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CH. IV.] PUBLICATION OF DEBATES AND PAPERS.

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The order of the houses of parliament for the printing and publishing their reports and papers, was deemed in 1836 to be a protection to the printer in an action against him for libellous matter contained in them. Printers and officers of the house of commons were afterwards engaged in a long course of litigation, under the protection of the house, to determine the nature and extent of the parliamentary authority. At length the questions involved in the proceedings were settled by "an act to give summary protection to persons employed in the publication of parliamentary papers. It recites that it is essential to the due and effectual exercise of the functions and duties of parliament, and to the promotion of wise legislation, that no obstruction should exist to the publication of such reports, papers, votes, or proceedings of either house of parliament, as such house of parliament may deem fit or necessary to be published; and it enacted that proceedings, criminal or civil, against persons for the publication of papers printed by order of either house of parliament, shall be immediately stayed on the production of a certificate, verified by affidavit, to the effect that such publication is by order of either house of parliament. Proceedings are also to be stayed, if commenced on account of the publication of a copy of a parliamentary paper, upon the verification of the correctness of such copy. And in proceedings commenced for printing any extract from, or abstract of, a parliamentary report or paper, the defendant may give the report in evidence, under the plea of the general issue, and prove that his own extract or abstract was published bonâ fide, and without malice; and if such be the opinion of the jury, a verdict of "not guilty" will be entered.2

made a change of transcendent importance in the working of the con stitution, without the passing of any law." (Earl Grey on Parliamentary Government, p. 10.)

1 See the case of Stockdale and Hansard, and the subsequent litigation described in May's Parliamentary Practice, pp. 159–162.

2 3 & 4 Vict., cap. 9.

Breaches of the privileges of the houses, resistance to their orders, and obstruction of their officers in the execution of the orders, are punishable as contempts of the authority of the house, by commitment to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms, or to the Tower or other prison. The proceeding cannot be questioned in any court of law; the adjudication of the house being a sufficient judgment, and the warrant of the Speaker a sufficient commitment. The serjeant-at-arms, in the execution of the Speaker's warrant, may, after notice and demand of admission, break open outer doors, if necessary, in order to execute it.1 Nor, if the warrant recite that the person to be arrested has been guilty of a breach of privilege, can the courts of law inquire into the grounds of the detention by habeas corpus, but must leave the prisoner to suffer the judgment awarded by the house by whose warrant he stands committed. Nor can the court inquire into the form of the commitment, even supposing it to be open to objection on the ground of informa lity. The lords can commit to prison for a fixed time, even beyond the duration of the session; but the house of commons can only imprison until the close of the existing session. The commons, therefore, do not commit for any period of inprisonment; and their prisoners, if not sooner discharged by the house, are immediately released from their confinement on a prorogation, whether they have paid the fees of the serjeant-at-arms or not.3

This power of commitment the houses exercise to punish infraction of their general orders or rules, and disobedience of particular orders; indignities offered to the character or proceedings of parliament; disrespectful or calumniating commentaries or reflections on the conduct of parliament, or its members, and misrepresentations of their speeches in debate. Any infraction of the privileges of parliament, or of

1 Bardell v. Abbott, 14 East, 107; affirmed in error, 4 Taunton, 401. - 2 Per Lord Chief Justice Abbott; 2 Chit. Rep., 207; 3 Barn. and Ald., 420.

3 May's Parliamentary Practice, 97.

CH. IV.]

PERSONAL PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERS.

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its members, brought to the notice of the house concerned in it, receives immediate attention and generally supersedes all other business.1

2

The privileges of the individual members of both houses consist of freedom from arrest in civil suits, and exemption from service on juries. But the former privilege does not extend to criminal charges, to breach of the peace, nor to contempts of the jurisdiction of the courts of law and equity.3

1 A minute examination of these privileges is incompatible with this but it will be found in Mr. May's work.

work;

2 10 George III., cap. 50.

3 Lechmore Charlton's case, 2 Mylne and Craig, 316, 1837.

CHAPTER V.

THE PEOPLE,-THEIR RIGHT TO ELECT THE MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

The People.-The Democratical part of the Constitution.-Representation before the Reform Act.-County Qualifications since that Act. -Freeholders of Inheritance.-Freeholders for life.-Copyholders. -Leaseholders.-Occupiers.-Borough Voters.-Occupiers.-Freeholders.-Counties.—Of Cities.—Burgesses and Freemen.—Registration of Voters.-Overseers' Lists.-Duties of Overseers, Constables and Clerks of Peace.-Court of Revising Barristers.-Borough Registration.-Overseers' List.—Town Clerk's List of Freemen.-Claims by persons omitted.-Borough Revisers.-Proceedings at the Poll.-Limits of Counties and Boroughs.-Scotland.-Qualifications of Electors.-Owners.-Life-Renters. -Tenants.-Boroughs and Towns.— Proprietors,Tenants, and Life-Renters.-Registration.—Polling.—Ireland.-Qualification of Voters.-Freeholders.-Lessees or Assignees. -Copyholders.-Counties of Cities and Towns.-Freeholders.

Lessees

or Assignees.-Occupiers.-Boroughs.—Occupiers.—Freemen.-Statutes Shortening Elections to One Day in England, Scotland, and Ireland.-For Regulating Soldiers during Elections.--Statutes Regulating Freedom of Choice.

THE powers and duties of the several institutions which form the government having been described, it remains to advert to the governed, to describe the nature of the political power which the people possess and exercise under the constitution; and the means which they have to influence the legislative and executive institutions to the course of action they desire; and afterwards to show the effect of the constitutional system in the production and preservation of the personal liberty of the people.

The People consist of all persons born within the do

CH. V.]

POLITICAL POWER OF THE PEOPLE,

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minions of the crown, at home or abroad, and of persons born out of the dominions, whose fathers, or grandfathers, (by the father's side) were native-born. All these, as natural-born subjects, enjoy, or may acquire, the fullest personal and political rights conceded by the constitution. Aliens may be made denizens by the king's letters-patent, and thus be admitted to domicile in the kingdom, and to enjoy the protection of the laws, and to hold lands; and by act of parliament they may be naturalized, and be qualified to enjoy or acquire all the personal and political rights of native subjects, except being enabled to sit in the privy council, or in either of the houses of parliament, or to take any office of trust, civil or military, under, or any grant of lands from the crown.1

The chief political power possessed by the people arises from their right of electing representatives, as members of the house of commons. That power is neither inconsiderable, nor remote from the supreme power; for when the crown convenes the parliament, their suffrages decide, by the preponderance of party men elected and returned, what principles of government shall prevail, and, to a great extent, what men shall be, for the time, the depositaries of the executive power. The constitution has not, however, confided this important trust to the whole body of the people; although the representatives, when elected, are the representatives of all.

From the qualified body of electors, also, those are excluded who are exposed to influences likely to prevent free and unbiassed choice. Thus, it is declared by statute that "no commissioner or other officer employed in charging, collecting, or managing the duties of excise, customs, stamps, or houses, or in the post-office (the several departments of the revenue), shall have any vote in the election of members of parliament.”2

The ancient principle of elective qualification was, in counties, the ownership of landed property, and in boroughs, 2 22 George III., cap. 41.

1 1 Geo. I., stat. 2, cap. 4.

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