persons who were the objects of the appeal. They also, immediately
afterwards, impeached all the Judges of the Common Pleas, the Chief
Baron of the Exchequer, and other learned and eminent persons, both
peers and commoners; upon the conclusion of which impeachments it was
that the second claim was entered. In all the transactions aforesaid the
Commons were acting parties; yet neither then nor ever since have they
made any objection or protestation, that the rule laid down by the Lords
in the beginning of the session of 1388 ought not to be applied to the
impeachments of commoners as well as peers. In many cases they have
claimed the benefit of this rule; and in all cases they have acted, and
the Peers have determined, upon the same general principles. The Peers
have always supported the same franchises; nor are there any precedents
upon the records of Parliament subverting either the general rule or the
particular privilege, so far as the same relates either to the course of
proceeding or to the rule of law by which the Lords are to judge.

Your Committee observes also, that, in the commissions to the several
Lords High Stewards who have been appointed on the trials of peers
impeached by the Commons, the proceedings are directed to be had
according to the law and custom of the kingdom, _and the custom of
Parliament_: which words are not to be found in the commissions for
trying upon indictments.

"As every court of justice," says Lord Coke, "hath laws and customs for
its direction, some by the Common Law, some by the Civil and Canon Law,
some by peculiar laws and customs, &c., so the High Court of Parliament
_suis propriis legibus et consuetudinibus subsistit_. It is by the _Lex
et Consuetudo Parliamenti_, that all weighty matters in any Parliament
moved, concerning the peers of the realm, or Commons in Parliament
assembled, ought to be determined, adjudged, and discussed, by the