If they obeyed the Queen's Bench, the House would imprison them
for breach of privilege. And the national feeling is always in favor of
the strictly defined authority of the courts of law, rather than of the
somewhat indefinite claims of Parliament to interpret, and even to make,
privilege. Another consideration, probably, weighed a little with the
champions of the House--that their power of imprisonment ended with the
session. As matters went on, it was found that even the Attorney and
Solicitor-general differed as to the course to be pursued; and
eventually Lord John Russell consented to adopt the advice which had
been given by a former Attorney-general, Sir F. Pollock, and to bring in
a bill to legalize all similar proceedings of Parliament in future, by
enacting that a certificate that the publication of any document had
been ordered by either House should be a sufficient defence against any
action. The introduction of such a bill was in some degree an
acknowledgment of defeat; but it can hardly be denied to have been not
only a judicious step, but the only one practicable, if the contest
between Parliament and the courts of law were not to be everlasting; and
it met with general approval. If it was a compromise, it was one that
satisfied both parties and both ends. It upheld the authority of the
courts of law, and at the same time it practically asserted the
reasonableness of the claim advanced by the House of Commons, by giving
it for the future the power which it had claimed.
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