LORD, a title of honotir, given to those who are noble either by birth or by creation. The title is also by courtesy μven to all the sons of dukes and marquises, and to the eldest ions of carls; and it is likewise a title of honour bestowed >n those who are honourable by their employment, as Lord Advocate, Lord Chamberlain, Lord Chancellor, and the ike. The word is Saxon, but abbreviated from two syl-ables into one; for it was originally Hlaford, which by hopping the aspiration became Laford, and afterwards by ontraction Lord. “The etymology of the word,” says poates, “is well worth observing; for it was composed of 'laf, a loaf of bread, and ford, to give or afford; so that τ Ilaford, now Lord, implies a giver of bread, because, in hose ages, such great men kept extraordinary houses, and ed all the poor; for which reason they were called givers f bread, a thing now much out of date, great men being auch fonder of retaining the title than of observing the ractice for which it was first given.”

Lords, House of, one of the three estates of parlia- 1 rent, and composed of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.

1. The Spiritual Lords consist of the archbishops and; ishops. Though these lords are in the eye of the law a 1 istinct estate from the lords temporal, and are so distin-uished in our acts of parliament, yet in practice they are sually blended together under the name of The Lords; ιey intermix in their votes, and the majority of such in-Ermixture joins both estates. From the want of a separate 5sembly, and a separate negative on the part of the prelates, pme writers have argued very cogently, that the lords ∣ιiritual and temporal arc now in reality only one estate; and this is unquestionably true in every effectual sense, though the ancient distinction between them still nominally continues. For if a bill should pass their house, there is no doubt of its validity, though every lord spiritual should vote against it (of which Selden and Sir Edward Coke give many instances); as, on the other hand, it would doubtless be equally good if the lords temporal present were inferior to the bishops in number, and every one of those temporal lords gave his vote to reject the bill, though Sir Edward Coke seems to doubt as to this.

2. The Temporal Lords consist of all the peers of the realm (the bishops not being in strictness held to be such, but merely lords of parliament), by whatever title of nobility distinguished; dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons. Some of these sit by descent, as do all ancient peers; others by creation, as do all new-made ones; others, since the union with Scotland and Ireland, by election. The Lords have a right to be, and constantly are, attended by the judges of the courts of King’s Beuch and Common Pleas, and such of the Barons of the Exchequer as are of the degree of the coif, or have been made serjeants at law; as likewise by the king’s learned counsel, being seijeants, and by the masters of the court of Chancery, for their advice in point of law, and for the greater dignity of their proceedings. The secretaries of state, with the attorney and solicitor general, also used to attend the House of Peers, and have to this day their regular writs of summons issued out at the beginning of every parliament, ad tractandum et consilium impendendum, though not ad consentiendum ; but whenever they have been members of the House of Commons, their attendance here has, for a long period, been dispensed with. Another privilege is, that every peer, by license obtained from the king, may make another lord of parliament his proxy, to vote for him in his absence; a privilege which a member of the other house can by no means exercise, as he is himself but a proxy for a multitude of other people. Each peer has also a right, by leave of the house, when a vote passes contrary to his sentiments, to enter his dissent upon the journals of the house, with the reasons for such dissent, which is usually styled his protest. All bills likewise, which may in their consequences affect in auy way the rights of the peerage, are by the custom of parliament to have their first rise and beginning in the House of Peers, and to suffer no changes or amendments in the House of Commons.