thefe words; Et eft affenfu & accord. &c. and it is affented and accorded by our lord the king, and all the grandees in full parliament, that albeit the peers as judges of the parliament have took upon them and rendred the faid judgment, &c. that yet the faid peers, who now are or shall be in time to come, be not bound or charged to render judgments upon others than peers; nor that the peers of the land have power to do this, but thereof ever to be discharged and acquitted; and that the aforefaid judgment rendered be not drawn to example or confequence in time to come, whereby the faid peers fhall do contrary to the laws of the land, if the like cafe happen, which God forbid. 4 Edward III. num. 6. This provifo and agreement was made by the lords and commons, and it had thefe refpects: First, to fatisfy the commons, that the lords by these judgments intended not to alter the course of the common-law, and therefore they difclaimed, that they had power to do this, and confess it was contrary to the law of the land.

Secondly, To preserve their own right to judge none but the peers in cafe of life and death. For then the king's fteward is to fit in the chancellor's place, and the lords are

to

the peers are both tryers and judges.

The fpiritual lords triable by their peers in parliament.

to be tryers and judges; and fo by judging others, than their peers defcended below their degrees, for none but peers are fo to be tried and judged. It is otherwife in cafes of mifdemeanors; then the chancellor keeps his place, and the lords are only judges and not tryers; they may command a jury to be impannelled.

"For trial of the facts, if the truth appear not by the parties' answer, the teftimonies are exhibited as 1 R. II. in the cafe of Alice Peirce. Here arifeth a question:

"Whether the fpiritual lords de jure, are triable by their peers, or no?

"Out of parliament they are not to be tried by the peers; but the doubt is, whether in time of parliament, they are to be fo tried, or no? To me it feems they may, if the matter be moved against them in time of parliament. For as it is in the parliament at York, 15 Ed. II. in the act for the repeal of the Spencers banishment, they are peers in parliament. Note, that the petition for the repeal faith, that the bishops are peers in parliament. The bishops name themfelves peers of the land; and the chancellor to the king, nd the act ftiles them peers of the land in parliament.

"There be divers precedents alfo of the

trial of bishops by their peers in parliament, as well for capital offences as misdemeanors, whereof they have been accufed in parlia

ment."

I cannot better finish this fubject of the

peers, than by citing the honourable teftimony made of their juftice and equity, by a very judicious modern writer. «lf we turn our views towards the houfe of lords, we fhall find, that they have also constantly taken care, that their peculiar privileges fhould not prove impediments to the common juftice, which is due to the reft of the people. They have conftantly agreed to every just propofal, that has been made to them on that fubject by the commons; and indeed if we confider the numerous and oppreffive privileges claimed by the nobles in most other countries, and the vehement spirit, with which they are commonly afferted, we shall think it no fmall praife to the body of the nobility in England (and alfo to the nature of that government, of which they make a part) that it has been by their free confent, that their privileges have been confined to what they now are, that is to fay, to no more in general, than what is neceffary to the accom

* De Lolme on the Conf. of England, p. 373.

plishment

Their incorruptibility in judging.

plishment of the end, and conftitutional defign of that house.

"In the exercise of their judicial authority with regard to civil matters, the lords have manifested a spirit of equity no wife inferior to that, which they have shewn in their legislative capacity. They have, in the discharge of that function (which of all others is fo liable to create temptations) fhewn an uncorruptnefs really fuperior to what any judicial affembly in any other nation can boast. Nor do I think, that I run any risk of being contradicted, when I fay that the conduct of the house of lords, in their civil judicial capacity, has conftantly been fuch as has kept them above the reach of even suspicion or flander.

"Even that privilege, which they enjoy, of exclufively trying their own members in cafe of any accufation, that may affect their life (a privilege which we might at first fight think repugnant to the idea of a regular government, and even alarming to the reft of the people) has conftantly been made use of by the lords to do justice to their fellow subjects; and if we cast our eyes either on the collection of the state trials, or on the history of England, we fhall find very few examples, if any, of a peer really guilty of

the

the offence laid to his charge, that has derived any advantage from his not being tried by a jury of commoners."

Before I enter upon the third branch of the legislature, I beg leave to fubmit to my readers one obvious reflection upon the excellent conftitution of the aristocratical power or eftate in our government, which befides all the active and paffive checks, which it commands upon the two other branches of the legislature, provides alfo a natural and intrinfic fecurity to the people against incroachments, infolence, and oppreffions, but too frequently the fatal effects of fuperiority and preeminence of rank in other countries. By whatever privileges or prerogatives the peers are still distinguished from or elevated above the people or commoners in this country, they are enjoyed folely and perfonally by the peers themselves, but do not, unless in fome very flight inftances, affect any part of their families*, who, though commonly called noble, yet in reality remain commoners, and are reprefented in parliament by the third eftate of the kingdom. So the

Such are the right of peereffes to be tried by the peers; fome honourable appellations and diftinctions of their immediate children in rank and precedency, &c.

lords

Security againft

the infolence

and oppreffions of the nobility.