See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1774.
LORDS, British House of.
"The ancient National Assembly [of England] gradually ceased
to be anything more than an assembly of the 'greater barons,'
and ultimately developed into a hereditary House of Lords, the
Upper House of the National Parliament. The hereditary
character of the House of Lords—now long regarded as fixed
and fundamental—accrued slowly and undesignedly, as a
consequence of the hereditary descent of the baronial fiefs,
practically inalienable, in right of which summonses to the
national council were issued."
_T. P. Taswell-Langmead,
English Constitutional History,
chapter 7._
"The English aristocracy is a typical example of the way in
which a close corporation dies out. Its members are almost
always wealthy in the first instance, and their estates have
been constantly added to by favour from the Crown, by
something like the monopoly of the best Government
appointments, and by marriages with wealthy heiresses. They
are able to command the field sports and open-air life that
conduce to health, and the medical advice that combats
disease. Nevertheless, they die out so rapidly that only five
families out of nearly six hundred go back without a break,
and in the male line, to the fifteenth century. … 155 peers
were summoned to the first Parliament of James II. In 1825,
only 140 years later, only forty-eight of these nobles were
represented by lineal descendants in the male line. The family
has in several instances been continued by collaterals begging
the peerage, which they could not have claimed at law, and in
this way the change may seem less than it has really been; but
the broad result appears to be that left to itself from 1688,
with new creations absolutely forbidden, the House of Lords
would by this time have been practically extinguished.
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Of Charles II. 's six bastards, who were made dukes, only
three have perpetuated the race. Three peerages have been lost
to the Howard family, three to the Greys, two to the
Mordaunts, two to the Hydes, two to the Gerards, and two to
the Lucases. … It is in the lower strata of society that we
have to seck for the springs of national life."
_C. H. Pearson,
National Life and Character,
pages 70-73._
"The British peerage is something unique in the world. In
England there is, strictly speaking, no nobility. This saying
may indeed sound like a paradox. The English nobility, the
British aristocracy, are phrases which are in everybody's
mouth. Yet, in strictness, there is no such thing as an
aristocracy or a nobility in England. There is undoubtedly an
aristocratic element in the English constitution; the House of
Lords is that aristocratic element. And there have been times
in English history when there has been a strong tendency to
aristocracy, when the lords have been stronger than either the
king or the people. … But a real aristocracy, like that of
Venice, an aristocracy not only stronger than either king or
people, but which had driven out both king and people, an
aristocracy from whose ranks no man can come down and into
whose ranks no man can rise save by the act of the privileged
body itself,—such an aristocracy as this England has never
seen. Nor has England ever seen a nobility in the true sense,
the sense which the word bears in every continental land, a
body into which men may be raised by the king, but from which
no man may come down, a body which hands on to all its
members, to the latest generations, some kind of privilege or
distinction, whether its privileges consist in substantial
political power, or in bare titles and precedence. In England
there is no nobility. The so-called noble family is not noble
in the continental sense; privilege does not go on from
generation to generation; titles and precedence are lost in
the second or third generation; substantial privilege exists
in only one member of the family at a time. The powers and
privileges of the peer himself are many; but they belong to
himself only; his children are legally commoners; his
grandchildren are in most cases undistinguishable from other
commoners. … A certain great position in the state is
hereditary; but nobility in the strict sense there is none.
The actual holder of the peerage has, as it were, drawn to his
own person the whole nobility of the family."
_E. A. Freeman,
Practical Bearings of European History
(Lectures to American Audiences),
pages 305-307._
"At the end of 1892 there were 545 members of the House of
Lords, made up thus:
Peers, 469;
Lords of Appeal and Ex-Lords of Appeal, 5;
Representative Peers of Scotland, 16;
Representative Peers of Ireland, 28;
Lords Spiritual, 27.
The Lords of Appeal are lawyers of great distinction who are
appointed by the Queen and hold office during good behavior.
Their number is always about the same. Their work is mainly
judicial; but these Law Lords, as they are called, also speak
and vote in the deliberative and legislative proceedings of
the Upper House. The position of a Lord of Appeal differs from
that of an ordinary peer in that his office is not hereditary.
As regards the representative peers, those from Ireland, who
number 28, are elected for life; those from Scotland, who
number 16, are elected at a meeting of Scotch peers, held in
Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, after each General Election, and
hold office during the lifetime of a Parliament. The Lords
Spiritual include (1) the Archbishop of Canterbury, the
Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London, Durham, and
Winchester; and (2) twenty-two out of the other twenty-nine
bishops of the Church of England. The prelates whose titles
have been given take their seats in the House immediately on
appointment; the other bishops take their seats by order of
seniority of consecration. The prelates who are without seats
in the House of Lords are known as junior bishops. The Bishop
of Sodor and Man has a seat in the House of Lords, but no
vote."
_E. Porritt,
The Englishman at Home,
chapter 6._
For an account of the transient abolition of the House of
Lords in 1649,
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1649 (FEBRUARY).
See, also, PARLIAMENT, THE ENGLISH;
and ESTATES, THE THREE.