The houfe of peers the fu judicature. con Bracton fpeaking of the nobility of his time *The house of peers is the fupreme court preme court of of judicature in the kingdom, having at prefent no original jurifdiction over causes, but only upon appeals and writs of error, to rectify any injuftice or mistake of the law committed by the courts below. To this authority they fucceeded of course, upon the diffolution of the aula regia. For, as the barons of parliament were constituent members of that court, and the rest of its jurisdiction was dealt out to other tribunals, over which the great officers, who accompanied thofe barons were refpectively delegated to provide, it followed, ❤ Black. Com. b. iii. c. 4. that 1 that the right of receiving appeals, and fuper- This jurifdiction of the house of peers is more clearly represented by Mr. Erskine, in his argument upon the rights of juries, in the cafe of the Dean of St. Afaph: "This popular judicature was not confined to particular diftricts, or to inferior fuits and mifde meanors, but pervaded the whole legal conftitution; for when the Conqueror, to crease the influence of his crown, erected that * Page 128, 129. This ingenious and instructive argument will ferve as a correct conftitutional chart for juries to direct their courfe by in determining the fates of their countrymen, against any fuperior awe or collateral bias. The peers were king's court. great fuperintending court of justice in his own palace, to receive appeals criminal and civil from every court in the kingdom, and placed at the head of it the capitalis jufticiarius tatius Anglia, of whofe original authority the chief justice of this court is but a partial and feeble emanation, even that great magiftrate was in the aula regis merely ministerial; every one of the king's tenants, who owed him service in right of a barony had a feat and a voice in that high tribunal; and the office of jufticiar was but to record and to enforce their judgments. "In the reign of king Edward the First, when this great office was abolifhed, and the prefent courts at Westminster established by a diftribution of its powers, the barons preferved that fupreme fuperintending jurifdiction, which never belonged to the jufticiar, but to themselves only, as the jurors in the king's court; a jurisdiction which, when nobility, from being territorial and feodal, became perfonal and honorary, was affumed and exercised by the peers of England, who without any delegation of judicial authority from the crown, form to this day the fupreme and final court of English law, judging in the last resort for the whole kingdom, and fitting upon the lives of the peerage, in their ancient and genuine character, as the peers of one another." The high court of parliament is the fupreme court in the kingdom for the trial of great and enormous offenders, whether lords or commons, in the method of parliamentary impeachment; for an impeachment before the lords by the commons of Great Britain is a presentment to the most high and supreme court of criminal jurifdiction, by the most folemn grand inqueft of the whole kingdom, * A commoner cannot however be impeached before the lords for any capital offence, but only for high mifdemeanors; a peer may be impeached for any crime. And they usually (in cafe of the impeachment of peer for treason) addrefs the crown to appoint a lord high steward for the greater dignity and regularity of their proceedings. The articles of impeachment are a kind of bills of indictment found by the house of commons, and afterwards tried by the lords; who are in cafes of misdemeanors confidered not only as their own peers, but as the peers of the whole nation. a Black. Com. b. iv. c. xix. and Hale's Pl. Cor. Pt. ii The houfe of peers is the fu preme court for impeachments. parliamentary The office of a lord high steward. 150. Cc4 << The They were not "The execution of all our laws hath been long fince diftributed by parliament out of inferior courts in fuch fort, as the fubjects were directed where to complain, and the justices how to redress wrongs, and punish offences; and this may be the reason of the judges opinion in Thorp's cafe, 31 Henry VI. num. 37. "That actions at common law are not determined in this high court of parliament, yet complaints have ever been received in parliaments, as well of private wrongs as public offences. And according to the quality of the perfon, and nature of the offence, they have been retained or referred to the common law. "Touching the quality of the perfon, the to try any offen- lords of the parliament did not anciently try anciently bound der who was not their peer. any offenders, how great foever the offence was, unless he were their peer. As by that of 4 Edward III. num. 2. where when the king commanded the lords to give judgment on Simon de Bereford and divers others alfo, who were not their peers, for the murther of Edward II. and the deftruction of the earl of Kent fon of Edward the First, a provifo and agreement was made and recorded in Selden's Judic. in Parliament, p. 1. & feq. thefe |
