treason, and asked them severally what they had to say why they should not be remanded to the Tower of London.  Thereupon they severally, upon their knees, prayed the benefit of the act, and that they might have their lives and liberty pursuant thereunto.  And the Attorney-General, who then attended for that purpose, declaring that he had no objection on his Majesty’s behalf to what was prayed, conceiving that those lords, not having made any escape since their conviction, were entitled to the benefit of the act, the House, after reading the clause in the act relating to that matter,[93] agreed that they should be allowed the benefit of the pardon, as to their lives and liberties, and discharged their recognizances, and gave them leave to depart without further day given for their appearance.  On the 6th of December following, the like proceedings were had, and the like orders made, in the case of Lord Nairn.[94]

I observe that the Lord Chancellor did not ask these lords what they had to say why execution should not be awarded.  There was, it is probable, some little delicacy as to that point.  But since the allowance of the benefit of the act, as to life and liberty, which was all that was prayed, was an effectual bar to any future imprisonment on that account, and also to execution, and might have been pleaded as such in any court whatsoever, the whole proceeding must be admitted to have been in a court having complete jurisdiction in the case, notwithstanding the High Steward’s commission had been long dissolved,—­which is all the use I intended to make of this case.

I will not recapitulate:  the cases I have cited, and the conclusions drawn from them, are brought into a very narrow compass.  I will only add, that it would sound extremely harsh to say, that a court of criminal jurisdiction, founded in immemorial usage, and held in judgment of law before the King himself, can in any event whatever be under an utter incapacity of proceeding to trial and judgment, either of condemnation or acquittal, the ultimate objects of every criminal proceeding, without certain supplemental powers derived from the Crown.

These cases, with the observations I have made on them, I hope sufficiently warrant the opinion of the Judges upon that part of the second question, in the case of the late Earl Ferrers, which I have already mentioned,—­and also what was advanced by the Lord Chief-Baron in his argument on that question,—­“That, though the office of High Steward should happen to determine before execution done according to the judgment, yet the Court of the Peers in Parliament, where that judgment was given, would subsist for all the purposes of justice during the sitting of the Parliament,” and consequently, that, in the case supposed by the question, that court might appoint a new day for the execution.

No.  II.

     Questions referred by the Lords to the Judges, in the Impeachment
     of Warren Hastings, Esquire, and the Answers of the
     Judges.—­Extracted from the Lords’ Journals and Minutes.