Peerage

Growth of the Lords.

The numbers of the House of Lords grew steadily throughout the Tudor period, and during the reign of the first two Stuarts underwent a still greater increase. In the Great Rebellion the majority of the peers were the king's stoutest supporters, and thus inevitably involved themselves in the ruin of the royal cause. Under Cromwell they disappeared as a legislative body and did not return to their ancient place until the restoration of Charles II.

From the reign of William of Orange the peerage has been freshened by a steady stream of men who, as a rule, have served their country as statesmen, judges, sailors and soldiers. By the Act of Union with Scotland (1707) the Scottish parliament was abolished ; but the Scottish peerage was given the privilege of electing, for each parliament of Great Britain, 16 of their number to represent them in the House of Lords. Further creations in the Scottish peerage were no longer to be made. The effect of this act was to leave the great majority of the Scottish peers outside the House of Lords, since only 16 of their number were to become lords of parliament. Close upon oo years later Ireland was united with Great Britain, the Irish parliament being merged in the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Twenty-eight Irish peers were to be elected for life by their order to represent it in the House of Lords. One archbishop and three bishops were also chosen in turn to represent the Irish Church in the House of Lords, but when that Church was disestablished in 1867 the spiritual lords lost their seats. The merger of the three kingdoms had an im portant effect on their peerages. Every peer, in his own country, had been a lord of parliament by hereditary right. The English peer (and, as the Acts of Union were passed, the peer of Great Britain and the peer of the United Kingdom) continued by hereditary right a lord of parliament. Although the Scottish and Irish peers lost this right by the two Acts of Union, they retained every other privilege of peerage. Henceforth they were to be lords of parliament only when their fellow peers elected them. The erection of southern Ireland into a self-governing dominion of the Crown has indirectly but definitely affected the status of the Irish peerage. This peerage belonged to the old united Ireland ; and cannot to-day arbitrarily be divided between its two halves. The Irish Free State Constitution Act, 1922, together with the machinery acts dependent thereon, has destroyed the procedure whereby Irish representative peers are elected ; whether intentionally or by accident is not known. Existing representative peers, having been elected for life, remain in the House of Lords, but no vacancies can henceforth be filled. The Irish peerage

will thus slowly diminish in numbers as existing peerages die out.

The modern meaning of the term peerage can now be more clearly defined. It will be noted that there have always been separate peerages of England, Ireland and Scotland. After the union of England with Scotland new creations became of the peerage of Great Britain, and after the union of Great Britain with Ireland : of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; and now, since the advent of the Irish Free State, probably we must speak of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland." Many members of the House of Lords hold peerages in several of these groups.

Several attempts have been made to limit the absolute rights of peers to a writ of summons, but this is a question which be longs rather to the history of the House of Lords as a legislative chamber. It will suffice here to note that in 1856 an attempt was made to create one of the judges a life peer, but the House, after long debate, rejected the writ, and a patent of customary form had to be followed. In 1876 legislation was passed creating two lords of appeal (with power to appoint two more) with a right to sit and vote during the holding of office. In 1887 further legislation conferred on all lords of appeal and ex-lords of appeal life peerages.

The Scottish Peerage.

The Scottish peerage, like that of England, owes its origin to feudalism. When the Scottish earls and barons came to parliament, they did not withdraw them selves from the rest of the people, it being the custom for the estates of Scotland to deliberate together, and this custom persisted until the abolition of their parliament by the Act of Union in 1707. The territorial spirit of the nobles inevitably led them to regard the honour as belonging to, and inseparable from, their land, and until comparatively late in Scottish history there is nowhere any record of the conferment of a personal dignity unattached to land such as that conferred in England on Beauchamp by Richard II. This explains the frequent surrenders and altered grants which are so common in Scottish peerage history, and which, in sharp distinction to the English rule of law, are there regarded as perfectly legal. To-day there exists no Scottish dukedom (except the royal dukedom of Rothesay), marquessate or viscounty created before the reign of James VI. of Scotland (and I. of England). Of the existing Scottish peer ages 63 were created in the period between James's accession to the English throne and the Act of Union. There are now only 87 in all.