" The Chief-Justice concluded his
statement of the usage below, and his observations on the difference of
the cases of a peer tried in full Parliament and by a special
commission, in this manner:--"Upon the whole matter, my Lords, whether
the Peers being judges in the one and not in the other instance alters
the case, or whether the reason of the law in inferior courts why the
jury are not permitted to separate until they have discharged
themselves of their verdict may have any influence on this case, _where
that reason seems to fail_, the prisoner being to be tried by men of
unquestionable honor, _we cannot presume so far as to make any
determination, in a case which is both new to us and of great
consequence in itself_; but think it the proper way for _us_, having
laid matters as we conceive them before your Grace and my Lords, _to
submit the jurisdiction of your own court to your own determination_."
It appears to your Committee, that the Lords, who stood against
submitting the course of their high court to the inferior Judges, and
that the Judges, who, with a legal and constitutional discretion,
declined giving any opinion in this matter, acted as became them; and
your Committee sees no reason why the Peers at this day should be less
attentive to the rights of their court with regard to an exclusive
judgment on their own proceedings or to the rights of the Commons acting
as accusers for the whole commons of Great Britain in that court, or why
the Judges should be less reserved in deciding upon any of these points
of high Parliamentary privilege, than the Judges of that and the
preceding periods.
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