y were to act for this House, and into its laws
and rules of proceeding, as well as into the rights and powers of the
House of Commons in their impeachments.

RELATION OF THE JUDGES, ETC., TO THE COURT OF PARLIAMENT.

Upon examining into the course of proceeding in the House of Lords, and
into the relation which exists between the Peers, on the one hand, and
their attendants and assistants, the Judges of the Realm, Barons of the
Exchequer of the Coif, the King's learned counsel, and the Civilians
Masters of the Chancery, on the other, it appears to your Committee that
these Judges, and other persons learned in the Common and Civil Laws,
are no integrant and necessary part of that court. Their writs of
summons are essentially different; and it does not appear that they or
any of them have, or of right ought to have, a deliberative voice,
either actually or virtually, in the judgments given in the High Court
of Parliament. Their attendance in that court is solely ministerial; and
their answers to questions put to them are not to be regarded as
declaratory of the Law of Parliament, but are merely consultory
responses, in order to furnish such matter (to be submitted to the
judgment of the Peers) as may be useful in reasoning by analogy, so far
as the nature of the rules in the respective courts of the learned
persons consulted shall appear to the House to be applicable to the
nature and circumstances of the case before them, and no otherwise.[1]

JURISDICTION OF THE LORDS.

Your Committee finds, that, in all impeachments of the Commons of Great
Britain for high crimes and misdemeanors before the Peers in the High
Court of Parliament, the Peers are not triers or jurors only, but, by
the ancient laws and constitution of this kingdom, known by constant
usage, are judges both of law and fact; and we conceive that the Lords
are bound not to act in such a manner as to give rise to an opinion that
they have virtually submitted to a division of their legal powers, or
that, putting themselves into the situation of mere triers or jurors,
they may suffer the evidence in the cause to be produced or not produced
before them, according to the discretion of the judges of the inferior
courts.

LAW OF PARLIAMENT.

Your Committee finds that the Lords, in matter of appeal or impeachment
in Parliament, are not of right obliged to proceed according to the
course or rules of the Roman Civil Law, or by those of the law or usage
of a