trial of bishops by their peers in parliament, as well for capital offences as misdemeanors, whereof they have been accufed in parlia

ment."

I cannot better finish this fubject of the peers, than by citing the honourable teftimony made of their justice and equity, by a very judicious modern writer. *«lf we turn our views towards the house of lords, we shall find, that they have also constantly taken care, that their peculiar privileges should not prove impediments to the common juftice, which is due to the rest of the people. They have constantly agreed to every just propofal, that has been made to them on that fubject by the commons; and indeed if we confider the numerous and oppreffive privileges claimed by the nobles in most other countries, and the vehement fpirit, with which they are commonly afferted, we shall think it no finall praise to the body of the nobility in England (and alfo to the nature of that government, of which they make a part) that it has been by their free confent, that their privileges have been confined to what they now are, that is to fay, to no more in general, than what is neceffary to the accom

• De Lolme on the Conf. of England, p. 373.

plishment

The justice and houfe of peers.

equity of the

Their incorruptibility in judging.

plishment of the end, and conftitutional defign of that house.

"In the exercise of their judicial authority with regard to civil matters, the lords have manifested a spirit of equity no wise inferior to that, which they have fhewn in their legiflative capacity. They have, in the discharge of that function (which of all others is fo liable to create temptations) fhewn an uncorruptness really fuperior to what any judicial affembly in any other nation can boast. Nor do I think, that I run any risk of being contradicted, when I fay that the conduct of the house of lords, in their civil judicial capacity, has conftantly been fuch as has kept them above the reach of even fufpicion or flander.

"Even that privilege, which they enjoy, of exclufively trying their own members in case of any accufation, that may affect their life (a privilege which we might at first fight think repugnant to the idea of a regular government, and even alarming to the reft of the people) has conftantly been made use of by the lords to do justice to their fellow fubjects; and if we caft our eyes either on the collection of the state trials, or on the history of England, we fhall find very few examples, if any, of a peer really guilty of

the

the offence laid to his charge, that has derived any advantage from his not being tried by a jury of commoners."

Before I enter upon the third branch of the legiflature, I beg leave to fubmit to my readers one obvious reflection upon the excellent conftitution of the ariftocratical power or eftate in our government, which befides all the active and paffive checks, which it commands upon the two other branches of the legiflature, provides alfo a natural and intrinfic fecurity to the people against incroachments, infolence, and oppreffions, but too frequently the fatal effects of fuperiority and preeminence of rank in other countries. By whatever privileges or prerogatives the peers are still diftinguished from or elevated above the people or commoners in this country, they are enjoyed folely and perfonally by the peers themselves, but do not, unless in some very flight inftances, affect any part of their families*, who, though commonly called noble, yet in reality remain commoners, and are reprefented in parliament by the third estate of the kingdom. So the

* Such are the right of peereffes to be tried by the peers; fome honourable appellations and diftinctions of their immediate children in rank and precedency, &c.

lords

Security against

the infolence

and oppreffions

of the nobility.

lords fpiritual, whofe dignities are not hereditary, can have no temptation nor inducement to opprefs, vilify, or injure that estate, of which their own family is and must for ever remain a part. The temporal lords, who in the ordinary course of nature have generally spent the most active, spirited, and ambitious part of their lives as commoners, and most frequently as members of the house of commons, and who at most times have more than one of their family in the house of commons, whilft they enjoy their hereditary feats in the houfe of peers, are for thefe, as well as the more generous and elevated motives of patriotifm, fo congenial with their noble breafts, emphatically withholden from attempting any encroachments or oppreffions, or even feeling a fense of contempt, and much lefs of oppreffive infolence, towards the third and most numerous estate of the community.

CHAP.

CHA P. XIV.

OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

"T

HE third eftate, of which we fhall herein principally treat, is on all hands confeffed to confift of the knights, citizens, and burgeffes, with the barons of the cinque-ports; all which being at this day elected by the free votes of the freemen of Great-Britain, are properly esteemed the reprefentative body of the people, and conftitute that part of the parliament, ufually called the boufe of commons. (N.B.) The ancient modus tenendi parl. reckons up fix degrees or orders of parliament, but that divifion cannot be denominated fix eftates."

"The numbers of the commons I find to have been formerly variant, according as the fheriffs of counties (from what motive is uncertain) were pleased to direct their precepts to the feveral cities or boroughs within their respective counties, or as the fame sheriffs made their returns thereupon; but indeed another cause of this variation was, that, it was usual for the prince, on his acceffion to

Lex Parliamentaria, p. 4, 5, 6, 7.

the