In  the  time  of  Elizabeth  jurisdiction  over  appeals  from  the
King's  Bench  was  given  to  the  Exchequer  Chamber,  appeals
from  the  Common  Pleas  still  going,  ^s  at  first,  to  the  King's
Bench.  By  statutes  of  George  IV  and  William  IV  the  old
court  was  abolished  and  the  modern  court  of  Exchequer  Cham-
ber set  up  in  its  place  as  an  appellate  tribunal  over  all  three
of  the  superior  courts  of  common  law.  Its  judges  were  all  the
judges  of  the  three  superior  courts,  but  the  judges  of  any  court
did  not  sit  on  appeals  from  their  own  court,  so  that  practically
the  appellate  tribunal  for  each  of  the  three  courts  was  com-
posed of  the  judges  of  the  other  two.
187.  From  the  Exchequer  Chamber  an  appeal  lay  to  the '""lSST ^
House  of  Lords,  Domua  Procerum  (JDom.  Proc),  which  was  thus

the  highest  common  law  court  of  the  kingdom.  Appeals  from
the  courts  of  Scotland  and  Ireland  have  also  come  into  the
House  of  Lords  since  the  union  of  those  kingdoms  with  England.
Beside  the  ordinary  jurisdiction  of  the  House  of  Lords  as    ^J^JjJ*'
a  court    of  appeal,  it    sometimes  acts    as   a  court  of  original
jurisdiction  in  the  trial  of  impeachments.     An  impeachment  is
an  accusation  preferred  by  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  House

7  See  { 1099.
108  PUBLIC   LAW.
of  Lords  against  a  person  for  some  serioas  crime.  The  trial  is
before  the  House  of  Lords.  This  procedure  was  formerly
often  resorted  to  in  cases  of  treason  or  other  grave  crimes
against  the  King  or  the  state,  but  has  not  been  used  now  for  a
long  time.
