68            WISCONSIN      LEGISLATIVE     M1ANUAL .

  [The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their
services to be-acertained by law and paid out of the Treasury of the United
States. Constitution of the United States, Art. 1, Sec. 6.]
  [For the powers of Congress, see the following Articles and Sections of
the
Constitution of the United States. I,4,7, 8, 9. I1,1,2. 111,3. IV, 1, 3,5,
and all the amendments.]
                            SECTION III.
                              PRIVILEGE.
  The privileges of Members of Parliament, from small and obscure begin-
nings, have been advancing for centuries with a firm and never yielding
pace. Claims seem to have been brought forward from time to time, and re-
peated, till some example of their admission anabled them to build law on
that example. We can only, therefore, state the points of progression at
which they now are. It is now acknowledged, 1st. That they are at all times
exempted from question elsewhere for anything said in their own House; that
during the time of privilege, 2d. Neither a Member himself, his' wife, nor
his
servants, (familaries sui,) for any matter of their own, may be2 arrested
on
mesne process, in any civil suit: 3d. Nor be detained under execution, though
levied before time of privilege: 4th. Nor impleaded, cited or subpcenaed
in
any court: 5th. Nor summoned as a witness or juror: 6th. Nor may thelz
lands or goods be distrained: 7th. Nor their persons assaulted, or characters
traduced. And the period of time covered by privilege, before and after the
session, with the practice of short prorogations under the connivance of
the
Crown, amounts in fact to a perpetual protection against the course of justice.
In one instance, indeed, it has been relaxed by the 10 G. 3, c. 50, which
per-
mits judiciary proceedings to go on against them. That these privileges must
be continually progressive, seems to result from their rejecting all definition
of them; the doctrine being that "their dignity and independence are
pre-
served by keeping their privileges indefinite; ' and that the maxims upon
which they proceed, together with the method of proceeding, rest entirely
in
their own breast, and are not defined and ascertained by any particular stated
laws.' " 1 Blackst., 163, 164.
  [It was probably from this view of the encroaching character of privilege
that the framers of our constitution, in their care to provide that the law
shall
bind equally on all,and especially that those who make them shall not exempt
themselves from their operation, have only privileged'" Senators and
Repre-
sentatives'" themselves from the single act of" arrest In all cases
except trea-
son, felony and breach of the peace, during their attendance at the session
of
their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same, and
from
being questioned in any other place for any speech or debate in either House."
Const., U. S., Art. 1, Sec. 6. Under the general authority "to make
all laws
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers given them,"
Const. U. S., Art. 2, See, 8, thfey may provide by law the details which
may bh
    1 Order of House of Commons 1663, July 16.
    2 Elsynge, 217; 1 Hats., 21; Gray's Deb., 133.