I will not recapitulate: the cases I have cited, and the conclusions
drawn from them, are brought into a very narrow compass. I will only
add, that it would sound extremely harsh to say, that a court of
criminal jurisdiction, founded in immemorial usage, and held in judgment
of law before the King himself, can in any event whatever be under an
utter incapacity of proceeding to trial and judgment, either of
condemnation or acquittal, the ultimate objects of every criminal
proceeding, without certain supplemental powers derived from the Crown.
These cases, with the observations I have made on them, I hope
sufficiently warrant the opinion of the Judges upon that part of the
second question, in the case of the late Earl Ferrers, which I have
already mentioned,--and also what was advanced by the Lord Chief-Baron
in his argument on that question,--"That, though the office of High
Steward should happen to determine before execution done according to
the judgment, yet the Court of the Peers in Parliament, where that
judgment was given, would subsist for all the purposes of justice during
the sitting of the Parliament," and consequently, that, in the case
supposed by the question, that court might appoint a new day for the
execution.
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