of Parliamentary Law were then laid down. The Commons at that time
made new charges or amended the old as they saw occasion. Upon an
application from the Commons to the Lords, that the examinations taken
by their Lordships, at their request, might be delivered to them, for
the purpose of a more exact specification of the charge they had made,
on delivering the message of the Commons, Mr. Pym, amongst other things,
said, as it is entered in the Lords' Journals, "According to the clause
of reservation in the conclusion of their charge, they [the Commons]
will add to the charges, not to the matter in respect of comprehension,
extent, or kind, but only to reduce them to more particularities, that
the Earl of Strafford might answer with the more clearness and
expedition: _not that they are bound by this way of SPECIAL charge; and
therefore they have taken care in their House, upon protestation, that
this shall be no prejudice to bind them from proceeding in GENERAL in
other cases, and that they are not to be ruled by proceedings in other
courts, which protestation they have made for the preservation of the
power of Parliament; and they desire that the like care may be had in
your Lordships' House_."[5] This protestation is entered on the Lords'
Journals. Thus careful were the Commons that no exactness used by them
for a temporary accommodation, should become an example derogatory to
the larger rights of Parliamentary process.

At length the question of their being obliged to conform to any of the
rules below came to a formal judgment. In the trial of Dr. Sacheverell,
March 10th, 1709, the Lord Nottingham "desired their Lordships' opinion,
whether he might propose a question to the Judges _here_ [in Westminster
Hall]. Thereupon the Lords, being moved to adjourn, adjourned to the
House of Lords, and on debate," as appears by a note, "it was agreed
that the question should be proposed in Westminster Hall."[6]
Accordingly, when the Lords returned the same day into the Hall, the
question was put by Lord Nottingham, and stated to the Judges by the
Lord Chancellor: "Whether, by the _law of England_, and constant
practice in all prosecutions by _indictment and information_ for crimes
and misdemeanors by writing or speaking, the particular words supposed
to be written or spoken must not be expressly specified in the
indictment or information?" On this question the Judges, _seriatim_, and
in open court, delivered their opinion: the sub