which the present house of commons came to in favour of Mr. Luttrell.
The ministry now begin to be ashamed of the weakness of their cause; and, as it usually happens with falsehood, are driven to the necessity of shifting their ground, and changing their whole defence. At first we were told that nothing could be clearer than that the proceedings of the house of commons were justified by the known law and uniform custom of parliament. But now it seems, if there be no law, the house of commons have a right to make one; and if there be no precedent, they have a right to create the first;—for this, I presume, is the amount of the questions proposed to Junius. If your correspondent had been at all versed in the law of parliament, or generally in the laws of this country, he would have seen that this defence is as weak and false as the former.
The privileges of either house of parliament, it is true, are indefinite, that is, they have not been described or laid down in any one code or declaration whatsoever; but, whenever a question of privilege has arisen, it has invariably been disputed or maintained
