Page:The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the British Empire Part 1.djvu/39

INTRODUCTION.

The Peerage is composed of Lords Spiritual and Temporal. The former comprise the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, and twenty-one other English bishops, who take rank according to seniority. Owing to recent additions to the number of bishops, the three junior bishops have no seat in the House of Lords. The Bishop of Sodor and Man is not a member of the House; nor are the Suifragan Bishops Spiritual Peers. The temporal lords consist of the peers of England, of Great Britain, and of the United Kingdom, who by virtue of their peerage have a seat and vote in that House, and of the Scotch and Irish peers, who, while they have no seat, have each a vote in the election of the representative peers for those kingdoms. Sixteen peers are thus elected to represent Scotland during each Parliament, and Ireland is represented by twenty-eight peers whose election is for life. It is noteworthy that Irish peers may be Members of the House of Commons, but not as representatives of an Irish constituency, while a peer of Scotland cannot be elected a Member of the Lower House for any constituency whatever.

At the commencement of a new Parliament every peer entitled to a seat, except the representative peers of Scotland, receives a writ of summons, and all are required to subscribe the Oath prescribed by statute. Those who have already sat in their present rank, or who have a right to sit by descent, take their place without any prescribed ceremony. Those who have received a patent conferring a new peerage or a higher rank require a formal introduction.

The following is the ceremony observed on the admission of a peer into the House of Lords, or on his elevation to a higher rank in the peerage. The House being seated, and the Lord Chancellor on the Woolsack, Garter King of Arms, or some herald in his place, attired in his tabard and bareheaded, proceeds into the House of Lords bearing the patent (should there be one) and writ of summons of the peer to be introduced, who follows between two peers of his own rank, attired in their robes of estate, by whom he is presented to the Lord Chancellor, to whom he makes obeisance; Garter then presents the patent and writ of summons to the Lord Chancellor who directs them to be read; this being done, the oaths are administered to the new peer, and the Chancellor dismisses him to take his seat, accompanied by the two noblemen who introduced him, Garter leading the way. The writ is then delivered by the Lord Chancellor to the clerk of the House. A new bishop is introduced in similar fashion by two spiritual peers, but without the presence of a herald.

Peers are privileged from arrest on civil process, not only during the sitting of Parliament, as are members of the House of Commons, but at all times; and they cannot be compelled to serve on juries. By virtue of his personal dignity a peer when criminally