s,
from any process save arrest. Freedom of speech, finally guaranteed
effectually in the Bill of Rights, means simply that a member may not
be held to account by legal process outside Parliament for anything he
may have said in the course of the debates or proceedings of the
chamber to which he belongs. The right of access to the sovereign
belongs to the Commons collectively through the Speaker, but to the
Lords individually. With the growth of parliamentary government both
it and the privilege of "favorable construction" have ceased to
possess practical importance. Another privilege which survives is that
of exemption from jury duty, though no longer of refusing to attend
court in the capacity of a witness. Each house enjoys the
privilege--for all practical purposes now the right--of regulating its
own proceedings, of committing persons for contempt, and of deciding
contested elections. The last-mentioned function the House of Commons,
however, has delegated to the courts. A privilege jealously retained
by the Lords is that of trial in all cases of treason or felony by the
upper chamber itself, under the presidency of a Lord High Steward
appointed by the crown. The Lords are exempt from arrest in civil
causes, not merely during and immediately preceding and succeeding
sessions, but at all times, and they enjoy all the rights, privileges,
and distinctions which, through law or custom, have become inherent in
their several dignities.

*134. Payment of Members of the Commons.*--Until recently the fact that
there was no salary attached to service in Parliament operated to
debar from election to the Commons men who were not of independent
means. Through some years the Labor Party was accustomed to provide
funds wherewith its representatives were enabled to maintain
themselves at the capital,[184] but this arrangement affected only a
small group of members and was of an entirely private and casual
nature. Public and systematic payment of members, to the end that poor
but capable men might not be kept out of the Commons, was demanded by
the Chartists three-quarters of a century ago, and from time to time
after 1870 there was agitation in behalf of such a policy. In 1893,
and again in 1895, a resolution in favor of the payment of members was
adopted in the Commons, and March 7, 1906, a resolution was carried to
the effect that every member should be paid a salary of L300 annually.
But it was not until 1911 that a measure of