" The House did thereon resolve itself
into a committee, from which the Earl of Galloway, on the 29th of the
same month, reported as follows:--"That the House has, in the trial of
Warren Hastings, Esquire, proceeded in a regular course, in the manner
of propounding their questions to the Judges in the Chamber of
Parliament, and in receiving their answers to them in the same place."
The resolution was agreed to by the Lords; but the protest as below[31]
was entered thereupon, and supported by strong arguments.
Your Committee remark, that this resolution states only, that the House
had proceeded, in this secret manner of propounding questions to the
Judges and of receiving their answers, during the trial, and on matters
of debate between the parties, "in a regular course." It does not
assert that another course would not have been _as_ regular. It does not
state either judicial convenience, principle, or body of precedents for
that _regular course_. No such body of precedents appear on the Journal,
that we could discover. Seven-and-twenty, at least, in a regular series,
are directly contrary to this regular course. Since the era of the 29th
of June, 1789, no one question has been admitted to go publicly to the
Judges.
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