PARLIAMENTARY LAW AND PRIVILEGES 117 however, was held to be subordinate to that of England till 1Y83, when its exclusive au- thority in matters of legislation and judicature for Ireland was formally admitted. Its brief independence and its existence, however, ter- minated in 1800 by the union of Ireland with Great Britain. III. FEENCH PAELIAMENTS. These bodies were supreme courts of law, and were established at successive periods in the principal cities of the kingdom. The most ancient and important was the parliament of Paris, the foundation of which is ascribed to Louis VII. about the middle of the 12th cen- tury. It was at first a court of justice which accompanied the king wherever he went, till Philip the Fair fixed it at Paris by an ordi- nance dated March 23, 1302. The other prin- cipal parliaments 'of France were instituted in the following order : Toulouse, 1302 ; Gre- noble, 1451 ; Bordeaux, 1462 ; Burgundy, 1497 (established in Dijon, 1494) ; Aix, 1501 ; Rouen, 1499 and 1515; Rennes, 1553; Pau, 1620; Metz, 1633 ; Besancon (at first at D61e), 1676 ; Douai (at first at Tournay), 1713. The chief officers of these bodies were a first president and nine presidents d mortier, as they were called from the shape of their caps. The parliaments received appeals from the lower tribunals, and had jurisdiction over causes re- lating to peers, bishops, seneschals, chapters, communities, and bailiwicks ; and they regis- tered the laws, edicts, and orders promulgated by the king. The members of these courts were at first appointed by the crown. Francis I. introduced the practice of selling seats in them, and they continued thenceforth to be objects of purchase. The parliament of Paris, which was at first merely judicial, gradual- ly assumed a considerable degree of political power. It frequently refused to register laws which it did not approve, and held spirited contests with the crown on some occasions. But the king had the right to compel it to register his decrees by appearing in person in the court and giving the order to register, a proceeding which, from some of the attendant forms, was called holding a bed of justice. The parliament of Paris played an important part in the troubles of the Fronde at the be- ginning of the reign of Louis XIV., and also in the latter part of the reign of his successor. It was finally suppressed, with all the other parliaments of France, by a decree of the con- stituent assembly, Sept. 7, 1790. PARLIAMENTARY LAW AND PRIVILEGES. In the gradual establishment of parliamentary government in England the customary meth- ods of doing business by the two houses have resulted in rules of procedure which constitute a common law of parliament, and are recog- nized and enforced as obligatory. These rules supplement the written laws of parliamentary procedure much as the general common law of the land supplements the general statutes. At the same time certain privileges necessary to the proper independence of the legislature and to the free and unobstructed discharge of legislative duties have also become established, which are defined by the same customary law, and evidenced by parliamentary precedents. Among the most important of these privileges is that of each house to judge of the election and qualification of its own members. The house of commons cannot therefore intermed- dle with questions concerning the election or qualification of Irish or Scotch peers, neither will it permit the house of lords to question its own action in the admission or rejection of those claiming seats therein. Until the acces- sion of the house of Stuart to the throne it was not very definitely settled what authority, if any, the executive had to prescribe the quali- fications of members to the lower house, or to judge of the' returns ; but James I. having un- dertaken by the writs issued for his first par- liament to exclude bankrupts and outlawed persons, the house insisted upon its own right in the premises as being ample and exclusive, and admitted Sir Francis Goodwin, who had been outlawed in civil proceedings, and whom for that reason the sheriff had refused to re- turn. Although the controversy with the king that sprung up in consequence was finally de- termined by a compromise, the case is regarded as having settled the right beyond dispute. Another privilege is that of the members to exemption from arrest or detention on the pro- cess of courts during attendance upon its ses- sions, and for a reasonable time before and after the session for going to and returning from the same. This privilege extends to all civil process including subpoenas ad testifican- dum, and to all criminal process except on charges of treason, felony, or breach of the peace. Another privilege is that of complete exemption of the members from being ques- tioned elsewhere for words uttered in debate or as members of committees in the discharge of their duties. This, like the last, is the priv- ilege not of the individual members alone, but of the house itself; and any violation of it, whether by means of judicial process or by lawless violence, may be punished as a con- tempt of the house. Each house has also a right to judge of its own privilege, and in general its decision must be final, though it is quite possible that parliament, like any judi- cial tribunal, even the highest, may so clearly exceed its jurisdiction that its process may be treated as a nullity. Such a case was ad- judged to have arisen a few years ago, when the house of commons proceeded to punish sheriffs as for contempt in executing the pro- cess of courts in a suit brought against its printer for an alleged libel. The libel was con- tained in a report made to the house, and that body insisted upon its right to cause its publi- cation, and to protect those who should make it in obedience to its order. The courts, how- ever, denied that the publication of a libel could be justified on the order of the house, and dis- charged the sheriff from custody ; but an act
