 transgressing Magistrates, corrupt Judges and Justiciaries,
who sell, deny or delay Justice;
evil Counsellors
of the Crown, who attempt or devise the Subversion or Alteration of any Part of the Constitution; with all such overgrown Malefactors as are deemed above the Reach of inferior Courts, come under the particular Cognizance of the Commons, to be by them impeached, and presented for Trial at the Bar of the House of Lords. And these inquisitory and judicial Powers of the two Houses, from which no Man under the Crown can be exempted, are deemed a sufficient Allay and Counterpoise to the whole executive Power of the King, by his Ministers.
The legislative Department of the Power of the Commons is in all Respects coequal with that of the Peers. They frame any Bills at Pleasure for the Purposes of good Government. They exercise a Right, as the Lords also do, to propose and bring in Bills, for the Amendment or Repeal of old Laws, as well as for the Ordaining or Institution of new Ones. And each House, alike, hath a Negative on all Bills that are framed and passed by the Other.
But the capital, the incommunicable, Privilege of the House of Commons, arises from that holy Trust which their Constituents repose in them; whereby they are impowered to borrow from the People a small Portion of their Property, in order to restore it threefold, in the Advantages of Peace, equal Government, and the Encouragement of Trade, Industry, and the Manufactures.
To impart Any of this Trust would be a Breach of the Constitution: and even to abuse it would be a felonious Breach of common Honesty.
By this fundamental Trust and incommunicable Privilege, the Commons have the sole Power over the Money of the People; to grant, or deny, Aids, according, as they shall judge them either requisite, or unnecessary to the Public Service. Theirs is the Province, and theirs alone, to enquire and judge of the several Occasions for which such Aids may be required, and to measure and appropriate the Sums to their respective Uses. Theirs also is the sole Province of framing all Bills or Laws for the imposing of any Taxes, and of appointing the Means for levying the Same upon the People. Neither may the First or second Estate, either King or Peerage, propound or do any thing relating to these Matters, that may any Way interfere with the Proceedings of the Commons; save in their Negative or Assent to such Bills, when presented to them, without addition, deduction, or Alteration of any Kind.
After such-like Aids and Taxes have been levied and
