with the procedure of all our other courts, should
not have the greatest authority over their practice in every trial
before _the whole body_ of the peerage.

The Earl of Nottingham, who acted as High Steward in one of these
commissions, certainly knew what he was saying. He gave no such reason.
His argument for the publicity of the Judges' opinions did not turn at
all on the nature of his court, or of his office in that court. It
rested on the equity of the principle, and on the fair dealing due to
the prisoner.

Lord Somers was in no such court; yet his declaration is full as strong.
He does not, indeed, argue the point, as the Earl of Nottingham did,
when he considered it as a new case. Lord Somers considers it as a
point quite settled, and no longer standing in need of being supported
by reason or precedent.

But it is a mistake that the precedents stated in this Report are wholly
drawn from proceedings in that kind of court. Only two are cited which
are furnished from a court constituted in the manner supposed. The rest
were in trials by all the peers, and not by a jury of peers with an High
Steward.

After long discussions with the Peers on this subject, "the Lords'
committees in a conference told them (the committee of this House,
appointed to a conference on the matter) that the High Steward is but
Speaker _pro tempore_, and giveth his vote as well as the other lords:
this changeth not the nature of the court. And the Lords declared, that
they have power enough to proceed to trial, though the King should not
name an High Steward." On the same day, "it is declared and ordered by
the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, that the
office of High Steward on trials of peers upon impeachments is not
necessary to the House of Peers, but that the Lords may proceed in such
trials, if an High Steward is not appointed according to their humble
desire."[26]

To put the matter out of all doubt, and to remove all jealousy on the
part of the Commons, the commission of the Lord High Steward was then
altered.

These rights, contended for by the Commons in their impeachments, and
admitted by the Peers, were asserted in the proceedings preparatory to
the trial of Lord Stafford, in which that long chain of uniform
precedents with regard to the publicity of the Judges' opinions in
trials begins.

For these last citations, and some of the remarks, your Committee are
indebted to the learned and upright Justic