The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-13
Tho Enrlisln Peerage.

English Peerage:-
The creation of power equal to that of a
knp. and called the peerage, was a uSeiul
fiction in a barbarous age ms rudllhehOary
political expedient produced dlheIent results
in France and in England. In france the
peer was sham king; IN En9lanu' no. ne was i,,a a
real prince. Not so grand as III France, but
more substantial. 1t might be said; less, but
worse. r mn
The peerage originated in France, Inc
,,,oob 81 its birth is uncertain; under Charlie
moone according to legend, under Robert the
Wise according to history. History Is no more
sure of its assertions than legend IS. tavln
writes:-''The King of France wished 10 at-
tract to him the grandees of his domlnlons by
tbis mapnifcent title of peers, as if they were
his equals ..., .,,..,1
from France into England. r..
The English peerage was a great lact'
almost great thing 1t had the saxon "5'-
ieU0Qem0f for a precedent. The Danlsn "',t'
and the Norman CdCdSScW united III uue
baron. Baron is the same word as tr' tfanS-
lated into Spanish 10y od0@, and sigulyihn8
pre-eminently Man. As early as lU''2 Une
barons made the king sensible OF their men. OK
istence. Such a king too. 1t was NHllalh
tbe Conoueror. In 1886, they laid the founda-
tion of the feudal system; this foundation was
tbe Doomsday Book. Under John Lakeland,
q conflict arose: the French nobility assumed
q sunerioritv over Great Britain, and the
French peeraee summoned the King of Eng
land before its bar. The English barons
were indignant At the conservation OF
Philip Augustus, the King OF England, as
Duke of Normandy, carried the hrSt square
banner. and the Duke Of Guyenne the
second Against this king, vassal of the
foreigner, ''the lords war breaks out.
The barons impose on poor King John the
Great Charter, whence springs the House of
Lords. The Pope takes the kings side and
excommunicates the lords. This is in l2l5,
and the Pope is Innocent III, who wrote the
" Venj ,SaHcte SDjftas,' and sent to John
Lakeland the four cardinal virtues under the
form of four golden rings. The lords hold
out The combat is long, destined to last
several generations. Pembroke struggles,
1918 is the wear of the ''Provisions of Ok
ford" Twenty-four barons put limits on the
king, discuss him. and call in a knight from
each county to take part in the enlarged quar-
rel This was the dawn Of the Commons.
Later the lords Joined to themselves two citi-
zens from each town and two burgesses from
each borough This was why, till Elizabeth's
time, the peers were judges of the validity Of
elections to the Commons From their juris-
diction sprang the adage:-"Ihe deputies
should be chosen without the three Ps sine
ITCCC, sue IICttO. NtIt D."LD w ulCu OlU
not prevent rotten boroughs. In 1903 the
French Court of Peers still considered
the English king subject to its
jurisdiction and Philip the Fair
cited Edward to appear before him. Edward
was the king who ordered his son to boil his
body after death, and carry his bones to the
war. Under the pressure of royal caprices,
the Lords felt the need of strenthening the
Parliament; they divided it into two Cham
bers-the Upper and the Lower The Lords
arrogantly maintained their supremacy.
'Should it happen that any one Of the Com
mons is SO hardy as to speak disparagingly of
the Lords, he is called to the bar to be repri-
manded, and sometimes he is sent to the
Tower" The same distinction in voting. In
the House of Lords the vote is taken sepa-
rately, commencing with the last baron, who
is called le epujne Each peer when called re-
plies content, OF not COHt9Ht. The Commons
vote all together, in q mass, by yes or no. The
Commons accuse the Peers Judge. The
Peers, through contempt for figures, leave to
the Commons destined to make good use of
it, the guardianship of the eXchequer, so
called according to some from the table
cloth which represented checker-board, ac-
cording to others from the drawers of the old
cupboard in which the treasure of the kings
of England was kept behind an iron grating.
From the end Of the thirteenth century dates
the annual register, the Year Book. In the
War of the two Roses the weight of the
Lords is felt, sometimes on the side of John
of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, sometimes on
that of Edmund, Duke of York. English
feudalism gave a fulcrum openly or secretly,
to Wat Tyler, the Lollards Warwick the
kng-maler, all that mOther-anarchy from
which emancipation was to spring. The
Lords are wisely jealous of the throne; to be
jealous is to watch; they circumscribe the
royal initiative, limit the cases of high trea-
son, raise up false Richards against Henry
", make themselves umpires, determine the
question of the three crowns between the
Duke of York and Margaret of Aniou, raise
armies at need and have their own battles
Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, Saint Albans now
lost, now won. Already, in the thirteenth
century, they had gained the victory of Lewes,
and had driven out of the kingdom the king S
-four brothers, bastard sons of Isabella and
Earl March, all four usurers who plundered
Christians by means Of Jews; princes ON one
side, swindlers on the other, a species which
has since reappeared, but was in small repute
at that time. Till the fifteenth century, traces
of the Norman duke are visible in the King of
England, and the acts of Parliament are
written in French From Henry Wis time
they are written in English, by the will of the
Lords England-BretOn under Uther
Pendragon, Roman under Caesar,
Saxon under the heptarchy, Danish
under Harold, Norman after William-be
comes, thanks to the Lords, English. Ther
she becomes Anglican. 1t is great source OF
strength to have your religion at home. A
foreign pope draws out the national life. A
Mecca is a gigantic sucking-fsh. In 1884
London dismisses Rome; the peerage adopts
the Reformation, and the Lords accep
Tuther This answer to the eXcOmmunica