chap, ii.] WEST INDIES. 'i 97 
the colonial assemblies are sufficiently competent. 
With powers so extensive and efficient, these as¬ 
semblies must necessarily be sovereign and su~ 
{ of our constitution, as the house of commons does in that of our 
‘ mother-country ; here as in England, our representatives in assem- 
‘ bly are the grand inquest of our community ; they have the power, 
1 and it is their duty to inquire into the corruptions of office, the abu- 
4 ses of government, and the ill administration of justice, and for 
c that purpose it is that this body has here, as in our mother-country, 
£ ever enjoyed a superiority over all the courts of justice, and a pow- 
‘ er of examining their conduct; and all judges-, magistrates, and 
‘ public officers, have ever been amenable to the assembly, and their 
5 conduct liable to its inspection ; and here, as in England, we owe 
‘ it to the wholesome and frequent exertions of such a power in the 
‘ representative body of the people, that we are at this day a free peo- 
‘ pie; without it we can have no security or defence against the cor- 
* ruption of judges, and the abuses which may happen in every de- 
‘ partmentof administration. 
' It is against a most flagrant, unprovoked, and unprecedented at- 
‘ tack and violation which Mr. Lyttieton, our late chancellor, made 
‘ upon this indubitable right of the people, that we now resort to your 
‘ honour for redress. 
‘ In December 1764., Pierce Cooke and Lachlan M‘Neil, two men 
1 who had been committed by the assembly for breach of privilege, 
‘ and were in custody of Edward Bolt, the messenger of the house, by 
‘ virtue of the speaker’s warrant, did, in contempt of the power and 
1 jurisdiction of the house, apply in the first instance to Mr, Lyttieton 
* as chancellor, for Writs cf Habeas Corpus upon the statute of the 
‘ thirty-first of Charles the Second, and upon the return of the said 
* writs, he did, in a court of Chancery which he called for that pur- 
‘ pose, release the prisoners, and declare as follows : “ That it did 
“ n °t appear to him from the words cf any act of parliament, or of any 
“ act of the governor, council, and assembly of this island, or cf his 
