of the mind.”- Rymer: On Parliaments.
   The Addled Parliament (between April 5th, 1614, and June 7th, 1615); so called because it remonstrated with the king on his levying “benevolences,” but passed no acts.
   The Barebone Parliament. The Parliament convened July 4th, 1653; overridden by Praise-God Barebone.
   The Black Parliament. Held by Henry VIII. in Bridewell.
   The Club Parliament. (See Parliament Of Bats.)
   The Convention Parliament. Two Parliaments were so called; one in 1660, because it was not held by the order of the king, but was convened by General Monk; the second was convened January 22nd, 1689, to confer the crown on William and Mary.
   The Devil's Parliament. The Parliament convened at Coventry by Henry VI., in 1459, which passed attainders on the Duke of York and his supporters.
   The Drunken Parliament. The Parliament assembled at Edinburgh, January 1st, 1661, of which Burnet says the members “were almost perpetually drunk.”
   The Good Parliament (1376, in the reign of Edward III., while the Black Prince was still alive). So called from the severity with which it pursued the unpopular party of the Duke of Lancaster.
   Grattan's Parliament (1782-1801). In 1782 Grattan moved the “Declaration of Rights,” repudiating the right of the British Parliament to interfere in the government of Ireland. Pitt pronounced the Parliament unworkable.
   The Illiterate or Lack-learning Parliament. (See Unlearned Parliament.)
   The Little Parliament. Same as “the Barebone Parliament” (q.v.).
   The Long Parliament sat 12 years and 5 months, from November 2nd, 1640, to April 20th, 1653, when it was dissolved by Cromwell; but a fragment of it, called “The Rump,” continued till the Restoration, in 1660.
   Historian of the Long Parliament. Thomas May, buried in Westminster Abbey. (1595-1650.)
   The Mad Parliament, in the reign of Henry III. (1258), was so called from its opposition to the king. It insisted on his confirming the Magna Charta, and even appointed twenty-four of its own members, with Simon de Montfort as president, to administer the government.
   The Merciless (or Unmerciful) Parliament (from February 3rd to June 3rd, 1388). A junto of fourteen tools of Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, which assumed royal prerogatives, and attempted to depose Richard II.
   The Mongrel Parliament (1681), held at Oxford, consisting of Whigs and Tories, by whom the Exclusion Bill was passed.
   The Pacific Parliament. A triennial Parliament, dissolved August 8th, 1713. It signed the treaty of peace at Utrecht, after a war of eleven years.
   The Pensioner (or Pensionary) Parliament (from May 8th, 1661, to January 24th, 1678 [i.e. 16 years and 260 days]). It was convened by Charles II., and was called “Pensionary” from the many pensions it granted to the adherents of the king.
   The Rump Parliament, in the Protectorate; so called

  By PanEris using Melati.

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