all political offences, they are
competent to try them all. Another political body enjoys the right of
impeachment before the House of Lords: the only difference which exists
between the two countries in this respect is, that in England the
Commons may impeach whomsoever they please before the Lords, whilst in
France the Deputies can only employ this mode of prosecution against the
ministers of the Crown.

[Footnote a: [As it existed under the constitutional monarchy down to
1848.]]

In both countries the Upper House may make use of all the existing penal
laws of the nation to punish the delinquents.

In the United States, as well as in Europe, one branch of the
legislature is authorized to impeach and another to judge: the House
of Representatives arraigns the offender, and the Senate awards his
sentence. But the Senate can only try such persons as are brought before
it by the House of Representatives, and those persons must belong to the
class of public functionaries. Thus the jurisdiction of the Senate is
less extensive than that of the Peers of France, whilst the right of
impeachment by the Representatives is more general than that of the
Deputies. But the great difference which exists between Europe and
America is, that in Europe political tribunals are empowered to inflict
all the dispositions of the penal code, while in America, when they
have deprived the offender of his official rank, and have declared
him incapable of filling any political office for the future, their
jurisdiction terminates and that of the ordinary tribunals begins.

Suppose, for instance, that the President of the United States has
committed the crime of high treason; the House of Representatives
impeaches him, and the Senate degrades him; he must then be tried by
a jury, which alone can deprive him of his liberty or his life. This
accurately illustrates the subject we are treating. The political
jurisdiction which is established by the laws of Europe is intended to
try great offenders, whatever may be their birth, their rank, or their
powers in the State; and to this end all the privileges of the courts
of justice are temporarily extended to a great political assembly. The
legislator is then transformed into the magistrate; he is called upon
to admit, to distinguish, and to punish the offence; and as he exercises
all the authority of a judge, the law restricts him to the observance
of all the duties of that high office, and of all the f