The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-08 00:00:00

LIFE PEERAGES.

Lord LYNDHURST—My Lords, the subject which
I am about to bring under the consideration of your lord_.
ships is one of very considerable interest, because it relates
to the composition of your lordships' house. The question
is, whether the ancient hereditary character of this house
is to continue, or whether it is to be broken in upon to
any extent, according to the discretion and the interest of
the Minister of the day. (Cheers.) I am requested by
some of my friends to bring this subject fully before your
lordships, and in the performance of that duty I will en-
deavour to state the case plainly and simply, so as to ren-
der it perfectly ictelligible. It must not be supposed for
moment that tore is any personal objection to my
learned friend late Baron Parke, in the motion I am
making—(cheers}—the objection is that he should have
been raised to the peerage in reform which is shorn of one
of the usual consequences of a patent of peerage. My
lords, it is now nearly 30 years since I was first entrusted
with the Great Seal. One of the earliest acts of my ofUcial
life was to recommend to the Sovereign this learned gen-
tleman for a seat on the judicial bench; and the manner
in which he has discharged the duties imposed upon him,
his assiduity, his industry, his learning and impartiality,
have done more than justify the appointment—they have
done honour to the selection. (Cheers.) The position of
the learned gentleman is of some importance to be consi-
deied. He is advanced in life; he is a married man ; he
has no son, nor, allow me to say, though I do so with some
hesitation, is there any likelihood of his having one. It is
quite clear, therefore, that whether he had a life peerage or
a peerage in the usual form it would be precisely the same
thing. The obvious consequence is—nay, I believe it is
not attempted to be denied—that this is intended to act
as a precedent for future occasions, to enable the Minister
for the time being to place in this house as many tenants
for life of the peerage as may suit his interest at any par-
ticnlarjuncture to introduce. (Cheers.) My lords, I must
beg leave to protect myself against any misapprehen-
sion that may arise witk regard to what I am about to
say. I have received too much of the favour of my SATO-
reign, and I am too grateful for it, to be capable of :enter-
taining any disrespect whatever. It must therefore be
considered that in everything that may fall from me I am
not speaking of the Sovereign personally, but of tho ad-
visers of the Sovereign. (Hear.) lam not talking of her
personal exercise of the prerogatives of the Crown, but of
the manner in which, in accordance with the constitution
of the country, she has been advised to exercise it.
(Cheers.) My lords, it has been said, and it has been re-
peated over and over again, that this is a pure matter of
prerogative, and that the Crown may legally appoint a
person to be a peer for life. Assuming for a moment that
that is the case, it does not follow that every exercise of
such a prerogative would be consistent with the principles
of the Constitution. (Hear.) The Sovereign may by his
prerogative, if he thinks proper, create a hundred peerages
with descendable qualities, in the course of a single day
but would that be consistent with the Constitution ?
Every grant of that kind would be strictlylegal, but every.
body must feel and know that such an exercise of the pre-
rogative would be a flagrant violation of the principles of
the Constitution. (Hear.) Iu the same manner, the So-
vereign, instead of placing the Great Seal in the hands of
a person like my noble and learned friend on the woolsack,.
distinguished for his legal and other attainments might
give it to a layman, a person wholly unacquainted with the
laws of the country. That,
too, would be a flagrant viola-
tion of the Constitution. Other instances of the same kind
might be adduced, but the examples I have given are suffi-
cient to illustrate the principle to which I wish to call at-
tention. The position, however, which I mean to lay down
and which I can maintain is this—that no instance has
occurred in this country in which any Commoner has
been raised to a seat in this house by a patent of peerage
containing only an estate for life. (Hear.) Every person
who at all knows the constitution of this country or who
is at all conversant with the principles upon which it
is founded, must be award that one of those principles
is, that long continued usage has the force of law. To go
back, therefore, for a period of 400 years, to collect three
or four or half-a-dozen instances in which the Crown has
performed an act of virtue of its prerogative--before the
constitution was formed, before it was put into its present
shape—and to make those few instances a precedent upon
which to found a change in the composition of either house
is, I contend, a gross violation of the principles of the
constitution. (Cheers.) My lords, let we go back to the
time to which I refer ; what extraordinary powers were
then exercised by the sovereign, and were considered a
part of the undoubted prerogative of the Crown ! The
sovereign would in tbesa days issue writs to certain bo-
roughs desiring them to return members to Parliament,
and he would then issue writs a second time, discontinu-
ing some of those boroughs, or by a single phrase altering
the composition of the whole constituent body. There are
eases also of this Oescription. Peers were entitled to seats
in this house ; writs of summons would sometimes be sent
to them, and sometimes discontinued, at the discretion cf
the monarch for the time being. There are cases of peers
being summoned for a single session ; of peers being cre-
ated peers during pleasure ; and of persons being created
peers to have all the lights of the peerage except a seat in
this house. At the time to which I refer the Crown ex-
ercised the power of dispensing with the laws of the coun-
try. It exercised the right of placing the country under
martial law, of issuing commissions, of levying money,
and other rights of a most extraordinary character. Many
of these have been abolished by act of Parliament ; others
haie fallen into desuetude ; and to make those precedents
for the purpose of altering the composition of either bottle
of Parliament appears to me, I repeat, a gross violation
of the constitution. (Cheers.) It now becomes my duty
to call the attention of your lordships to the cases which
aro cited in support of this exercise of the preroga-
tive.
The first patent for the creation of a peer was
in the reign of Richard 11. ; and in the first years of that
reign is the first case that Is relied upon in jastificatien
of the step which has just been taken. That was a
peerage granted for life to a foreigner named Guiscard 1
de Daub ; but as a foreigner could not sit in this house,
it was during the following year caueelled, and a pension
of about 1,0001. was given him as an equivalent for the '
loss of his peerage. It, is quite clear that as Guiscard de ,
Denby never sat in Parliament, and had no right to sit in
Parliament, this case can have no bearing upon the present ;
question. The next case is that of Robert do Vere, Earl ,
of Oxford. Your lordship ;sill recollect that De Vere was ,
the favourite of Richard 11., and he was created Duke of
Dublin.

A NOBLE LORD—Marquis of Dublin.
Lord LYNDHURST—That case, again, has no bearing
upon the question, because at the time when the marquisate
of Dublin was conferred upon Robert De Vere, ho was
already entitled, as Earl of Oxford, to a seat in Parliament.
There is another similar case to which the same answer will
apply. The Earl of Bedford, the King's uncle, was
created Duke of Aquitaine ; but he likewise was already a
member of your lordships' house. The next case was oleo
in which a lady was created a countess for life, but that,
too. cannot apply. And now, my lords, what was the state
of things in the reign of Richard IL, which is the strong
point of the case of those who support life peerages ? Why,
my lords, at that, the most turbulent period in our annals,
the barons and the King were at perpetual war—the King
and the barons alternately getting the upper hand—the
King compelled by the barons to execute a commission
trausferring all the authority of the Crown to certain
pereoeu named tu that instrument—learned judges con-
sulted by the Crown as to the validity of the docaneent
they giving their opinions that the instrument was illegal
--the barons seizing their pemeons, executing without
form of trial the Chief Justice, and banishing the rest of
the judges by way of mitigation of their sentence—then
the King obtaining a triumph over the barons, and the
Duke of Gloucester being thrown into prison and murdered
—the barons again getting the upper hand, seizing the
person of the King, imprisoned him at Pomfret, and mur-
dered him there. Can any precedents be obtained from
a turbulent time of this description that can be 'of the
slightest use in discussing the proper exercise of the powers
of the Crown ? In the following reign (that of Henry IV.)
there is no instance alleged -in support of life peerages.
Henry V., in the flush of his popularity, in the first year
of his reign, created his brother Duke of Bedford for life.
He created another brother Duke of Gloucester for life ;
and he created his cousin Earl of Cambridge for life; but
this latter personage never took his seat, and was executed
in the following year for treason. The grants to the Duke
of Bedford and to the Duke of Gloucester were soon after-
\verde surrendered, and new peerages in the usual form de-
scending to their heirs were substituted for them. (Hear.)
There were also casts in which the Duke of Dorsetshire
was created Duke of Exeter, and the Earl of Warwick,
Earl of Albemarle for life ; but to those cases the principle
I have already laid down-applies—the parties were already
members of the House of Peers. An additional case has
been cited. It occurred in the reign of Henry VI., at the
end of the contest between the Duke of Gloucester and the
Bishop of Winchester. It is said thatJ. Cornowayll,
who had married the gilpen,3 aunt, Sir
for life by the title of Lord Faunh was created a baron
Bat there are no sufficient groanespieeransadpLpeosridnglltihibatrotkheis.
was a life peerage; on the cnntrar
jy,,e,e4 the peerage was
conferred in the presence of Partin, and it is natural
to suppose that the new baron had conferred
the rights and privileges of the peerage, he upon. him all
g that of
transmitting his dignity to his descendants. ill
ewes, it should be remembered, are included All these
period of about 40 years. There are nonegaonf
totheblelietet.l2l)af
Charles when our constitution first be
or of the still more important period of the Revelutie;
when the constitution ultimately took the form it eiew!
wears; and will you say that the cases I have cited are
sufficient to justify the Crown in new modelling this house?
(Cheers.) , DI9 lords. allow me to say that it is a flagrant
violation as it strikes me—if I may use such a strong
expression—of the great principles upon which our con-
stion is founded. I am always afraid to omit any-
way have beeu adverted to, lest it should be
tthhainugghtthalt
am
apprehensiv.e.of_dealbeg with it. There is,
Henry VII. At
then, a case which occurred in the reign of
when every districti in Ireland was a princi-
pality,that time,
a prince named Tho Toni waereated Earl of Tho-
mond. Henry VII. gave him the title of prince, but it
was only a nominal
title, because in the same patent he
was created Baron of Inchiquin. Bat mark, we are only
talking of an Irish peerage. He took his seat in the Irish
Parliament, and 'sat there in virtue of his barony. I have
adverted to that particular case, lest it should be said that
I had omitted any case which appeared to militate against
the view that I have taken. There is another class of
cases to which I am bound also to allude, and a very im-
portant class of cases they are considered to be, but which
I consider have really no application to the question —I
mean cases in Which ladles have been advanced to the
peerage for life. There are several cases of that descrip-
tion. As your lords ih'ps very well know the personages
so honoured were not all of them
of the most moral de=
scr iption. (A laugh,) Louis the Fourteenth desired at a
particular period of his reign to establishtente
cor-
;live with our Charlerathe Second. He ank en
the weak
side of that monarch—o„gbt_r, new
e 1 and he selected a very
beautiful lady to come over fo this—
atrix between the two. ThAtniecdounttry to act as
successful.meand the result was, alter a c onsits.ei.ou,
"el rable period, some