the award of Parliament: because the realm of England has not been
heretofore, nor is it the intention of our said lord the King and the
Lords of Parliament that it ever should be governed by the Law Civil;
and also, it is their resolution not to rule or govern so high a cause
as this appeal is, which cannot be tried anywhere but in Parliament, as
hath been said before, by the course, process, and order used in any
courts or place inferior in the same kingdom; which courts and places
are not more than the executors of the ancient laws and customs of the
kingdom, and of the ordinances and establishments of Parliament. It was
determined by the said Lords of Parliament, by the assent of our said
lord the King, that this appeal was made and pleaded well and
sufficiently, and that the process upon it is good and effectual,
according to the law and course of Parliament; and for such they decree
and adjudge it."[2]

And your Committee finds, that toward the close of the same Parliament
the same right was again claimed and admitted as the special privilege
of the Peers, in the following manner:--"In this Parliament, all the
Lords then present, Spiritual as well as Temporal, claimed as their
franchise, that the weighty matters moved in this Parliament, and which
shall be moved in other Parliaments in future times, touching the peers
of the land, shall be managed, adjudged, and discussed by the course of
Parliament, and in no sort by the Law Civil, or by the common law of the
land, used in the other lower courts of the kingdom; which claim,
liberty, and franchise the King graciously allowed and granted to them
in full Parliament."[2]

Your Committee finds that the Commons, having at that time considered
the appeal above mentioned, approved the proceedings in it, and, as far
as in them lay, added the sanction of their accusation against the