LORD-LIEUTENANT. It was formerly usual for the crown, from time to time, to issue commissions of array, requiring certain ex perienced persons to muster and array the inhabitants of the counties to which such commissioners were sent. They were directed to put into military order these who were capable of performing military service, and to distrain such as were not qualified to serve, but were possessed of real or personal property, to furnish armour to their more vigorous countrymen ; and they were to erect beacons where necessary. The form of these commissions, after much complaint, was settled by statute, and may be seen at length in the Parliament-rolls of 5 Hen. IV., 1403-4.
In the 16th century these commissions appear to have given place to commissions of lieutenancy, by which nearly the same powers were conferred on certain persons as standing representatives of the crown. In 1545 a commission " do arraiatione et capitanco generali contra Frances" issued to the duke of Norfolk, constituting him the king's lieutenant, and captain-general of all captains, vice-captains, men-at arms, armed men, archers, and all others retained or to be retained against the French, in the counties of Eases, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertford, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln, Rutland, Warwick, Northampton, Leicester, and Bedford. A similar commission issued to the Duke of
Suffolk for the counties of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Haute, Wilts, Berke, Oxford, Middlesex, Bucks, Worcester, and Hereford, and London ; and to John Russell, knight, Lord Russell, keeper of the privy seal, for the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, and Gloucester. (Rymer.) These officers are however spoken of by Camden, in the reign of Elizabeth, as extraordinary magistrates, constituted only in times of difficulty and danger, which was the case with commissioners of array,'as appears from the recitals in their commission.
The right of the crown to issue commissions of lieutenancy was denied by the Long Parliament, and formed a proximate cause of the rupture between Charles I. and his subjects. Upon the Restoration the right of the crown to issue such commissions was established by a declaratory Act, 14 Charles H., cap. 3.
The authorities and duties of the lord-lieutenant and of his tem porary vice-lieutenants, and of his permanent deputy-lieutenants, have with reference to military affairs been regulated by the Militia Acts. Pl[favia.] The lord-lieutenant, however, nominates to the Lord Chancellor, all the justices of the peace for the county of which he is lieutenant.