PEERS OF THE REALM. This term is equivalent to Peers of Par liament, that is, those noblemen who have a seat in the House of Lords. The Realm,' that is, the Roiaume,' is the Kingdom of England. Scotland and Ireland have also their peers; but those who are simply peers of Scotland and Ireland are not Peers of the Realm, or Peers of Parliament, or Peers of the United Kingdom, for all these ex pressions are used to signify the same thing.
Without meaning to decide the ques tion whether the lords spiritual are strictly peers of the realm, the persons who fall under this description are the dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons [Dos.; &e.], and this without re femme to the accident of age: an earl, for instance, is a peer of the realm, though a minor, but he does not sit or vote in the House of Lords till he is twenty-one. Women may also he peeresses of the realm in their own right, as by creation, or as inheritors of baronies which descend to heirs general, but they have no seat or vote iu the house of lords. The wives of peers are peeresses.
On the remote origin of this order, and of the privileges belonging to it, especially that form of a house, in which, in concurrence with the spi ritual lords, they consider every pro posal for any change in the laws of the realm, and have an affirmative or a negative voice respecting it, and of being also the supreme court of judicature before whom appeal may be made from the judgment of nearly all inferior courts, great obscurity rests. The re ports of the committee of the house of peers, which sat during several par liaments about the years 1817, 1818, and 1819, on the dignity of a peer of the realm, contain a great amount of in formation on these topics, but leave un decided some of the greater and more important questions connected with it.
Every peer of the realm, being of full age and of sound mind, is entitled to take his seat in the house of peers, and to share in all the deliberations and determinations of that assembly. He
has privilege (perhaps not very distinctly defined) of access to the person of the king or queen regnant to advise con cerning any matter touching the affairs of the realm. If peers of the realm are charged with any treason, felony, mispri sion, or as accessories, they are not sub ject to the ordinary tribunals, but the i truth of the charge is examined by the peers themselves ; they cannot he ar rested in civil cases ; they give their affirmation on honour when they sit in judgment, and answer bills in chancery upon honour; but when examined as witnesses they must be sworn. Words; says Blackstone, (Book iii. c. 8) 'spoken in derogation of a peer, a judge, or other great officer of the realm, which are called scandalum magnatum, are held to be still more heinous ; and though they be such as would not be actionable in the ease of a private person, yet when spoken in disgrace of such high and respectable characters, they amount to an atrocious injury, which is redressed by an action on the case founded on many ancient statutes ; as well on behalf of the crown, to inflict the punishment of imprisonment on the slanderer, as on behalf of the party, to recover damages for the injury sus tained.' Peers are tried for misdemeanors in the same way as other people. The lords spiritual are also, in all cases, tried by the ordinary courts. Peeresses have the same privileges as peers, whether they are peeresses by birth, creation, or marriage ; but if a peeress by mar riage marry a commoner, she loses her privileges.
The crown may at its pleasure create a peer, that is, advance any person to any one of the five classes ; which is now done either by writ or patent. [Bettor; ;