Oil 
PARLIAMENT. 
treafon or felony, becaufe they are unfit to fit any-where: 
that fheriffs of counties, and mayors and bailiffs of bo¬ 
roughs, are not eligible in their refpeftive jurifdiftions, 
as being returning officers : that no perfons concerned in 
the management of any duties or taxes created fince 1692, 
except the commiffioners of the treafury; nor any of the 
officers following, viz. commiffioners of prizes, tranfports, 
fick and wounded, wine-licences, navy and viftualling ; 
fecretaries or receivers of prizes, comptrollers of the 
army-accounts, agents for regiments, governors of plan¬ 
tations and their deputies, officers of Minorca or Gi¬ 
braltar, officers of the excife and cuftoms, clerks or de¬ 
puties in the feveral offices of the treafury, exchequer, 
navy, victualling, admiralty, pay of the army or navy, 
fecretaries of date, fait, ftamps, appeals, wine-licences, 
hackney-coaches, hawkers and pedlars ; nor any perfons 
that hold any new office under the crown, created fince 
1705, are capable of being elected members. That no 
perfon having a penfion under the crown, during plea- 
fure or for any term of years, is capable of being elected, 
(“which,” fays' the Hyp-Doftor, Feb. 26, 1731, “was 
very modeftly telling the king, that thofe whom he 
judged his belt friends deferved to be turned out of the 
houfe;”) that, if any member accepts an office under 
the crown, except an officer in the army or navy accept¬ 
ing a new commiffion, he vacates his feat, but is capable 
of being re-elefted : and moreover, perfons in particu¬ 
lar circumftances have forfeited the right of choice, and 
have been declared ineligible for that parliament by a 
vote of the houfe of commons, or for ever by an aft of 
the legifiature. By 22 Geo. III. c. 45. contraftors are 
ineligible. It has been alfo required, in ftriftnefs, that 
all members fhould be inhabitants of the places for which 
they are cliofen ; but this is altogether difregarded and 
repealed by 14 Geo. III. c. 53. 
As for the method of proceeding in eleftions. When 
the parliament isfummor.ed, the lord-chancellor (or if a 
vacancy happens during parliament, the fpeaker, by or¬ 
der of the houfe) fends his warrant to the clerk of the 
crown in chancery; who iffues out writs to the fheriff of 
every county, for the eleftion of all the members to 
ferve for that county, and every city and borough in it. 
Within three days after the receipt of this writ, the ffie- 
riff is to fend his precept, under his feal, to the proper re¬ 
turning officers of the cities and boroughs, commanding 
them to eleft their members : and the faid returning 
officers are to proceed to eleftion within eight days from 
the receipt of the precept, giving four days’ notice of the 
fame; and to return the perfons cliofen, together with 
the precept, to the fheriff. But eleftions of knights of 
the ffiire muff be proceeded to by the ffieriffs themfelves 
in perfon, at the next county-court that (hall happen 
after the delivery of the writ. If this court falls upon 
the day of delivering the writ, or within fix days after, 
the (lieriff may adjourn the court and eleftion to fome 
other time, not longer than fixteen days, nor ffiorter 
than ten ; but he cannot alter the ufual place without 
confent of the candidates; and, in all fuch cafes, ten 
days’ public notice muff be given of the time and place of 
eleftion. In order to prevent all undue influence, as foon 
as the time and place of eledlion, in counties or boroughs, 
are fixed, all foldiers quartered in the place are to remove, 
at lealt one day before the eleftion, to the diftance of 
two miles or more, and not to return till one day after 
the poll is ended. By vote of the houfe of commons, no 
lord of parliament, or lord lieutenant of a county, hath 
any right to interfere in the eleftion of commoners; and 
by ftatute, the lord warden of the cinque ports (hall not 
recommend any members there. If any officer of the ex¬ 
cife, cultoms, ftamps, or other branches of the revenue, 
prefumes to intermeddle in eleftions, by perfuading or 
diffuading any voter, he forfeits 100I. and is difabled to 
hold any office. 
On the day of eleftion, the returning officer firft takes 
an oath againft bribery, and for the due execution of his 
office; the candidates, alfo, if required, muff fwear to 
their qualifications ; and the eleftors, both in counties 
and boroughs, are compellable to take the oath of abju¬ 
ration, and that againft bribery and corruption. When 
the eleftion is doled, the returning officer in boroughs 
returns his precept to the ftierift' with the perfons elefted 
by the majority : and the ffieriff returns the whole, toge¬ 
ther with the writ for the county, and the knights elefted, 
to the cierk of the crown in chancery, before the day of 
meeting, if it be a new parliament; or within fourteen 
days after the eleftion, if it be an occafional vacancy; 
under penalty of 500I. If the ffieriff does not return 
fuch knights only as are duly elefted, he forfeits, by 
the old ftatutes of Henry VI. 100I. and the returning 
officer in boroughs, for a like falfe return, 40I. and they 
are befides liable to an aftion, in which double damages 
(hall be recovered, by the later ftatutes of king William : 
and any perfon bribing the returning officer (hall alfo for¬ 
feit 300I. But the members returned by him are the fit¬ 
ting members, until the houfe of commons, upon petition, 
fliall adjudge the return to be fa lie and illegal. 
The lords andcommons in their refpeftive houfes have 
power of judicature, and fo have both houfes together: 
and in former times, both lords and commons fat together 
in one houfe of parliament. The king cannot take no¬ 
tice of any thing faid to be done in the houfe of commons, 
but by the report of the houfe ; and there is a refolution 
of the houfe, on the king’s taking notice of a bill in its 
paffage through the houfe, which they voted to be a high 
breach of the privilege of .parliament, and on which they 
alfo demanded a conference with the lords. This refolu- 
tion has not always been afted on, even in the prefent 
reign, though it (till remains on thejournals. 
As every court of juftice hath laws and cuftoms for its 
direftion, fome the civil and canon, fome the common law, 
others their own peculiar laws and cuftomsjfo the high court 
of parliament hath alfo its own peculiar law, called the lex 
et confuetudo parliamenti; a law which Coke obferves is ab 
omnibus queerenda, amultis ignorata, apauciscognita. It will 
not therefore be expefted that we fhould enter into the 
examination of this law with any degree of minutenefs; 
fince, as the fame learned author allures us, it is much 
better to be learned out of the rolls of parliament and 
other records, and by precedents and continual experi¬ 
ence, than can be expreffed by any one man. It will be 
fufficient to obferve, that the whole of the law and cuf- 
tom of parliament has its origin from this one maxim; 
“That whatever matter 3rifcs concerning either houfe of 
parliament, ought to be examined, dil'cuffed, and ad¬ 
judged, in that houfe to which it relates, and not elfe- 
where.” 4 Inf. 15. Hence, for inftance, the lords will 
not fuft'er die commons to interfere in fettling the eleftion 
of a peer of Scotland; the commons will notallow the 
lords to judge of the eleftion of a burgefs; nor will 
either houfe permit the fubordinate courts of law to ex¬ 
amine the merits of either cafe. But the maxims upon 
which they proceed, together with the method of pro-' 
ceeding, reft entirely in the bread; of the parliament it- 
felf; and are not defined and afcertained by any particular 
dated laws. 
The houfe of lords is a diftinft court from the com¬ 
mons, to feveral purpofes: they try criminal caufes on 
impeachments of the commons; and have an original ju- 
rifdiftion for the trial of peers, upon indiftments found 
by a grand jury : they alfo try caufes upon appeals from the 
court of chancery, or upon writs of error to reverfe j udg- 
ments in the K. B. &c. And all their decrees are as j udg¬ 
ments; and j udgments given in parliament may be executed 
by the lord chancellop. a.Inft.zi. Finch. 238. Alfo the 
houfe of commons is a diftinft court to many purpofes: they 
examine the right of eleftions, expel their own members, 
and commit them to prifon, and fometimes other per¬ 
fons, &c. And the book of the clerk of the houfe of 
commons is a record. 2 Injl. 536. 4 Inf. 23. The com¬ 
mons are the grand inqueft of the realm; to prefent pub- 
