s. He spoke much more to the expediency than to the legality
of the measure proposed."

On the other side, it was contended by several members, Burke and Mr.
Grenville being of the number, that "the House of Commons alone could
not make a law binding any body but themselves. That, if they could
disqualify one person, they could disqualify as many as they pleased,
and thus get into their own hands the whole power of the government;"
and precedents were produced to prove that votes of the House of Lords,
and also of the House of Commons, regarding their own members, had been
disregarded by the judges of the Court of King's Bench as being contrary
to law. But the minister was secure of the steadiness of his adherents,
and a majority of 221 to 152 declared that Mr. Luttrell had been duly
elected.

But Lord North was correct in his anticipation that their vote would not
put an end to the agitation on the question, and it was renewed in the
next session in a manner which at one time threatened to produce a
breach between the two Houses.

The "Parliamentary History" closes its report of the debate on the
resolution by which Mr. Luttrell was seated with a summary of the
arguments used in it, taken from the "Annual Register," which, as is
universally known, was at this time edited by Mr. Burke. It is a very
fair and candid abstract, which, in fact, puts the whole question on one
single issue, "that the House of Commons is the sole court of judicature
in all cases of election, and that this authority is derived from the
first principles of our government, viz., the necessary independence of
the three branches of the Legislature." But, though that doctrine was
fully admitted by the Opposition, they made "that very admission a
ground for reviving the question in the next session, by moving for a
resolution which should declare that, 'being a Court of Judicature, the
House of Commons, in deciding matters of election, was bound to judge
according to the law of the land, and the known and established law of
Parliament, which was part thereof.'" It was understood that this
resolution, if carried, was intended as a stepping-stone to others which
should condemn the decision of the previous session; yet it seemed such
a truism that even the ministers could not venture to deny it; but they
proposed to defeat the object of its framers by adding to it a
declaration that the late decision was "agreeable to the said law of the
land." And we