CHAP. II.] WEST INDIES. 199 
that a people can be subject to two different legis¬ 
latures, exercising at the same time equal powers, 
yet not communicating with each other, nor from 
e and this power requires no act of parliament to confer it, it being 
* incident to the institution of every court of justice, and necessary 
1 for its existence, for it would be impossible to support any authority 
1 without it. 
* The courts of justice here, standing in the same degrees of subor- 
‘ dination to one another, as they respectively do in England ; com- 
‘ mitments by the inferior, may be, and frequently are, examined and 
‘determined by the superior courts; and as commitments by the 
‘ house of commons cannot be, nor ever were, discharged by any of 
» the inferior courts, so this extraordinary act of Mr. Lyttleton stands 
* in our country without a precedent, such a thing having never be- 
* fore his time been attempted. 
‘ The power of commitment by the house of commons is their’s by 
‘ the common law, as well as their privileges, of which they are the 
« only competent judges, for they judge of these matters by the law 
‘ and usage of parliament, which is part of the common law. 
< As all the inferior courts here enioy and exercise the same powers 
t with those they stand for in England, it is surely reasonable and just 
‘ that the representatives of the people here, called by the same autho- 
‘ rity, and constituted for the same ends, should also enjoy the same 
* powers with those of Great Britain. 
‘ We beg leave to represent further to your honour, that by the 
‘ thirty-first clause of an act of the governor, council, and assembly 
‘ of this island, intituled “ An act for granting a revenue to his ma- 
“ jesty, his heirs and successors, for the support of the government of 
C! this island, and for reviving and perpetuating the acts and laws 
“ thereof,” which has received the royal approbation, it is declared, 
“ That all such laws sjtd statutes of England as have beer, at any 
