Members for Durham—why none prior to 1673-4

Because Durham was an episcopal palatine, which had jurisdictions, and even, in olden times, a Parliament of its own. Several bills were brought in between 1562 and 1673, to give M.P.'s to both county and city; but an act was only passed in the latter year. The first writ was moved, it is said, in 1675; but the first return is dated in Whitworth, 1679. (Oldfield's *Parl. Hist.*, iii. 425.)