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Chapter I. changes may have been effected in the nature of their tenure. In 1847, however, on the creation of the bishopric of Manchester, it was enacted that the number of bishops sitting in Parliament should not be increased in consequence, and similar provisions have been introduced into later Acts by which other bishoprics have been created.1

Places of

bishops and

house, see

p. 177.

The bishops now having seats in Parliament are the two peers in the archbishops (of Canterbury and York) and twenty-four of 2 the English bishops. Whenever any one of the sees of Canterbury, York, London, Durham, or Winchester becomes void, the vacancy in the House of Lords is supplied by the issue of a writ of summons to the bishop elected to the see; and a similar writ is issued to any bishop already sitting in the House of Lords who is translated to another see. If a vacancy among the bishops sitting in Parliament is caused by the avoidance of any other see than the five already mentioned, such vacancy is supplied "by the issue of a writ of summons to that bishop of a see in England who, having been longest bishop of a see in England, has not previously become entitled to such writ." A bishop may, under the Bishops' Resignation Act, 1869, resign his see, and therewith his seat in the House of Lords, when the vacancy is filled up in the same manner as if he were dead.1 Provision is also made by this statute for the appointment of a coadjutor bishop to administer the diocese of any archbishop or bishop incapacitated by permanent mental infirmity." This appointment gives the coadjutor bishop no title to a seat in the upper house, but it confers on him a right of succession to the see, unless it be one of the five sees above named, in which case the right is reserved to the Crown, on the death of the archbishop or bishop who has been incapacitated, to fill the vacancy

110 & 11 Vict. c. 108, s. 2; St. Albans, 1875 (38 & 39 Vict. c. 34); Truro, 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. 54); Liverpool, Newcastle, Southwell, and Wakefield, 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 68, s. 5); Bristol, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 66); Southwark and Birmingham, 1904 (4 Edw. VII. c. 30).

The Bishop of Sodor and Man has no seat in Parliament. A former bishop, Lord Auckland, sat as a peer amongst the barons.

3 41 & 42 Vict. c. 68, s. 5.
+ 32 & 33 Vict. c. 111, s. 2.
s Ib. ss. 4, 12.

2. Lords temporal.

Dukes.

Mar

quesses.

Earls.

by the translation of another bishop; but such translation Chapter I.
or translations must be so effected as to leave vacant an
archbishopric or bishopric to which the coadjutor bishop
is then entitled to succeed.1

p. 667.

2. The lords temporal are divided into dukes, marquesses, Trial of earls, viscounts, and barons, whose titles are of different peers, see degrees of antiquity and honour. The title of duke, though first in rank, and a feudal title of high dignity in all parts of Europe in early times, is not the most ancient in this country. The title was first conferred, after the Conquest, by Edward III., upon his son Edward the Black Prince, whom he created Duke of Cornwall.2

Marquesses were originally lords of the marches or borders, and derived their title from that office, which was anciently enjoyed without being attached to any distinct dignity in the peerage. The noblemen who governed the provinces on the borders of Wales and Scotland were called marchiones, and claimed certain privileges by virtue of their office: but the earliest creation of marquess, as a title of honour, was in the ninth year of Richard II. Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was then created Marquess of Dublin for life; and the rank assigned to him in Parliament, by right of this new dignity, was immediately after the dukes, and before the earls.3

The title of Earl, in England, is equivalent to that of the Roman comes, or count in other countries of Europe. Amongst the Saxons there were ealdormen, to whom the civil, military, and judicial administration of shires was committed; and that title was often used by writers indifferently with comes, on account of the similarity of character and dignity denoted by those names. When the Danes had gained ascendency in England, the ancient Danish title of corle which signified "noble by birth," and was also

1 32 & 33 Vict. c. 111, s. 13.

2 Selden, Tit. of Hon. part 2, s. 9, 29, &c.

3 Selden, Tit. of Hon. part 2, s. 47; 3 Rot. Parl. 488.

West, Inquiry into the Manner

4

of creating Peers, 3. 4; Spelman on
Feuds and Tenures, 13; Rep. on
Dignity of the Peerage, 1820, 17;
Kemble, Saxons, ii. 131-150; Pal-
grave, Engl. Com. 592, et seq.

Chapter I. used to indicate a similar dignity, was gradually substituted

for that of ealdorman. At the Norman Conquest the title
of eorle, or earl, was in universal use, and was so high a
dignity, that in the earliest charters of William the Con-
queror, he styles himself, in Latin, "Princeps Norman-
norum," and in Saxon, Eorle or Earl of Normandy. After
the Conquest, the Norman name of count distinguished the
noblemen who enjoyed this dignity, from whence the shires
committed to their charge have ever since been called
counties.1 In the course of time the original title of earl
was revived: but their wives, and peeresses of that rank in
their own right, have always retained the French or Norman
name of countesses.

Between the dignities of earl and baron no rank inter- Viscounts.
vened, in England, until the reign of Henry VI.: but in
France the title of viscount, as subordinate of that of count,
was very ancient. In England, the title of viscount was
first conferred upon John Beaumont, Viscount Beaumont,
by Henry VI., in the eighteenth year of his reign; and a
place was assigned to him in Parliament above the barons.2
The rank and precedence of a viscount were more distinctly
defined by patent, in the 23rd Henry VI., to be above the
heirs and sons of earls, and immediately after the earls
themselves.

Barons are often mentioned in the councils of the Saxon Barons. kings, and in the laws of Edward the Confessor were classed with the archbishops, bishops, and earls: but the name bore different significations, and no distinct dignity was annexed to it, as in later times. After the Conquest, every dignity was attached to the possession of lands, which were held immediately of the king, subject to feudal services. The lands which were granted by William the Conqueror to his followers descended to their posterity; and those who held lands of the Crown per baroniam were ennobled by the dignity of baron. By the feudal system, every tenant was

1 Palgrave, Engl. Com. 11. 118. 326. 327; Kemble, Saxons in England, ii. 132; 2 Hallam, Middle Ages, 65, 9th ed.; Selden, Tit. of

Hon. part 2, s. 2; Rep. on Dignity
of the Peerage, 86.

2 Selden, Tit. of Hon. part 2, ss.
19. 30.

Represen

of Scotland.

bound to attend the court of his immediate superior; and Chapter
hence it was the duty of the barons, as tenants in capite of
the king, to attend the king's court or council: but although
their obligation to attend the king's council was one of the
services incident to their tenure, they received writs of
summons from the king when their attendance was required.
At length, when the lands became subdivided, and the
tenants per baroniam were consequently more numerous and
poor, some of them only were summoned by writ, and thus
they were gradually separated into greater and lesser
barons of whom the former continued to receive particular
writs of summons from the king, and the latter a general
summons only through the sheriffs. The feudal tenure of
the baronies afterwards became unnecessary to create the
dignity of a baron, and the king's writ or patent, and
occasionally an Act of Parliament, or creation "in pleno
Parliamento," conferred the dignity and the seat in Parlia-
ment. The condition of the lesser barons, after their
separation from their more powerful brethren, will be pre-
sently explained (see p. 16).

represe

of Scot

of peer

On the union of Scotland, in 1707, the Scottish peers Positio tative peers were not admitted, as a class, to seats in the British peers a Parliament: but, in pursuance of the provisions of several tire pe statutes, they elect for each Parliament sixteen repre- at the sentatives from their own body.2 The representative peers see p. of Scotland enjoy all the privileges of Parliament, including the right of sitting upon the trials of peers; and all peers of Scotland are peers of Great Britain, and have rank and precedency immediately after the peers of the like orders and degrees in England, at the time of the union, and before all peers of Great Britain of the like orders and degrees created since the union, and are to be tried as peers, and enjoy all privileges as peers, except the right

13 Selden, Works, 713-743; West,
Inquiry into the Manner of creating
Peers, 6. 14. 30. 31. 36. 70. 71; 3 Rep.
Dign. of Peerage, 97, &c.; 2 Hallam,
Middle Ages, 261.

Act of Union, 5 & 6 Ann. c. 8,

art. xxii. & xxiii.; Act of the Par-
liament of Scotland, 5 Ann. c. 8; 6
Ann. c. 23; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 52;
14 & 15 Vict. c. 87; 15 & 16 Vict.
c. 35.

Chapter I. of sitting in Parliament, or upon the trials of peers. The Scottish peerage consists exclusively of the descendants of peers before the union, as no provision was made for any subsequent creation of Scottish peers by the Crown. An authentic list of the peerage was entered in the roll of peers, by order of the House of Lords, on the 12th February, 1708, to which other peerages have since been added by order of that house, when claims have been established; and in order to prevent the assumption of dormant and extinct peerages, it is provided, by 10 & 11 Vict. c. 52, that no title standing in that roll, in right of which no vote has been given since 1800, shall be called over at an election, without an order of the House of Lords. The House of Lords, when they have disallowed any claim, may also order that such title shall not be called over at any future election. The Act of Union provides that "in case of the death or legal incapacity" of any one of the representative peers of Scotland, the peers of Scotland shall nominate another of their own number in his place, but it would seem that a vacancy among the representative peers is not caused when one of them is created a peer of the United Kingdom.2

Position of pcers of Ireland at

Ireland.

Under the Act for the legislative union with Ireland, And which came into operation in 1801, the Irish peers elect twenty-eight representatives for life from the peerage of see p. 670. Ireland. By that Act, the power of the King to add to

the trial

of peers,

1 Act of Union, 5 Ann. c. 8, art. xxiii.

Act of Union, 5 & 6 Ann. c. 8, art. xxv. The modern practice when either a Scotch or Irish representative peer is created a peer of the United Kingdom is as stated in the text. The Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, a representative peer of Scotland, created a baron of the United Kingdom with the title of Lord Bowes during the Parliament of 1886-92, sat throughout the Parliament as baron, and as representative peer of Scotland. Similarly the Earl de Montalt, an Irish repre

In

sentative peer who was created a peer
of the United Kingdom in 1886
with the title of Viscount Hawarden,
continued a representative peer of
Ireland until his death in 1905.
the case of the Duke of Queensbury
and the Earl of Abercorn, created
peers of the United Kingdom (13th
Feb. 1787), the Lords resolved that
they therefore ceased to sit as Scotch
representative peers, 26 Parl. Hist.
597; 37 L. J. 594.

By the 45 & 46 Vict. c. 26, the
period from the teste of the writs
to the return was reduced from fifty-
two days to thirty days.

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