In the case of the Earl of Kilmarnock and others, the Lords,
on the 24th of June, 1746, ordered that a writ or writs of _Certiorari_
be issued for removing the indictments before the House; and on the
26th, the writ, which is made returnable before the King in Parliament,
with the return and indictments, was received and read. On the next day,
upon the report of the Lords' committees, that they had been attended
by the two Chief-Justices and Chief-Baron, and had heard them touching
the construction of the act of the 7th and 8th of King William, "for
regulating trials in cases of high treason and misprision of treason,"
the House, upon reading the report, came to several resolutions, founded
for the most part on the construction of that act. What that
construction was appeareth from the Lord High Steward's address to the
prisoners just before their arraignment. Having mentioned that act as
one happy consequence of the Revolution, he addeth,--"However
injuriously that revolution hath been traduced, whatever attempts have
been made to subvert this happy establishment founded on it, your
Lordships will now have the benefit of that law in its full extent."
I need not, after this, mention any other judicial acts done by the
House in this case, before the appointment of the High Steward: many
there are.
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