All depended on what should blow from the Parliament that had been called.

In the writs for the elections to the Commons there had been a very remarkable retrogression from the practice of Oliver for his two Parliaments.

For those two Parliaments there had been adopted the reformed electoral system agreed upon by the Long Parliament, reducing the total number of members for England and Wales to about 400, instead of the 500 or more of the ancient system, and allocating the 400 among constituencies rearranged so as to give a vast proportion of the representation to the counties, while reducing that of the burghs generally and disfranchising many small old burghs altogether.

The _Petition and Advice_ having left this matter of the number of seats and their distribution open for farther consideration, Richard and his Council had been advised by the lawyers that it would be more "according to law" and therefore more safe and more agreeable to the spirit and letter of the _Petition and Advice_, to abandon the late temporary method, though sanctioned by the Long Parliament, and revert to the ancient use and wont.

Writs had been issued, therefore, for the return of over 500 members from England and Wales by the old time-honoured constituencies, besides additions from Scotland and Ireland.