e executors of the ancient laws and customs of the
kingdom, and of the ordinances and establishments of Parliament. It was
determined by the said Lords of Parliament, by the assent of our said
lord the King, that this appeal was made and pleaded well and
sufficiently, and that the process upon it is good and effectual,
according to the law and course of Parliament; and for such they decree
and adjudge it."[2]

And your Committee finds, that toward the close of the same Parliament
the same right was again claimed and admitted as the special privilege
of the Peers, in the following manner:--"In this Parliament, all the
Lords then present, Spiritual as well as Temporal, claimed as their
franchise, that the weighty matters moved in this Parliament, and which
shall be moved in other Parliaments in future times, touching the peers
of the land, shall be managed, adjudged, and discussed by the course of
Parliament, and in no sort by the Law Civil, or by the common law of the
land, used in the other lower courts of the kingdom; which claim,
liberty, and franchise the King graciously allowed and granted to them
in full Parliament."[2]

Your Committee finds that the Commons, having at that time considered
the appeal above mentioned, approved the proceedings in it, and, as far
as in them lay, added the sanction of their accusation against the
persons who were the objects of the appeal. They also, immediately
afterwards, impeached all the Judges of the Common Pleas, the Chief
Baron of the Exchequer, and other learned and eminent persons, both
peers and commoners; upon the conclusion of which impeachments it was
that the second claim was entered. In all the transactions aforesaid the
Commons were acting parties; yet neither then nor ever since have they
made any objection or protestation, that the rule laid down by the Lords
in the beginning of the session of 1388 ought not to be applied to the
impeachments of commoners as well as peers. In many cases they have
claimed the benefit of this rule; and in all cases they have acted, and
the Peers have determined, upon the same general principles. The Peers
have always supported the same franchises; nor are there any precedents
upon the records of Parliament subverting either the general rule or the
particular privilege, so far as the same relates either to the course of
proceeding or to the rule of law by which the Lords are to judge.

Your Committee observes also, that, in the commissi