Excerpt from The Standard Library Cyclopaedia of Political, Constitutional, Statistical and Forensic Knowledge, Vol. 4 of 4 In eaking of this proceeding, Lord Ellenborough expressed his surprise that a judge should have been questioned for having given a judgment which no other judge who ever sat in his place could have differed from. In the case of Ashby and White so often referred to, the commons declared that whoever shall presume to commence any action, and all attorneys, solicitors, counsellors, and serjeants-at-law soliciting, prosecuting, or pleading in any case, are guilty of a high breach of the privileges of this house. The effect of this resolution, if obeyed, would be to prevent the courts from coming to any decision at all upon matters of privilege, as an action would be stopped at its commencement; but the principle has not been adhered to. When Sir Francis Burdett brought actions against the Speaker and the serjeant-at-arms, in 1810, for taking him to the Tower...