triers nominated, and the quorum of five appointed, with the names of the judges, and other particulars, according to the regulations of that act of parliament, I cannot but think that causes were tried by this delegated power in early times.

"On the 4th of June one thousand fix hundred and twenty-one I find committees first named for trying caufes; and the earl of Bridgewater reports at length the rules of their proceedings, which were agreed to by the house; and the powers given to thefe committees to fend for papers, records, &c. from any court.

"In the reign of James the firft an appeal from a decree in the court of chancery was heard before lords committees; their decifion and the execution thereof were refifted by the lord keeper, the bishop of Lincoln, and he refused to obey their order; but their powers upon a reference were ftrengthened by the house, and the lord keeper, after fome difficulty, was obliged to acquiefce.

This was the first appeal, my lords, from the court of chancery; but it is ftill more cele brated as an appeal from a decree of that brightest name in the walks of fcience, but degraded character in the records of the law, lord Bacon; because the proceedings against him were ordered

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by the lords to be extracted from their journals, and depofited among the archives of the court. of chancery, as a perpetual memorial of his corruption and punishment.

"I have many other inftances upon my notes, of the proceedings of thofe committees, but will not trouble your lordships with unneceffary proofs; the laft inftance was the 2d of January one thousand fix hundred and feventy-three,' where it was entered, That the committee to which Skinner against the East-India Company was referred, be revived.

"That it was the practice to refer causes to committees after the Reftoration, appears from this extract, and from a fpeech of the chancellor lord Shaftesbury; which not only tends to prove what I affert, but also the custom of morning and evening fittings in the convivial days of the fecond Charles.

"Lord Shaftesbury, in a speech in one thoufand fix hundred and feventy-five, fays, " I have "heard of twenty foolish models and expedients "to fecure the juftice of the nation, and to "take this right from your lordships; (I must "deal freely with your lordships;) these thoughts "never could have arifen in men's minds, but "that there has been fome kind of provocation "that has given the first rise to it.

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"Pray,

"Pray, my lords, forgive me on this occafion : "I put you in mind of committee dinners, and "the scandal of them, and thofe droves of ladies "that attended all caufes; it was come to that pass, "that men even hired or borrowed their handsome "wives or daughters to deliver their petitions."

"The application that I fhall make of this principle, my lords, is, that in early times fuch a practice might have obtained; that the lords might have reheard what was decided by a delegation, or by a committee, for the fame reason, that in England decrees made by the master of the rolls are reheard by the chancellor : and this principle of rehearing was explained to us by the noble prefident of this affembly in his able and neceffary amendments to a late ecclefiaftical bill, when he informed us of the rules and practice of his court, and prescribed, that the report of a master under that act, fhould be fubjected to the revifion of the chancellor, from whom his power was derived. But as no inftance of fuch a delegated power to a committee from the lords of England occurs in this century, and never obtained in this house, the doctrine can no longer operate when the house hears caufes in its own capacity, and as the high court of parliament.

"The next principle will, I hope, explain the true value and meaning of the fixtieth ftand

ing order: every one knows that all legislative matters die upon a prorogation or diffolution; but the rule is the reverfe in judicial proceedings, which are transmitted from one feffion to another, and taken up where they are left off. I affert therefore, that if this house had heard two counfel this day, or all the counsel in a cause, and if the parliament should be prorogued or diffolved this night, they would proceed to hear the rest, or debate upon their judgment, at the precise stage where the cause was interrupted.

"This I affert; but the affertion may be proved by a reference to a report of the lords in England. on the 29th of March one thousand fix hundred and seventy-three, where this doctrine is laid down upon a long and uniform detail of the precedents from the earliest times. Let us now, my lords, advert to the order itself, as it stands in the English journals, on the 14th of February one thoufand fix hundred and ninety-four. The order says, "That petitions for rehearing, which have been heard in the whole or in part, fhall lie upon the table, and a day be appointed for taking them into confideration." Had it faid, " Causes which have been decided in this houfe," the conftruction adopted by the noble viscount would have been manifeft; but a preceding cause, which was handed over from the foregoing feffion, and VOL. II. which

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which was then depending, clearly fhews that it had a reference to beginning the cause, and hearing the counsel again; for which purpose petitions had probably been presented.

"Before I conclude, I must differ from a learned lord in his affertion, that no fuch proceeding appears in the English or Irish Journals; fince I can produce two inftances of rehearing causes, one in England, the other in Ireland; but both of them are fuch dangerous precedents, fo irregular, and of fo violent a tendency, that I trust no reference will be made to them with a defign to draw them into examples.

"The firft inftance to which I allude is that of the Irish chancellor Loftus.

"Lord Strafford had made a violent decree against him at the council-board, had fequeftered the great feal, and imprisoned him, for disobedience to this decree; which forms an article of his impeachment. Upon an appeal to the lords of England in one thousand six hundred and fortytwo, that decree was reverfed; but thirty-three years afterwards, in one thoufand fix hundred and feventy-five, the cause was reheard upon petition. After much debate, and a strong proteft against it, with many names annexed, the cause

*The chief juftice lord Clonmell.