bstantiation,
and invocation of saints, and the sacrifice of the mass. To prevent
dangers that may arise to the kingdom from foreign attachments,
connexions, or dependencies, it is enacted by the 12 & 13 W. III. c.
2. that no alien, born out of the dominions of the crown of Great
Britain, even though he be naturalized, shall be capable of being a
member of either house of parliament.

[Footnote g: 4 Inst. 47.]

FARTHER: as every court of justice hath laws and customs for it's
direction, some the civil and canon, some the common law, others their
own peculiar laws and customs, so the high court of parliament hath
also it's own peculiar law, called the _lex et consuetudo
parliamenti_; a law which sir Edward Coke[h] observes, is "_ab omnibus
quaerenda, a multis ignorata, a paucis cognita_." It will not
therefore be expected that we should enter into the examination of
this law, with any degree of minuteness; since, as the same learned
author assures us[i], it is much better to be learned out of the rolls
of parliament, and other records, and by precedents, and continual
experience, than can be expressed by any one man. It will be
sufficient to observe, that the whole of the law and custom of
parliament has it's original from this one maxim; "that whatever
matter arises concerning either house of parliament, ought to be
examined, discussed, and adjudged in that house to which it relates,
and not elsewhere." Hence, for instance, the lords will not suffer
the commons to interfere in settling a claim of peerage; the commons
will not allow the lords to judge of the election of a burgess; nor
will either house permit the courts of law to examine the merits of
either case. But the maxims upon which they proceed, together with
their method of proceeding, rest entirely in the breast of the
parliament itself; and are not defined and ascertained by any
particular stated laws.

[Footnote h: 1 Inst. 11.]

[Footnote i: 4 Inst. 50.]

THE _privileges_ of parliament are likewise very large and indefinite;
which has occasioned an observation, that the principal privilege of
parliament consisted in this, that it's privileges were not certainly
known to any but the parliament itself. And therefore when in 31 Hen.
VI the house of lords propounded a question to the judges touching the
privilege of parliament, the chief justice, in the name of his
brethren, declared, "that they ought not to make answer to that
question; for it hath not b