This meeting was not of the House of Commons of Southern Ireland itself, but merely of "the members elected to sit in" it. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 required the Commons to be summoned by the Lord Lieutenant and its members to take an oath of allegiance to the king, whereas the meeting on 14 January was summoned by Griffith and the members present did not take an oath. Under the terms of the Treaty, a Constituent Assembly was to be elected to draft a Constitution for the Irish Free State to take effect by 6 December 1922. The assembly would also serve as a "Provisional Parliament" to hold the Provisional Government responsible. This election was held on 16 June pursuant to both a resolution by the Second Dáil on 20 May and a proclamation by the Provisional Government on 27 May. The Dáil resolution also approved a pact agreed by Collins and de Valera in a vain attempt to prevent the Treaty split leading to Civil War. The pact was to have at the election "a National Coalition Panel for this Third Dáil, representing both Parties in the Dáil, and in the Sinn Féin Organisation". On 8 June 1922, the Second Dáil "adjourned to Friday, 30th June, 1922". The pact negotiators envisaged that the Second Dáil would meet on 30 June and formally appoint the Third Dáil as its successor. The Provisional Government proclamation called for an election "pursuant to the provisions of" of the Irish Free State (Agreement) Act, 1922 (passed by the Westminster Parliament in April) and naming 1 July 1922 for the first meeting of the Provisional Parliament. The outbreak of Civil War hostilities on 28 June meant the 30 June meeting did not happen and the 1 July meeting was repeatedly postponed by the Provisional Government until 9 September. By then, Collins and Griffith were dead and the Dáil government and Provisional Government had been merged under William T. Cosgrave. The preamble to the 9 September meeting cited the 27 May proclamation but not the 20 May resolution. On 6 December the Constitution and Free State came into effect, the Provisional Government became the Free State's Executive Council and the Provisional Parliament became the lower house of the Free State's Oireachtas (parliament). The Civil War lasted until May 1923. De Valera during the Civil War, and other republican theorists in later years, argued that the Second Dáil remained in existence as the legitimate parliament of a continuing Irish Republic. Whereas, in the Westminster system, a dissolution of parliament precedes a general election and the next meeting of newly elected members is considered to be the start of a new parliament, this convention was explicitly broken by the transition from the First Dáil to the Second Dáil, and implicitly by the transition provisions agreed in May–June 1922.