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stitution; and its judicature is now confined to trials of persons impeached by the house of commons; to trials of peers; and to appeals from the superior courts of law and equity in England and Ireland, and from the Court of Session in Scotland. Appeals from the courts of law are brought before the lords, by writs of error from the court of exchequer-chamber; and under petitions of appeal from the decrees of the court of chancery. The lord-chancellor, or his deputy for the time being, is the presiding judge. The house confirms or reverses the judgments and decrees of the courts appealed from, and may order payment of costs of the appeal. The peers decide on claims of peerage and offices of honour, under references from the crown; and they decide on controverted elections of the representative peers of Scotland and Ireland.

An impeachment before the lords by the commons in parliament is founded on articles charging the offence, passed by the commons, and afterwards tried by the lords. The earliest instance recorded of impeachment by the commons, at the bar of the house of lords, was in the reign of Edward III.1 The last is the case of Lord Melville, in 1805. An impeachment can only be for high crimes and misdemeanours, such as the ordinary magistrate either dares not or cannot punish. The constitutional principle is, that the representatives of the people, as the parties injured, cannot properly judge; and the ordinary tribunals would be swayed by the influence and passions of the accused. The peers, as an assembly presumed to have neither the interests nor the passions of popular assemblies, are therefore the judges. The lord-chancellor presides, and the charges are supported by members of the commons, selected by the house; but all the members of the house may be present at the trial. An impeachment is not abated by a dissolution of the parliament, but is resumed at the stage it was suspended, when a new parliament assembles. Nor can the king get rid of it, by a pardon to the accused, for we have seen 1 See ante, p. 97.

CH. II.]

IMPEACHMENT.--APPEALS.

457

that no pardon under the great seal shall be pleadable to an impeachment by the commons in parliament.1

After verdict and conviction by the lords,-which is given upon their honour, and not on oath,--judgment is not passed, unless demanded by the commons, who may be satisfied with the conviction, without calling for sentence.

Trials of peers for treason or felony are held before the house of lords, if parliament is sitting; if not, before selected peers. In either case the presidency of the lord-chancellor is suspended; and a lord high steward is appointed by the crown, specially to hold the trial; that ancient office having long ceased to be permanently filled up. The appointment of a lord high steward in these trials, arose from the lordchancellor, in early times, being generally an ecclesiastic, who could not meddle in matters of life and death. Since the chancellor has been a layman, he has generally been nominated lord high steward. As in an impeachment, the lords of parliament are not sworn, but give their verdicts upon their honour, each being called to give it separately, beginning with the lowest in rank.2

The house of lords is the institution by which the aristocratic portion of the people is admitted to a share in the supreme power of the state, in accordance with the theory on which the constitution is founded,—the union of the monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic forms of government.3 The history we have sketched, has shown that the house of lords has generally followed the course of policy and action prescribed by the house of commons,—seldom persisting long in opposition, even when their own order and authority were affected by the changes proposed. Although containing a majority of men of eminent descent, and of

1 12 & 13 William III., cap. 2, ante, p. 434. But after conviction the king may pardon. "The law hath put rules and limits to the justice of the king, but not unto his mercy: that is transcendent, and without limits of the law." (Coke's Reports, vol. vi. p. 329.)

any

2 Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. i. p. 17.

3 See ante, p. 4.

X

458 ESSENTIAL TO THE REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM. [CH. II.

great wealth and social importance, its atmosphere is not unfavourable to the existence of popular principles and feelings. It is far also from being a stagnant institution; for it is continually receiving accessions of men raised to the peerage from the middle, and sometimes the lower classes, who have attained distinction in the army and navy, in the law, in commerce, or in statesmanship in the house of commons. In the United States constitution, the senate is analogous to it, as a legislative chamber of an aristocratic nature-not permanent, as the house of lords, but elective,— yet on a principle of election less popular than the house of representatives. So wherever representative government has been formed, a chamber as far as practicable of a more aristocratic character than the co-ordinate house of representatives has been established; but the house of lords is the branch of our constitutional system which other countries have found the most difficult to imitate.2

1 The senate of the United States is composed of two senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof for six years. No person can be a senator who has not attained thirty years of age, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who was not, when elected, an inhabitant of that state for which he was chosen. The vice-president of the United States is president of the senate. The senate (like the house of lords) has the sole power to try impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they are on oath or affirmation, and no person can be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the members present. (Constitution, art. 18, chap. 3.)

2 "The principle of the representative system is the destruction of all absolute power. The division of the legislative power into two chambers is necessary to ensure that the central power shall not usurp unlimited authority. The executive power and one chamber have never co-existed long. One of these powers has speedily succumbed. The division of the central power, or of the actual sovereignty, between the executive power and two legislative assemblies is, therefore, strictly derived from the fundamental principle of the representative system." (History of the Origin of Representative Government in Europe, by M. Guizot: Bohn's edition, p. 445 et passim.)

CHAPTER III.

THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

House of Commons.-Third Estate.-How Composed.-Members for Scotland; for Ireland.-Common Right of Eligibility.-Roman Catholics and Jews admitted.-Disqualifications.-Office under the Crown, and Vacation of Seats.-Secretaries of State.-Property Qualifications abolished.-Writs for Cities and Boroughs.-Time of Election.-Vacancies, how Supplied.—Candidates for the House of Commons.-Bribery and Corrupt Practices.-Treating.—Undue Influence. -Cockades.-Election Auditor.-Candidates' Personal Expenses. -Auditor's Account.-Punishment for Bribery.—Travelling Expenses of Voters.--Election of the Speaker.-Confirmation by the Crown.--Members Sworn.-Speaker's Rank and Emoluments.— Deputy Speaker.-House, how Constituted.-Call of the House.Officers of the House.-Chairman of Committee.-Standing Orders.— Election Committees.-Tribunal for Discovery of Corrupt Practices. -Power of Impeachment.-Access to the Crown.-Power to take Evidence on Oath.-Duties of the Members.

THE House of Commons is composed of representatives of the third estate of the realm; that is, of the whole of the people of the United Kingdom, except the spiritual and temporal lords of parliament.1 It will be the purpose of this Chapter to explain the manner in which the house of commons is constituted, to describe the eligibility of the members,—their duties and obligations both as candidates

1 "The lower house of parliament is not, in proper language, an estate of the realm, but rather the image and representative of the commons of England, who, being the third estate, with the nobility and clergy make up and constitute the people of this kingdom, and liege subjects of the crown." (Hallam's Constitutional History, vol. ii. p. 237.)

for election, and as members,—the laws made and the peculiar functions and duties of the house for preserving purity of elections, preparatory to the consideration of the separate and combined action of the two houses as the parliament; but reserving for another Chapter the mode of electing the house of commons, and the rights and duties of the electors.

The house of commons consists of such persons, being laymen, as have been elected by such of the people as have the elective franchise, to be the representatives of the several counties of England, Scotland, and Ireland, of various cities, boroughs, and the Cinque Ports, within the counties, —and of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge in England, and of Trinity College, Dublin, in Ireland. It comprises 654 members, distributed as follows:

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The members for Scotland sit by virtue of the Act of Union of England and Scotland,1 which declared that the succession to the monarchy of Great Britain should be the same as to that of England; that the United Kingdom should be repre15 Anne, cap. 8.

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