proceeded[1], extended equally to every indictable offence. So that the chief, if not the only, privilege of parliament, in ſuch caſes, ſeems to be the right of receiving immediate information of the impriſonment or detention of any member, with the reaſon for which he is detained: a practice that is daily uſed upon the ſlighteſt military accuſations, preparatory to a trial by a court martial[2]; and which is recognized by the ſeveral temporary ſtatutes for ſuſpending the habeas corpus act[3], whereby it is provided, that no member of either houſe ſhall be detained, till the matter of which he ſtands ſuſpected, be firſt communicated to the houſe of which he is a member, and the conſent of the ſaid houſe obtained for his commitment or detaining. But yet the uſage has uniformly been, ever ſince the revolution, that the communication has been ſubſequent to the arreſt.
These are the general heads of the laws and cuſtoms relating to parliament, conſidered as one aggregate body. We will next proceed to
IV. The laws and cuſtoms relating to the houſe of lords in particular. Theſe, if we exclude their judicial capacity, which will be more properly treated of in the third and fourth books of theſe commentaries, will take up but little of our time.
One very antient privilege is that declared by the charter of the foreſt[4], confirmed in parliament 9 Hen. III; viz. that every lord ſpiritual or temporal ſummoned to parliament, and paſſing through the king’s foreſts, may, both in going and returning, kill one or two of the king’s deer without warrant; in view of the foreſter, if he be preſent; or on blowing a horn if he be abſent, that he may not ſeem to take the king’s veniſon by ſtealth.
In the next place they have a right to be attended, and conſtantly are, by the judges of the court of king’s bench and com-
