Evening star., 1924-01-02
Scottish Peers Elect Quota
To British House of Lords

may order that the title be not called
again until the claimant has judicial
ly proved his right thereto. But in
meanwhile the vote which he has re-
corded stands and, even with pro-
test lodged against it, is counted with
the others
only in one instance has the house
of lords at Westminster interfered in
this way during the last 100 years,
and in 184S it passed a vote directing
the lord clerk register not to call the
title of Lord Colville of Ochiltree,
which figures on the great roll, or to
permit anybody to vote at Holyrood
under that name. This was because
in the early portion of the reign of
Queen Victoria there was an i'm
rood insisted on responding to the
name of Lord Colville of Ochiltree
when the latter's name was called,
although the peerage in question was
extinct. On the matter being report
ed to the house of lords the latter
enacted an order that the name and
title Of Lord Colville Of Ochiltree
should not be called at any future
election at Holyrood until the claim
thereto has been satisfactorily estab-
lished by a court of law.
X X * x
At the election held the other day
at Holyrood in connection with the
general parliamentary election, fif-
teen out of the number of sixteen
representative peers of Scotland were
elected, there being only one change,
namely, the election of Lord Sinclair in
the place of the Earl of Rothes. The
list is as follows: The Marquis of
Queensberry, the Earls of Cath
ness, of Morton, of Mar and
Kellie, of Haddington, of Lindsay, of
Airlie and of Leven and Melville, the
Viscount Falkland and the Lord Bell
haven, the half-American Lord Fair
fax, Lord Balfour, Lord Semphill,
Lord Santoul, Lord Forbes and, as
mentioned above. Lord Sinclair.
The presence of the name OF the
tenth MARQUIS of Queensberry at the
head of the list serves to recall that his
grandfather, the eighth MARQUIS, the
turbulent and pugnacious Iather OF the
unsavory Lord Alfred Douglas, now
serving a term of prison after criminal
ly ibeling Winston Spencer Churchill,
was denied reelection as representa-
tive peer during the last thirty years of
| his life following and consequent upon
b;s nuhlic profession of atheism. If Lord
po+bes nineteenth earl of his line, has
| failed to secure reelection, 1t is because
he has recently sold all OF his land in
| fine Fffeshire. His wife, Lady Rothes.
Was on board the White Star steamer
! Titanic when that Inflated ship was
sunk hy collision with an iceberg, and
! she was one of the fortunate survivors
of that great maritime disaster. He en-
ioys a number of ancient prerogatives.
oona of which, inherited from a long line
| Of former dukes and earls of Rothes, is
the right Of removing the sovereign's
boots on his return from any royal
chase: indeed, to serve as sort of
glorified royal bootjack This was a
highly honorable Office. For in ancient
times none but great mobiles, enjoying
the complete confidence Of the sover-
eien. were permitted to approach him
when he was changing his attire. the
idea being that when thus engaged he
was in defenselesS condition.
1t may be recalled that at the
court of Versailles none but great
mobiles and trusted dignitaries of the
sovereign with his shirt and coat, or
to lay a hand on him, and there is a
historical record of the tact that on
one occasion Queen Marie Antoinette
caught terrible attack or pneu-
monia because of very cold morning
the Duchesse de Noaflles, the grand
mistress of the robes, was not ON
hand at the exact moment to invest
the ill-fated sovereign with her
chemise and left her for several min
utes exposed to strong draft.
As for Lord Sinclair, the newly
elected representative peer of Scot
land, he Is the fifteenth peer of his
| line and will be recalled on this side
of the Atlantic as having visited the
United States as the master of Sim
clair and of having spent a week at
Washington in the capacity of equer-
ry to Prince Arthur of Connaught on
1 the occasion of the latter's special
/ embassy to Japan. Lord Sinclair is
the head of one of the most ancient
houses of Scotland, which traces back
| it's origin to AID. S75, and which has
| been in possession of it's ancestral
castle of Herdma naton in east 10
! THAN since AID. 117o.