Septennial Act 1715

The text of the act was very short. As originally in force, it stated: The act overturned certain provisions of the Triennial Act 1694 (6 & 7 Will. & Mar. c. 2). == Aim and effects ==

The ostensible aim of the act was, by reducing the frequency of elections, to reduce the cost during a given period of holding them. However, it may have had the effect of keeping the Whig party, which had won the 1715 general election, in power for a longer time. The Whigs won the following general election in 1722. == Status as law vs constitution ==

James Madison used the act as an illustrative example of the difference between the traditional British system and the revolutionary new American constitution. In Federalist No. 53 Madison drew a distinction between "a Constitution established by the people and unalterable by the government, and a law established by the government and alterable by the government." The Act was also criticized by Thomas Paine and Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke. In Dissertation upon Parties, Bolingbroke wrote that the "constitution is the rule by which our princes ought to govern at all times". == Prolongation of Parliament during the First World War and Second World War ==

During the First World War, a series of acts were passed to prolong the life of the parliament elected in December 1910 until the end of the war in 1918. A series of annual Acts were also passed during the Second World War to prolong the parliament elected at the 1935 general election until the war in Europe had ended in mid-1945. First World War Second World War == Noteslist ==