Page:Precedents of Proceedings in the House of Commons (4th ed, 1818, vol I).djvu/41

" or more than was, or at this day is, the Law of Parliament; for it is, that no Member of either House be arrested or detained in prison during the Parliament, saving in these three Cases. To be arrested, is to be taken by the officers, by process, or otherwise: To be detained in prison, is either to be detained after an arrest, or after a commitment from the bar of some court, which is never called an arrest, though in truth it be one. So that the Bill desired, not only that none should be arrested or detained upon any arrest, during the Parliament (which is the only Privilege supposed in the body of the Bill) but also, that none should be detained in prison during the Parliament; whereas there is no doubt, but that any of the House of Commons or their servants, or the servants of Lords, being detained in prison upon an execution, served upon them before the time of Privilege of Parliament, or being in execution, in any other ordinary course of justice, before that time, ought to be detained still, as it is practised at this day. And accordingly, also a fourth limitation is added to those three, in the 3lst Henry VI in Thorpe's Case, where Treason, Felony, Surety of the Peace, and Condempnation before the Parliament are the cases excepted; so that there being more asked by the Bill than the Privilege of Parliament allowed, there was reason enough why the King assented not to it." It is certainly impossible at present to determine precisely on what ground the King refused to grant this part of the petition: supposing the explanation given by the House of Lords to be the true one, it was by no means necessary to give a general negative to he whole of the prayer; the King's answer might in this, as it had done in many other cases, have qualitied the general words of the petition, and have enacted, "That persons intitled to Privilege should not be arrested, or detained in