Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/180

privileges of the high court of parliament; for it is ſo high and mighty in his nature, that it may make law; and that which is law, it may make no law; and the determination and knowlege of that privilege belongs to the lords of parliament, and not to the juſtices^[1].” Privilege of parliament was principally eſtabliſhed, in order to protect it’s members not only from being moleſted by their fellow-ſubjects, but alſo more eſpecially from being oppreſſed by the power of the crown. If therefore all the privileges of parliament were once to be ſet down and aſcertained, and no privilege to be allowed but what was ſo defined and determined, it were eaſy for the executive power to deviſe ſome new caſe, not within the line of privilege, and under pretence thereof to haraſs any refractory member and violate the freedom of parliament. The dignity and independence of the two houſes are therefore in great meaſure preſerved by keeping their privileges indefinite. Some however of the more notorious privileges of the members of either houſe are, privilege of ſpeech, of perſon, of their domeſtics, and of their lands and goods. As to the firſt, privilege of ſpeech, it is declared by the ſtatute 1 W. & M. ſt. 2. c. 2. as one of the liberties of the people, “that the freedom of ſpeech, and debates, and proceedings in parliament, ought not to be impeached or queſtioned in any court or place out of parliament.” And this freedom of ſpeech is particularly demanded of the king in perſon, by the ſpeaker of the houſe of commons, at the opening of every new parliament. So likewiſe are the other privileges, of perſon, ſervants, lands and goods; which are immunities as antient as Edward the confeſſor, in whoſe laws^[2] we find this precept, “ad ſynodos venientibus, ſive ſummoniti ſint, ſive per ſe quid agendum habuerint, ſit ſumma pax:” and ſo too, in the old Gothic conſtitutions, “extenditur haec pax et ſecuritas ad quatuordecim dies, convocato regni ſenatu^[3].” This includes not only privilege from illegal violence, but alſo from legal arreſts, and ſeiſures by proceſs from the courts of law. To aſſault by violence a member of either

1. Seld. baronage. part. 1. c. 4.
2. cap. 3.
3. Stiernh. de jure Goth. l. 3. c. 3.

houſe,