f the interest
of the Commons of Great Britain in the religious observation of the
rule, _that the Law of Parliament, and the Law of Parliament only,
should prevail in the trial of their impeachments_.

In the year 1715 (1 Geo. I.) the Commons thought proper to impeach of
high treason the lords who had entered into the rebellion of that
period. This was about six years after the decision in the case of
Sacheverell. On the trial of one of these lords, (the Lord Wintoun,[13])
after verdict, the prisoner moved in arrest of judgment, and excepted
against the impeachment for error, on account of the treason therein
laid "not being described with sufficient certainty,--the day on which
the treason was committed not having been alleged." His counsel was
heard to this point. They contended, "that the forfeitures in cases of
treason are very great, and therefore they humbly conceived that the
accusation ought to contain all the certainty it is capable of, that the
prisoner may not by _general allegations_ be rendered incapable to
defend himself in a case which may prove fatal to him: that they would
not trouble their Lordships with citing authorities; for they believed
there is not one gentleman of the long robe but will agree that an
indictment for any capital offence to be erroneous, if the offence be
not alleged to be committed on a certain day: that this impeachment set
forth only that in or about the months of September, October, or
November, 1715, the offence charged in the impeachment had been
committed." The counsel argued, "that a proceeding by impeachment is a
proceeding at the Common Law, for _Lex Parliamentaria_ is a part of
Common Law, and they submitted whether there is not the same certainty
required in one method of proceeding at Common Law as in another."

The matter was argued elaborately and learnedly, not only on the general
principles of the proceedings below, but on the inconvenience and
possible hardships attending this uncertainty. They quoted Sacheverell's
case, in whose impeachment "the precise days were laid when the Doctor
preached each of these two sermons; and that by a like reason a certain
day ought to be laid in the impeachment when this treason was committed;
and that the authority of Dr. Sacheverell's case seemed so much stronger
than the case in question as the crime of treason is higher than that of
a misdemeanor."

Here the Managers for the Commons brought the point a second time to an
is