The High Steward's commission, after reciting that an
indictment hath been found against the peer by the grand jury of the
proper county, impowereth him to send for the indictment, to convene the
prisoner before him at such day and place as he shall appoint, then and
there to hear and determine the matter of such indictment; to cause the
peers triers, _tot et tales, per quos rei veritas melius sciri poterit_,
at the same day and place to appear before him; _veritateque inde
comperta_, to proceed to judgment according to the law and custom of
England, and thereupon to award execution.[82] By this it is plain that
the sole right of judicature is in cases of this kind vested in the High
Steward; that it resideth solely in his person; and consequently,
without this commission, which is but in nature of a commission of Oyer
and Terminer, no one step can be taken in order to a trial; and that
when his commission is dissolved, which he declareth by breaking his
staff, the court no longer existeth.
But in a trial of a peer in full Parliament, or, to speak with legal
precision, before the King in Parliament, for a capital offence, whether
upon impeachment or indictment, the case is quite otherwise. Every peer
present at the trial (and every temporal peer hath a right to be present
in every part of the proceeding) voteth upon every question of law and
fact, and the question is carried by the major vote: the High Steward
himself voting merely as a peer and member of that court, in common with
the rest of the peers, and in no other right.
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