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of commons, or any of their members, may be as severely punished in the court of king's bench, as a libel upon the king. M. DeGrey thought so, when he drew up the information of my letter to his majesty, or he had no meaning in charging it to be a scandalous libel upon the house of commons. In my opinion, they would consult their real dignity much better, by appealing to the laws, when they are offended, than by violating the first principle of natural justice, which forbids us to be judges, when we are parties to the cause[1].
I do not mean to pursue them through the remainder of their proceedings. In their first resolutions, it is possible they might have been deceived by ill-considered precedents.
- ↑ "If it be demanded, in case a subject should be committed by either house for a matter manifestly out of their jurisdiction, What remedy can he have? I answer, that it cannot well be imagined that the law, which favours nothing more than the liberty of the subject, should give us a remedy against commitments by the king himself, appearing to be illegal, and yet give us no manner of redress against a commitment by our fellow subjects, equally appearing to be unwarranted. But, as this is a case which I am persuaded, will never happen, it seems needless over-nicely to examine it." Hawkins, 2. 110.—N. B. He was a good lawyer, but no prophet.
