Footnote 108: The word is almost illegible. Wimbledon was at that time in the occupation of the Duke of Somerset.
Footnote 109: Master of the Rolls.
Sir James Graham to Queen Victoria.
PEERS AND AUDIENCES
Whitehall, 2nd October 1841.
Sir James Graham with humble duty begs to lay before your Majesty two letters, which he has received from the Earl of Radnor,110 together with the copy of the answer which Sir James Graham returned to the first of the two letters.
If the presentation of Petitions were the sole subject of the Audience, it might be needless to impose on your Majesty the trouble incident to this mode of receiving them, since they might be transmitted through the accustomed channel of one of the Secretaries of State; but Sir James Graham infers from a conversation which, since the receipt of the letters he has had with Lord Radnor, that the Audience is asked in exercise of a right claimed by Peers of the Realm.
The existence of this right is not recognised by Statute; but it rests in ancient usage, and is noticed by Judge Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England in the following terms:—
"It is usually looked upon to be the right of each particular Peer of the Realm to demand an Audience of the King, and to lay before him, with decency and respect, such matters as he shall judge of importance to the public weal."
The general practice on the part of the Sovereign has been not to refuse these Audiences when Peers have asked them....