Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/169

law of England, which had grown into prescription long before we knew any thing of the existence of a house of commons. As for the law of parliament, it is only another name for the privilege in question: and since the power of creating new privileges has been formally renounced by both houses,—since there is no code in which we can study the law of parliament, we have but one way left to make ourselves acquainted with it;—that is, to compare the nature of the institution of a house of commons with the facts upon record. To establish a claim of privilege in either house, and to distinguish original right from usurpation, it must appear, that it is indispensably necessary for the performance of the duty they are employed in, and also that it has been uniformly allowed. From the first part of this description, it follows, clearly, that, whatever privilege does of right belong to the present house of commons, did equally belong to the first assembly of their predecessors, was so completely vested in them, and might have been exercised in the same extent. From the second we must infer, that privileges, which for several centuries were not only never allowed, but never even claimed by the house of commons, must be founded