The Government of England (Vol. I)

by A. Lawrence Lowell

At last the need for increasing the legal members of the House became so clear that in 1876 an act was passed to authorise the appointment of two, and ultimately of four, Lords of Appeal in Ordinary for life.[397:2] They hold the position, and enjoy a salary of six thousand pounds, on the same tenure as other judges; and since 1887 they have also had a right to sit in the House as long as they live, irrespective of their tenure of the office. The motive for their creation was simply to strengthen the House of Lords as a court of appeal. Proposals for life peerages on a more extended scale have also been made in connection with plans to reform the House of Lords as a branch of Parliament. So far these have come to nothing; and, as we shall see hereafter, it is by no means clear that they would attain the end in view, or that, if they did, they would be wise.

The House Determines the Qualification of its Members.

The authority of the House of Lords to determine the validity of new patents has already been referred to in connection with the Wensleydale case. It is also empowered by statute to pass upon the election of Scotch and Irish representative peers. Disputed claims to the succession of hereditary peerages, on the other hand, may be settled by the Crown on its own authority, but it is the habit at the present day to refer these likewise for decision to the Lords.[398:1]

Disqualifications.

Infants, aliens, bankrupts, and persons under sentence for grave offences, are incapable of sitting in the House of Lords;[398:2] and instances occurred in the seventeenth century of special sentence of exclusion by the House itself. But more important from a political point of view than the disqualifications for the upper chamber is the fact that a peer cannot escape from the peerage. This is sometimes a misfortune when a man, who has made his mark in the House of Commons, has an obscure greatness thrust upon him by the untimely death of his father. In such a case he loses at once and forever his seat in the House where the active warfare of politics goes on, and this although he may be a Scotch peer, who has no seat in the House of Lords. The question was debated at some length in 1895, when Lord Selborne tried to retain his seat in the Commons by omitting to apply for a writ of summons as a peer; but the Commons decided that he could not do so.[398:3]

Personal Privileges of the Peers.

Besides the liberty of speech and freedom from arrest which they possess in common with the members of the other House, the peers, partly in memory of their position as councillors of the Crown, partly as an aftermath of feudal conditions, retain certain personal privileges, of small political importance, but sometimes of interest to the person concerned. One of these is the right of access to the sovereign for the purpose of an audience on public affairs. Another is the right to be tried by their peers in all cases of treason or felony.[399:1] If Parliament is in session, the trial is conducted by the whole House of Lords, presided over by the Lord High Steward appointed by the Crown. If not it takes place in the court of the Lord High Steward, to which, however, all the peers are summoned.[399:2] The privilege extends to the Scotch and Irish peers, whether chosen to sit in the House of Lords or not; to the life peers; to peeresses in their own right; and to the wives and widows of peers, unless they have "disparaged" themselves by a second marriage with a commoner; but it does not extend to the bishops, or to Irish peers while members of the House of Commons.[399:3]

Functions of the House.

The House of Lords is both a coördinate branch of Parliament and a court of law. Its duties as a court of appeal will be described in another chapter with the rest of the national judicial system, and its original jurisdiction, in the trial of peers and of impeachments brought by the House of Commons, is no longer of much consequence. The evolution of the political responsibility of ministers has made impeachment a clumsy and useless device for getting rid of an official, while the greater efficiency of the criminal law has made it needless for punishing an offender; and in fact the last case where it was used was that of Lord Melville, one hundred years ago. It may be noted, however, in this connection that the House still retains the right to require the attendance of the judges, not only when acting in a judicial capacity, but on all occasions when it may need their advice.

Money Bills.