There is no doubt that
the legislature would have applied its remedy to that grievance in
Parliamentary proceedings, if it had found those proceedings embarrassed
with what Lord Mansfield, from the bench, and speaking of the matter of
these statutes, very justly calls "disgraceful subtilties."
What is still more strong to the point, your Committee finds that in the
7th of William III. an act was made for the regulating of trials for
treason and misprision of treason, containing several regulations for
reformation of proceedings at law, both as to matters of form and
substance, as well as relative to evidence. It is an act thought most
essential to the liberty of the subject; yet in this high and critical
matter, so deeply affecting the lives, properties, honors, and even the
inheritable blood of the subject, the legislature was so tender of the
high powers of this high court, deemed so necessary for the attainment
of the great objects of its justice, so fearful of enervating any of its
means or circumscribing any of its capacities, even by rules and
restraints the most necessary for the inferior courts, that they guarded
against it by an express proviso, "that neither this act, nor anything
therein contained, shall any ways extend to _any impeachment or other
proceedings in Parliament, in any land whatsoever_.
Pages:
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35