"'My lords, I submit whether this be not proper in _mitigation of your lordships' sentence_; but whether it be or not, I leave myself to your lordships' justice and mercy; I am sure neither of them will be wanting, and I entirely submit.' * * "Then the said earl, as also the managers, were directed to withdraw; and the House (of Lords) ordered Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, to be committed to the custody of the gentleman usher of the black rod; and then proceeded to the consideration of what _judgment_," (that is, _sentence_, for he had already been found _guilty_,) "to give upon the impeachment against the said earl." * * "The next day, the Commons, with their speaker, being present at the bar of the House (of Lords), * * the speaker of the House of Commons said as follows: "'My Lords, the knights, citizens, and burgesses in Parliament assembled, in the name of themselves, and of all the commons of Great Britain, did at this bar impeach Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, of high crimes and misdemeanors, and did exhibit articles of impeachment against him, and have made good their charge. I do, therefore, in the name of the knights, citizens, and burgesses, in Parliament assembled, and of all the commons of Great Britain, demand _judgment_ (_sentence_) of your lordships against Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, for the said high crimes and misdemeanors.' "Then the Lord Chief Justice King, Speaker of the House of Lords, said: 'Mr. Speaker, the Lords are now ready to proceed to judgment in the case by you mentioned. "'Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, the Lords have unanimously found you guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, charged on you by the impeachment of the House of Commons, and do now, according to law, proceed to _judgment_ against you, which I am ordered to pronounce. Their lordships' _judgment_ is, and this high court doth adjudge, that you, Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield, be fined in the sum of thirty thousand pounds unto our sovereign lord the king; and that you shall be imprisoned in the tower of London, and there kept in safe custody, until you shall pay the said fine.'"--_6 Hargrave's State Trials_, 762-3-4. This case shows that the principle of Magna Carta, that a man should be _sentenced only_ by his peers, was in force, and acted upon as law, in England, so lately as 1725, (five hundred years after Magna Carta,) so far as it applied to a _peer of the realm_. But the same principle, on this point, that applies to a peer of the realm, applies to every freeman. The only difference between the two is, that the peers of the realm have had influence enough to preserve their constitutional rights; while the constitutional rights of the people have been trampled upon and rendered obsolete by the usurpation and corruption of the government and the courts. SECTION V. _The Oaths of Judges._