Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/189

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JUNIUS.
179

or contempt of that house, ought to be, by any writ of Habeas Corpus, made to appear in any other place, or before any other judicature, during that session of parliament wherein such person was so committed."

2. "That the Serjeant at Arms, attending this house, do make no return of, or yield any obedience to, the said writs of Habeas Corpus; and for such his refusal, that he have the protection of the house of commons"[1].

Welbore Ellis, what say you? Is this the law of parliament, or is it not? I am a plain man, sir, and cannot follow you through the phlegmatic forms of an oration.

  1. If there be, in reality, any such law in England as the Law of Parliament, which (under the exception stated in my letter on privilege) I confess, after long deliberation, I very much doubt, it certainly is not constituted by, nor can it be collected from, the resolutions of either house, whether enacting or declaratory. I desire the reader will compare the above resolutions of the year 1704, with the following of the 3d of April, 1628.—" Resolved, That the writs of Habeas Corpus cannot be denied, but ought to be granted to every man that is committed or detained in prison, or otherwise restrained by the command of the King, the privy council, or any other, he praying the same."