THE FALSE ALARM.
7
ment, than to do with greater cunning what he did before with leſs.
But the people have been told with great confidence, that the Houſe cannot control the right of conſtituting repreſentatives; that he who can perſuade lawful electors to chuſe him, whatever be his character, is lawfully choſen, and has a claim to a ſeat in Parliament, from which no human authority can depoſe him.
Here, however, the patrons of oppoſition are in ſome perplexity. They are forced to confeſs, that by a train of precedents ſufficient to eſtabliſh a cuſtom of Parliament, the Houſe of Commons has juriſdiction over its own members; that the whole has power over individuals; and that this power has been exerciſed ſometimes in impriſonment, and often in expulſion.
That
