arliament,
and as hereditary counsellors of the crown; both of which we have
before considered. And first we must observe, that in criminal cases,
a nobleman shall be tried by his peers. The great are always obnoxious
to popular envy: were they to be judged by the people, they might be
in danger from the prejudice of their judges; and would moreover be
deprived of the privilege of the meanest subjects, that of being tried
by their equals, which is secured to all the realm by _magna carta_,
c. 29. It is said, that this does not extend to bishops; who, though
they are lords of parliament, and sit there by virtue of their
baronies which they hold _jure ecclesiae_, yet are not ennobled in
blood, and consequently not peers with the nobility[s]. As to
peeresses, no provision was made for their trial when accused of
treason or felony, till after Eleanor dutchess of Gloucester, wife to
the lord protector, had been accused of treason and found guilty of
witchcraft, in an ecclesiastical synod, through the intrigues of
cardinal Beaufort. This very extraordinary trial gave occasion to a
special statute, 20 Hen. VI. c. 9. which enacts that peeresses either
in their own right, or by marriage, shall be tried before the same
judicature as peers of the realm. If a woman, noble in her own right,
marries a commoner, she still remains noble, and shall be tried by her
peers: but if she be only noble by marriage, then by a second
marriage, with a commoner, she loses her dignity; for as by marriage
it is gained, by marriage it is also lost. Yet if a duchess dowager
marries a baron, she continues a duchess still; for all the nobility
are _pares_, and therefore it is no degradation[t]. A peer, or peeress
(either in her own right or by marriage) cannot be arrested in civil
cases[u]: and they have also many peculiar privileges annexed to their
peerage in the course of judicial proceedings. A peer, sitting in
judgment, gives not his verdict upon oath, like an ordinary juryman,
but upon his honour[w]: he answers also to bills in chancery upon his
honour, and not upon his oath[x]; but, when he is examined as a
witness either in civil or criminal cases, he must be sworn[y]: for
the respect, which the law shews to the honour of a peer, does not
extend so far as to overturn a settled maxim, that _in judicio non
creditur nisi juratis_[z]. The honour of peers is however so highly
tendered by the law, that it is much more penal to spread false
reports of