A question has been raised whether, as the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal, though sitting together, form two distinct estates of the realm, the concurrence of both is not requisite in any determina tion of this house, just as the consent of the two houses of Parliament Is necessary to every determination of parliament. But it is now understood that the Lords Spiritual and Lords Temporal are one body, whose joint will is to be collected by the gross majority of voices : and statutes have been made in the absence of all the Spiritual Lords.
The House of Lords has two distinct functions : the legislative and the judicial.
In its legislative character, every new law, and every change in the existing law, must have the consent of a majority of this house, as well as of a majority of the House of Commons.
In its judicial character, it is a court for the trial—I. Of criminal cases on impeachment by the House of Commons ; 2. Of peers, on indictments found by a grand jury ; 3. For the hearing and deter mining of appeals from decisions of the Court of Chancery : 4. For the hearing and determining of appeals on writs of error to reverse judg ments of the Court of Exchequer Chamber (which is itself a court of appeal from the courts of Common Law) ; and 5. In hearing and
determining appeals from the supreme courts in Ireland and Scotland. The House can require the attendance of the judges of the superior courts of law, to assist it in the discharge of its duties ; which is sometimes done.
A few points in which the House of Lords differs from the lower house of Parliament remain to be noticed. In the chair of the house sits the lord high chancellor of England. When the king goes to Parliament he takes the throne in the House of Lords, and the Commons are summoned to attend him there to receive the com munication of his will and pleasure. The royal assent to bills, whether given by the sovereign, in person, or by a commission appointed by the king or queen, is given in the House of Lords. All bills which affect the rights and dignities of the peerage must originate in that house. The members of the House of Lords have a right of voting on any measure before the house by proxy, but the proxy must be a member of the house ; and, lastly, they have the privilege of entering on the journals of the house their dissent from any measure which has received the sanction of the majority, with the reasons for that dissent. This is called their protest. For further information see PARLIAMENT.