I have principally adverted to the powers exerted by the lower house of parliament, in punishing those guilty of violating their privileges. It will of course be understood that the Lords are at least equal in authority. In some respects indeed they have gone beyond. I do not mean that they would be supposed at present to have cognisance of any offence whatever, upon which the Commons could not animadvert. Notwithstanding what they claimed in the case of Floyd, the subsequent denial by the Commons, and abandonment by themselves, of any original jurisdiction, must stand in the way of their assuming such authority over misdemeanours, more extensively at least than the Commons, as has been shown, have in some instances exercised it. But, while the latter have, with very few exceptions, and none since the restoration, contented themselves with commitment during the session, the Lords have sometimes imposed fines, and, on some occasions in the reign of George II., as well as later, have adjudged parties to imprisonment for a certain time. In one instance, so late as that reign, they sentenced a man to the pillory; and this had been done several times before. The judgments however of earlier ages give far less credit to the jurisdiction than they take from it. Besides the ever memorable case of Floyd, one John Blount, about the same time (27th Nov. 1621), was sentenced by the Lords to imprisonment and hard labour in Bridewell during life.[395] _Privileges of the house not controllable by courts of law._--It may surprise those who have heard of the happy balance of the English constitution, of the responsibility of every man to the law, and of the security of the subject from all unlimited power, especially as to personal freedom, that this power of awarding punishment at discretion of the houses of parliament is generally reputed to be universal and uncontrollable. This indeed was by no means received at the time when the most violent usurpations under the name of privilege were first made; the power was questioned by the royalist party who became its victims, and, among others, by the gallant Welshman, Judge Jenkins, whom the long parliament had shut up in the Tower. But it has been several times brought into discussion before the ordinary tribunals; and the result has been, that if the power of parliament is not unlimited in right, there is at least no remedy provided against its excesses.