Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/510

490 , however, and pretended to no jurisdiction in a question which was purely Parliamentary. Now that the field was won, a formal communication was made by the Lower House of their conduct, and the King expressed his emphatic approbation of every step which they had taken. The creditor, he said, had been properly punished for his presumption. It was not necessary, nevertheless, that he should lose his debt; and he commended the equity of the resolution which enabled him to recover it. On the general point of immunity from arrest, and of the position of the House of Commons under the constitution, he added these remarkable words:—

'I understand that you, not only for your own persons, but also for your necessary servants, even to your cooks and housekeepers, enjoy the said privilege; insomuch as my Lord Chancellor here present hath informed us that he, being Speaker of the Parliament, the cook of the Temple was arrested in London, and in execution upon a statute of the staple; and for so much as the said cook during all the Parliament served the Speaker in that office, he was taken out of execution by privilege of Parliament. And further, we be informed by our judges that we at no time stand so highly in our estate royal as in the time of the Parliament, wherein we as head and you as members are conjoined and knit together in one body politic, so as whatsoever offence or injury during that time is offered to the meanest member of the House, is to be judged as done against our person and the whole court of Parliament; which prerogative