UNIV. OF A TREATISE ON FEDERAL IMPEACHMENTS With an Appendix containing, inter alia, an abstract BY ALEX. SIMPSON, JR., LL.D. " OF THE PHILADELPHIA BAR 1916 WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE LAW ASSOCIATION OF PHILADELPHIA In the main the first sixty pages of this book were prepared by the writer as a brief in connection with the Archbald Impeachment Trial, without any idea that it would ever be published. The first great question discussed therein, viz., Can a public official be impeached for other than an indictable offence?, was not used at the trial because his colleagues and client deemed it unwise to concede that for other than criminal "misdemeanors" an impeachment would lie. That portion of the book which relates to the impressions gathered at that trial, and to the remedies which may be applied to avoid the unnecessary waste of time therein experienced, was written after the writer was requested to put the matter in form for publication. The book itself, aside from the Appendix, was published in the “University of Pennsylvania Law Review and American Law Register" for May and June, 1916. With the Appendix it is now published at the request of those who read those articles. The Appendix contains the only complete list of the English Impeachment Trials which has ever been published, so far as the writer is aware. It was made complete through the courtesy of Cuthbert Headlam, Esq., Secretary of the House of Lords, who sent to the writer typewritten copies of the articles of impeachment in a number of cases, as copied by or for him from the original records of that House. To him the writer is deeply indebted; as he is also to the Hon. Hampton L. Carson for permission to use his magnificent library of English Reports. It has been said that the subject of impeachments is one of too little practical importance to justify its publication. Of that each person will have to judge for himself. Perhaps to some one it will give pleasure. Perhaps it may relieve some one of a little labor in a future Federal Impeachment, if any there be. In either event it will have fulfilled the law of service and the writer will be content. August, 1916. Alex. Simpson, Jr: 639980 A Treatise ON Federal Impeachments. The writers on the judicial history of England disagree as to when the English impeachments began. Stephens in his "History of the Criminal Law of England" says1 that the first case was against David, the brother of Llewellyn in 1283. Pike in his "Constitutional History of the House of Lords' says 2 that it was against Richard Lyons, a merchant of London, in 1376. Hallam in his "Constitutional History of England" 3 and Anson in his "Law and Custom of the Constitution" 4 agree with Pike that it was in 1376, but say that it was against Lord Latimer. Perhaps each of these writers fixes too early a date, if the present method of impeachment is meant, for it is reasonably clear that there was no fixed or determinate method of procedure, until after the passage of the statute of 1 Henry IV, c. 14, in 1399. Before that date the King sometimes made the complaint in person or through his Attorney-General; sometimes it was made by members of the House of Commons or House of Lords; and sometimes it was made by outside officials more or less directly connected with the subject matter of the controversy. So also sometimes the trial was before the King alone;8 sometimes before the King and the House of Lords together;9 1 7 1 Page 146. Page 255. I Howells St. Tr. 54; 4 Ibid 83. 2 Ibid 1268. '4 Hatsell's Precedents, 67. I Howell's St. Tr. 40. 'I Howell's St. Tr. 126. |