The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-01-19

aristocracy of England, to which little after.
ton has been paid by historians, and also be-
cause those restraints show that the modern
doctrine, that property has duties to perform
as well as rights to enforce" is really ancient
The Peerage, and the rights of hereditary
legislation attached to the Peerage, were for
} teited either through poverty or absenteeism
In the reign of Edward the Fourth, George
Nevill, Duke of Bedford was deprived of his peer
age because he had fallen into pauperism
J which sentence of deposition was the precedent
cited at future period, when the claims OF
hereditary legislation were brought before Par
Lament. The case of George Nevill was de-
cided by on act passed on the 10th of June, in
the seventeenth year of the reign of Edward
the Fourth, and the reasons for his degradation
were thus expressed
, @FOrasmuch as it is openly known that the
sad George hath not, or by any inheritance
may have, any livelihood to support the same
name, estate, and dignity, OK any name of c.
tate and oftentmes it is to be seen that when
any lord Is called to high estate and hath not
convenient livelihood to support the same dig
nifty, 1T induceth great poverty and indulgence,
and causeth oftentimes great extortion, en-
bracery, and maintenance to be had, to the
great trouble of all such counties where such
estates shall happen to be wherefore the king
By the advice of his lords spiritual and tempo
raj, and by the commons in the present Par
Lament assembled and by the authority of the
same ordaineth, establiSheth, and enacteth
that, from henceforth, the said creation and
making of the said duke, and all the names OF
dignity given to tho said George CT to John
Nevill, his father, be from henceforth void, and
Of none effect"
The famous case on absenteeism is that OF
the Earl Of Shrewsbury ard the decision shows
that the immense tracts of land anciently
granted by the crown to the barons were
wholly In the nature Of a trust to which ae-
countability was attached These are the
facts. Henry the Sixth created the Earl of
Shrewsbury in England Earl Of Waterford
and Baron of Dungarvan in Ireland, grant
ing by letters patent the castles, lordshipe,
honors, lands, and manor of Dungarvon. to the
said Earl end the heirs male of his body" In
the Parliament called the Parliament Des
Absentees, held at Dublin on the 9th of MAY,
in the 28th of Henry the Eighth, it was de,
cided that the Earl of Shrewsbury should be
deprived of all his Irish estates, on account
of his long absence from that country the said
Earl being peer of both realms and residing
in England" In 1912, this case was argued
again by counsel before the chief Justices and
chief baron, who, after taking into con sidera-
tion the act of the 18th Of Henry the Eighth,
I. raised the following two questions involving
III the merits, and on which they adjudicated,
their sentence being unanimous. :,
'slst Whether, By the long absence of the
Earl of Shrewsbury out of Ireland, by reason
whereof the king and his subjects wanted their
] defence and assistance there, the title of the
/ honor be lost and forfeited the said Earl ben q
q peer of both realms, and residing here in
! England
-"2d Whether, by the Act Des Absentees
the title OF the dignity of Earl of Waterford be
taken from the said Earl, as we'll as the man.
ors lands, tenements, and other heredita-
ments in the said act specified
AS to the first point it was resolved that
iorasmuch as it does not appear what defence
was requisite, and that the consideration exec.
utory was not found by Office to be broken as
to that particular, the said Earl of Shrewsbury
dooo rvrnan Earl Of Waterford.
AS to the second, it was resolved that the
act of the 2Sth of Henry the Eighth doth not
only take away the possessions which were given
to him at the time of his creation, but also the
dignity itself; "for," says Lord Coke, "al.
though one may have dignity without any
possession, ad SuSttnendum nomen ct onuS, yet
it is very inconvenent that dignity should be
clothed with poverty; and, in cases of writs
and such other legal proceedings he is account
ed in law nobleman, and so ought to be call
ed in respect of his dignity but yet, if he want
possessions to maintain his estate, he cannot
press the King in justice tc grant him writ
| to call him to the Parliament and 80 it was
resolved, in the case of the Lord Osle, in the
reign of Edward the Sixth, as the Baron of
Burleigh-Lord Treasurer of England at the
Parliament 35th Elizabeth, did report and
therefore, the act of the 2S;h of Henry the
Eighth (as all other acts ought to be) shall be
expounded to take away all Inconvenience, and
therefore, by the general words of tho acts
donors and hereditaments,' the dignity itself
with the lands given for maintenance of it,
are given to the King, and the dignity is extinct
in the CROWN
1t appears from this memorable case, that,
according to the spirit of the feudal consttu-
ton, the condition of personal residence was
attached to the possession Of baronial lands
Those who enjoyed them stood, as it were be-
tween the crown and the subject, acting oh
the one hand as local leutenants for the SOW
ereigns, to preserve his prerogative and coerce
rebellion and on the other hand as conserva-
tors of the rights Of the people among each
other. Their duties, therefore, were not con-
fined simply to legislation, but they also had
an executive Office, it icing their duty to see
that the laws were enforced and o6eyed in
their respective neighborhoods. "Those who |
are earls," says Lord Coke, "have an Office of
great trust and confidence, and created for two
purposes-to advise the king in time of peace,
and defend the king and country in time of
war; and, therefore, antiquity hath given them |
two ensgns to resemble those two duties; for |
first, their head is adorned with cap of honor |
and a coronet and their body with q robe, in |
resemblance of counsel and secondly, they are |
grit with a sword, in resemblance that they |
should be faithful and loyal to defend their |
prince and country"
To fix a pecuniary standard for the peerage,
and exactly settle the amount which should |
exempt q man from the legal penalties of
poverty, may seem to DO oxtromoly difficult
but the English had established scale for this
purpose, which is thus explained by Lord Coke:
And it is to be known that, as in ancient
times the senators of Rome were elected d
cenSu of their revenues 80 here in ancient
times, in comforting of nobility respect was had
to their revenues, by which their dignity and
nobility might be supported and maintained.
Thus knight ought to have Ego per annum
a baron thirteen knights fees (for there was
not any duke in England from the time of
Third, and the Dake of Cornwall was the
first duke after the conquest in England and
this appears by the statute Magma Charta, c.
which is requisite by the Law to the dignity,
shall be paid to the king as a relief, for the
relief of knights fee is f5, which is the fourth
part of eco, which is knights revenue; and !
the relief of baron is 100 marks, which is {
the fourth part of his revenue, viz: 400 marks,
and includes thirteen knights fees and quar-
ter; and the relief of an earl is E 100, which I
is the fourth part of f400 which is the reve- I
nue. of an earl And it appears by the records Z
Of the Exchequer, that the relief of duke 4
shall amount TO f200 per annum, and by con- | '