Page:Letters of Junius, volume 2 (Woodfall, 1772).djvu/168

158 acquiesced under, is merely nominal) should be contracted within some certain limits; or, whether the subject shall be left at the mercy of a power, arbitrary upon the face of it, and notoriously under the direction of the crown.

not mean to decline the question of right; On the contrary, Sir, I join issue with the advocates for privilege, and affirm, that, "excepting the cases wherein the house of commons are a court of judicature [to which, from the nature of their office, a coercive power must belong] and excepting such contempts as immediately interrupt their proceedings, they have no legal authority to imprison any man for any supposed violation of privilege whatsoever."—It is not pretended that privilege, as now claimed, has ever been defined or confirmed by statute; neither can it be said, with any colour of truth, to be a part of the common