444 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



" In consequence of this order, 

 sir Francis Pemberton and sir Tho- 

 mas Jones, who had been two of 

 the Judges of the Court of King's- 

 bench, at the time when the judg- 

 ment was passed, were heard in 

 their defence; and afterwards 

 committed to the serjeant-at-arms, 

 for their breach of privileges of 

 this House, by giving judgment to 

 overrule the plea to the jurisdic- 

 tion of the court of King's-bench." 



Your committee think it proper 

 to state, That sir Francis Pember- 

 ton and sir Thomas Jones, in de- 

 fending tiiemselves at the bar of 

 this House for their conduct in 

 overruling the plea to their juris- 

 diction in the actions of Jay v. 

 Topham, &c. defended the judg- 

 ment they had given, by resting 

 ' upon the nature of the pleading, 

 and not by denying the jurisdic- 

 tion or authority of this House; 

 and sir Francis Pemberton ex- 

 pressly admitted, that for any 

 tiu'ng transacted in tiiis House, no 

 other court liad any jurisdiction 

 to hear and determine it. 



Your committee in the next 

 place think it expedient to state to 

 the House, that there are various 

 instances in which persons com- 

 mitted by the House of Commons 

 have been brought up by habeas 

 corpus before the judges and 

 courts of common law : and in 

 these cases, upon its appearing by 

 the return to the habeas corpus, 

 that they were committed under 

 the Speaker's warrant, they have 

 been invariably remanded. 



IH.Havingstatedtheseinstances 

 of themanner in which the acts and 

 commitments of this House have 

 been brought mto judgment in 

 ether courts, and the consequences 

 of such proceedings, your com- 



mittee further think it proper, and 

 in some degree connected with this 

 subject, to advert to the course 

 which was adopted forstayingpro- 

 ceeding in suits brought against 

 members and their servants, while 

 they were protectedfromsuch suits 

 during the sitting of parliament. 



The roll of parliament, eighth 

 of Edward H. affords the earliest 

 trace which your committee has 

 found upon this subject. It is a 

 writ from the king, confirmatory 

 of the privilege of being free from 

 suits in time of parliament, and is 

 in the following words: 



" Rex mandavit justiciariis suis 

 ad assisas, jurat. &c. capiend' as- 

 signat : quod supersedeant cap- 

 tioni corundum ubi comites baro- 

 nes et alii summonati ad pari, 

 regis sunt partes quamdiu diet 'm 

 parliamentum duraverit." 



There ^^ave been various modes 

 of proceeding to enforce this privi- 

 lege. In Dewe's Journal, p. 4S6, 

 thirty-first of Elizabeth, 158S— 

 1589, Friday, the 21st of Febru- 

 ary, your committee find the fol- 

 lowing entry : — " Upon a motion 

 made by Mr. Harris, that divers 

 members of thisHouse having writs 

 of nisi prius broughtagainst them, 

 to be tried at the assize in sundry 

 places of this realm, to be holden 

 and kept in the circuits of this pre- 

 sent vacation, and that writs of su- 

 persedeas might be awarded in 

 those cases in respect of the privi- 

 lege of this House due and apper- 

 taining to the members of the same ; 

 it is agreed, that those of this House 

 which shall have occasion torequire 

 such benefit of privilege in that be- 

 half, may repair untoMr. Speaker, 

 to declare unto him the state of 

 their cases, and that he, upon his 

 discretion (if the cases shall so re- 



