trifling interruptions from their attendance on this important duty, but should, for a certain time, be excused from obeying any other call, not so immediately necessary for the great services of the nation: it has been therefore, upon these principles, always claimed and allowed, that the Members of both Houses should be, during their attendance in Parliament, exempted from several duties, and not considered as liable to some legal processes, to which other citizens, not intrusted with this most valuable franchise, are by law obliged to pay obedience[1].
What is the extent of these Privileges, and how long their duration, has been always uncertain, and frequently matter of dispute; nor are these points settled even at present, except in those particular instances where Acts of Parliament, or the Resolutions of either House of Parliament, have ascertained and defined them. The only method therefore, of knowing what are the Privileges of Members of the House of Commons, is to consult the Records of that House, and to search into the history of Parliament for those Cases, in which a Claim of Privilege has been made, and to examine whether it has been admitted or refused. For this purpose, as the Journals of the House of Commons are preserved no further back than from the first year of the reign of Edward VI. and even then are but concise and imperfect till the time of James I. I have found it necessary to look into the Rolls of Parliament, and into other Records; and having extracted every Case that has occurred to me in this search, I have here stated them at length, with such
- ↑ Sir Henry Spelman in his Glossary, under Title Gemotum, which he explains to be Conventus Publicus, cites a Law of King Canute, ch. 107. "Omnis Homo pacem habeat, eundo ad Gemotum, et redeundo a Gemoto." L. L.
