in all cases of election, and that this authority is derived from the
first principles of our government, viz., the necessary independence of
the three branches of the Legislature." But, though that doctrine was
fully admitted by the Opposition, they made "that very admission a
ground for reviving the question in the next session, by moving for a
resolution which should declare that, 'being a Court of Judicature, the
House of Commons, in deciding matters of election, was bound to judge
according to the law of the land, and the known and established law of
Parliament, which was part thereof.'" It was understood that this
resolution, if carried, was intended as a stepping-stone to others which
should condemn the decision of the previous session; yet it seemed such
a truism that even the ministers could not venture to deny it; but they
proposed to defeat the object of its framers by adding to it a
declaration that the late decision was "agreeable to the said law of the
land." And we might pass on to the subsequent debate, in which the
constitutional correctness of that addition was distinctly challenged,
did it not seem desirable to notice two arguments which were brought
forward against the motion, one by an independent member, Mr. Ongley,
the other by the Attorney-general. Mr. Ongley contended that "a power of
preserving order and decency is essentially necessary to every aggregate
body; and, with respect to this House, if it had not power over its
particular members, they would be subject to no control at all." The
answer to this argument is obvious: that a right on the part of the
House to control the conduct of its members is a wholly different thing
from a right to determine who are or ought to be members; and that for
the House to claim this latter right, except on grounds of qualification
or disqualification legally proved, would be to repeat one of the most
monstrous of all Cromwell's acts of tyranny, when, in 1656, he placed
guards at the door of the House, with orders to refuse admission to all
those members whom, however lawfully elected, he did not expect to find