The Lords have stated no question of general law, no question on the
construction of an act of Parliament, no question concerning the
practice of the courts below. _They put the whole gross case and matter
in question, with all its circumstances, to the Judges._ They have, _for
the first time_, demanded of them what particular person, paper, or
document ought or ought not to be produced before them by the Managers
for the Commons of Great Britain: for instance, whether, under such an
article, the Bengal Consultations of such a day, the examination of
Rajah Nundcomar, and the like. The operation of this method is in
substance not only to make the Judges masters of the whole process and
conduct of the trial, but through that medium to transfer to them the
ultimate judgment on the cause itself and its merits.
The Judges attendant on the Court of Peers hitherto have not been
supposed to know the particulars and minute circumstances of the cause,
and must therefore be incompetent to determine upon those circumstances.
The evidence taken, is not, of course, that we can find, delivered to
them; nor do we find that in fact any order has been made for that
purpose, even supposing that the evidence could at all regularly be put
before them.
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