FARTHER: as every court of justice hath laws and customs for it's direction, some the civil and canon, some the common law, others their own peculiar laws and customs, so the high court of parliament hath also it's own peculiar law, called the _lex et consuetudo parliamenti_; a law which sir Edward Coke[h] observes, is "_ab omnibus quaerenda, a multis ignorata, a paucis cognita_." It will not therefore be expected that we should enter into the examination of this law, with any degree of minuteness; since, as the same learned author assures us[i], it is much better to be learned out of the rolls of parliament, and other records, and by precedents, and continual experience, than can be expressed by any one man. It will be sufficient to observe, that the whole of the law and custom of parliament has it's original from this one maxim; "that whatever matter arises concerning either house of parliament, ought to be examined, discussed, and adjudged in that house to which it relates, and not elsewhere." Hence, for instance, the lords will not suffer the commons to interfere in settling a claim of peerage; the commons will not allow the lords to judge of the election of a burgess; nor will either house permit the courts of law to examine the merits of either case. But the maxims upon which they proceed, together with their method of proceeding, rest entirely in the breast of the parliament itself; and are not defined and ascertained by any particular stated laws. [Footnote h: 1 Inst. 11.] [Footnote i: 4 Inst. 50.]