The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-03-26 00:00:00

on by a Committee of the Home as priors In sap-
of their claim to a privilege of net being liable to
mltimenaed in Chancery. —Sir Thomas Bromley
that unless those precedents had beet confirmed by
ourt of Chancery, they were of no heal' •• and all
.16 1111/111 that a legal precedent is established a de-
if all the Judaes, on tut Argument at Bar. Nuthing
more mischievous or more calculated to mislead, than
*gal terms in a popular sense; and though the word
locos in polluter lauguage means any thing that went be-
, yet, in a strict legal sense it scenes a Derision upon
rgineent.sane of which is worth a thoossuid without.
From Cantons or Usage such a claim never can be set up s
custom to obtain must be reasonable Itself; must have
I used from time immemorial ; must be pro bona
contrary to law, and never contested.
Commuil taro it cannot be derived; because at Com-
ivr, a man could not be imprisoned in any case, tailless
:ce or violence--fur whicla his body was subject to int-
isonasent, its one of the highest executions of the taw.
' that it is forbidden by all the Statutes, it is to be hoped
:ea su'neir•ntly provell. Therefore, unless it can he
n, that an Order of the House of Commons can contra-
all these Anatorities, there can be no pretence on which
usurpation can be miiiitaineal. And to talk of the Law
aliament as comer:oi isanished from and contradictory
Acts of Parlimintrat ! —lt is a phantom fitter to be ru-
ined by the fancy of a BeJlamite than by a Lawgiver.
Withstanding the care that has been taken hi the pro-
of this Inquiry to keep legal words taiim being used
. popular sense, anal to prevent a confusing of ideas arising
actions, it will be necessary in this case to adopt the made
-11 has been lovuri.-hly pursurd,and to define correctly the
meaning Of the term ahem to be discussed. For, by
trading sufficiently to this distinction, much embarrass-
w.as created during the furnier discussion of this subject
t House of Conn iiiii ts: few persons having been able to
'sufficiently separat., things, in their nature, so esseo-
different, as the pow. r of tonimitinent for alto! Can-
t (or &retention of a Nuisance), and the pouting of a stol-
e imprisonment as a punishment for an (seance.
eery one knows that in popular phrase a man is said to
ilaiwaneamegt far mailer if he turn upon his heel and do not
Ter a salute : fiuf,7li* Ifleant Neto-"Onalleitsprnena nee
lag, and one only —that obstruction' to the proceedings
mu, which. every. Court is necessarily competentto re-
. " Contempt isa disobedience to the rules and orders of
al. One may be punished for a contempt in Court, but
it, or a private abuse." W nether the Cute of the [nega-
tion of St. Albans, which has been accurately stated, and
arguments of the Judges in Bridgman versus Holt are or
ant applicable to the case before us, must be left to the
lid consideration of titelleader.-slt is necessary to observe.
I lay no sts,ass upon the authority of the JudAes merely as
recollectiug full well the many Opinion's of Judges con-
to tile Law of the Land and subversive of the Liberty
Subject. In the case of Ship Money, the Judges dwe-
lled, that the King had a right to levy taxes witmiout eon-
,of the Kepi-cm: natives tlie People. lathe famous case
the Habeas Corpus, in the Keig's Bench, afterwards re-
tersed, the Judges determined, that when the King committed,
- Subject could have no relief. When Charles the L'trst
„Jauted Members of Parliament fur their Indian:sent .ry
conduct, the Judges determined, that the Act of the atumte
henry VIII. was a private Act,aliougli elf expressly to
rent members from being (me:Ahmed, in consequ -nee of air.
mroud having been questioned iu the Court of Stannal les,
fined and imprimned by brat Court, on account ui a Bill
mrd introduced into the Mouse of Commons for regulating
Timers in Cornwall!. Therefore, it iar not upon tee
au-
ihority, but 'moo the weiilit of the arguments above cited.
holiest arguments they were, of unfitted Couusel io their
came, that we rely.
As for Modern Decisions of such men as De Gray, Mans-
field; or Kenyon, they will hardly be worth gaining on et-
side of the question : and, for an illustration of the con-
_. of the last mentioiwa Judge upon this great seonstitu-
alma question__, beg leave to refer the Reader to the Cure
of lienjanais Flower, and to the able Argument of Mr. Clif-
ford in that case • to which A ratiment embrace this oppor-
mita? of acknowledaing waself greatly Waned; and so, in
my opinion, are the public at large.
In pursuing this Argument, the Reader should carefully keep
.n mind the marked distinetion there is between Pi-ivilege and
Power. No Privilege of the Houses of Commons is here de-
lied. But, it may be asked, tip .n what grimed or pretence
they assume apo wer to plash ? Since (hey have taken upon
themselves to exerc:se tat' power, it is fair to call, upon tnem
A she* bow they came by it, and when they him clammed it.
The commencement of this ucsurpation was when t . sy
get rid of the upper House of Parliarn'eut, and cot of the
head of the King. They still, it seems, are ensholdened to
retain an illegal power not pretended to even by the King.
But which thse Weal stiscreigns oveathe. King, claim &sof
right. Bat no wonder, wilco they have so entirely departed
from thdradi Ofthetrinstitielie.-na ima.affexed.
ved by Mr. Maddoeka, and acknowledged by them-
selves, in the never-to-be-forgotten Morning of the 11th of
May, one thousand eight hundred and uiue; when, from
being the Lower or Inferior (for it is the same sense, one
beipg 40 English the other a Laths word), Branch of the Le-
gislatore, they have become the pimprietors, by burgage te-
nure, of the whole Representation; and, in that capacity,
inflated with their high blown feedlot ideas of majesty, miff
tricked out in the trappings of royalty, thiak Privilege and
l'rotection beneath their dignity, Assume the Sweatt of Pre-
rogative, and lord it equally over theKiug and the People
But, in order that nothing may be wanting, to render
truly ludicrous every part of this proceeding, which, invert-
ing
the laws of the drama, as well us all other laws, begins
ith a Farce 'and ends with a Tragedy, the. House of Com-
ions imprison Mr. Jones—wider the sanction of what law
think ye?—Toe Bap. or Itscires!!!,--Well might Paine
call it the Bill of Wrongs, it' it coati be thus converted in-
to an instrument to oppress and to destroy the Liberties of
the People, those Liberties which it was expressly framed,
claimed, demanded and instated upon to protect.
Mr. Yuilte has discovered a new meaning in the Bill of
Rights; and, because the Bill of Waists declares, that a
member of peril:lntent cannot beapiestioaed any where out
of parliament for words spoken therein, he has sapiently
concluded, That the People are prohibited from exercising
their understandine, for the purpose of discussing or cen-
suring the conduct of the Gentlemen who sit in that House.
These Gentlemen all cotienrred with him in the Sentence
passed on Mr. Jones; though no one agreed with him in
his new interpretation of the word "Question," in the
Rill of Rights—knowing as they did, that "otientinned,"
legally, Indus aceused nefore a tribunal competent.to pu-
nish; and that the power Weeded to lie counteracted AM
the King's Prerogative and the arbitrary proceedings of the
Com t of Star Chamber, which etre in the constant habit
of questioning nod punishing Members, for their cruiduct
in the House, as in the Case of Mr. Strode before mention-
ed, ant/ of Strickland, Sir 7ohu Eliot, Col. Churchill,
Valentine, anti many others. And, surely, that cannot
be
deemed a Privilege of Parliament which is incompatible
with the Rights 'of the People: as the Lords resolved in the •
Cate of Ashby and White: " That declaring Ashby guilty
of a Breach of Privilege of the House of Commons is an
unprecedented attempt upon the jurisdiction of partizans at;
and is, in effect, to eubiect the law of England to the ve ~
---
of the noose of Commons n"Anml how much more s
is
this act of imprisoulng Mr. Jones!
Bat the House, it mimes, thinks that its &testily is con-
craned in continuing -Mr. Jones is prison. That dignity
should consist is punishing is a novel idea, • The dignity
of any man or body of men is best maintained by their do-
ing their duty, according to their nectar stations. If dig-
nity consisted in ponishhb would Jack Ketch be 51-

• lbid 96.--+ let Ciank, Elia. 649.
t Sir Robert %Volpe* teems On bjpae entertained the tame
sentiments, as appears frost Ilia .perch in the bole
of Commons, in the case of Sir Richard Steele, hi
1714: " Why," said he, os slfould the author be an-
" swerable in Parliament fur the things which he wrote
" in his private rapacity ? And it be is punishable by law,
is
" why he not left to the law ? By this mode of proceed-
" leg, Parliament, which used to be the scourge only of
" evil Ministers, is made by .14liairters the scourge of the
" sateilZt. An former reins, the audacit of corruption es-
1111 itself only to Yugdges and Juries;y the attempt to to
" degrade Parliament was, till the resent period, ueheard
" of. The Liberty of the Press Lt flaresteatned; how then
" shall a part of the Leesin_ture dare to punish that
"as a crime which is wit -declared to •he en by soy law,
66. framed by the whole l And win shitald that Mune be
" made the l> rumens of such a detectable purpose." ._ See
Craze's Walpole, rot 1. p. 73. See also 6 Cobbett's Rid.
Hist. 1969.
4; 6 Cobbett's Pad. Hist. 431. 1j -,-1 4' • :
I Lord .Clarendon observes, " That • .the damage and
mischief cannot be expressed,. that the Crown and State
sustained lvy the deserved reproach and Infamy that at-
tended the Judges, by being muds use of is this and like
' acts of power, there being no poisilsility to preserve the
dignity, reverend* and estinatio I of the laws thernrelves,
but by the iutegaty and innocency of the itiges"
. .

tth stitiSMAß:_

He is here
" First as I an his subject and his kinsman—
" Both strong against the deed—then as his host
44 Who should against his murderer shut the door,
" Not bear the knife myself."

2:1;74
most dignified mall la -tire -1 Out sibs Oantaises do
not sit in that House for their •
.y, ;mat as &wants of
the People; not to exercise *valise and Power over
them, but to inspect and contrpoi the Public Accounts, to
prot,ct Libeity and Property Vtw ma-plain of exorbitant:
ces of Power in any quarter; aid to maintain the Laws of
the Land. They are the last parsons who ought to sat ass 4
example of encroachment. 41 they become destreyees Of:
the Liberties of the People, iu them, oppressioa is com-
bined with treachery : they destroy where they are bound'
to protect. Every reason is as strong against such an act,
from them towards the People, as. it was against Macbeth
in the murder of Duncan.
" "'e is -'iu double trust,

H•vino now arrived at a conclusion of the Argument
upon this most interesting and important case, one can-
not, iu taking leave of the sulYect ; in reviewing the whole
of the proceeding complained a; in beholding an ostens-
ibly whose sole business it is to make laws, and to watch
over the due execution of the laws already made; one can-
not, with such impressions in ones mina, help entertain-
in; a fear, the the Gentlemen of the House of Commons,
may, in time, unless they revert to the Great Principles of
the Constitution, be in danger of incurring the sentence of
St. Paul upon the insolent aid tyrannical High Priest,
who had commanded him to be stricken fur opening his
month in his own defence :—" God shill smite thee, thou
" whited wall: For sittest,then to judge me after the Law,
" and commandest me to, be smitten contrary to the
Law r

Upon 'this memorable Debate, Mr. ,Ponsonby, Lord
Chancellor of Ireland, under the Whig Administration, ob-
served, "That he could not consent to proceed against indi.
" viduals, because that had been proved to exist, which
.04,611.46.0—beestag,paptilati.4, as the Sun it noon-day ;

44 namely, the Sale or—Seats in that Houite7 "Ster Coblnn's 1
Debates, vol. xiv. p. 519.
And in a Committee of the whole House on the Ist of 1
June last, upon Mr. Curwen's Reform Bill, the Speaker
made use of these expressions : " The question now before
"usis no lass than this: Whether the Seats in this House
"shall be henceforth publicly saleable—A proposition, at
"the sound of which, our ancestors would hare startled
" with indignation; •but a practice, which, in these .days,
1
" and within these walls, in utter oblivion of every former
" maxim and feeling of Parliament, has been miffed and
" justified." See p. 837 of the same Volume.