ABSTRACT
Membership of Parliament was set at 400 from England and 30 each from Scotland and Ireland. Attempts were made along Leveller lines to make Parliament more representative of the actual distribution of population by suppressing ‘decayed’ boroughs and reducing a number of others to one member each, the surplus seats being redistributed among the shires. This produced a balance of representation in favour of the counties, which held 66% of seats, as against 34% in the original Long Parliament. Other provisions seem to have been left deliberately vague, in particular, the power of appointment of officers of state and judges.
