By the National Constitution it is expressly provided that “_the judicial power_ of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish,”--thus positively excluding the Senate from any exercise of “the judicial power.” And yet this same Constitution provides that “the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments.” In the face of these plain texts it is impossible not to conclude, that, in trying impeachments, Senators exercise a function which is not regarded by the National Constitution as “judicial,” or, in other words, as subject to the ordinary conditions of judicial power. Call it senatorial or political, it is a power by itself, and subject to its own conditions. Nor can any adverse conclusion be drawn from the unauthorized designation of “court” which has been foisted into our proceedings. This term is very expansive, and sometimes very insignificant. In Europe it means the household of a prince. In Massachusetts it is still applied to the Legislature of the State, which is known as the General Court. If applied to the Senate, it must be interpreted by the National Constitution, and cannot be made in any respect a source of power or a constraint. It is difficult to understand how this term, which plays such a part in present pretensions, obtained its vogue. It does not appear in English impeachments, although there is reason for it there which is not found here. From ancient times, Parliament, including both Houses, has been called a court, and the House of Lords is known as a court of appeal. The judgment on English impeachments embraces not merely removal from office, as under the National Constitution, but also punishment; and yet it does not appear that the Lords sitting on impeachments are called a court. They are not so called in any of the cases, from the first, in 1330, entitled simply, “Impeachment of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, for Treason,” down to the last, in 1806, entitled, “Trial of the Right Honorable Henry Lord Viscount Melville, before the Lords’ House of Parliament in Westminster Hall, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors whereof he was accused in certain Articles of Impeachment.” In the historic case of Lord Bacon, we find, at the first stage, this title, “Proceedings in Parliament against Francis Bacon Lord Verulam,” and, after the impeachment was presented, the simple title, “Proceedings in the House of Lords.” Had this simplicity been followed among us, there would have been one source of misunderstanding the less.