Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/155

 vm. AUG. 17,1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

147

PEERS CONVICTED OF FELONY (9 th S. viii. 103). The first part of Y.'s query is answered by the Forfeiture Act, 1870 (33 & 34 Viet., cap. 23, second part of sec. 2). The following passage also settles the point :

"A Peer, however, convicted of treason or felony and sentenced, would be disqualified for sitting or voting in the House of Lords until he had suffered his punishment or received a pardon." Pike's 'Con- stitutional History of the House of Lords,' p. 274. A commoner so convicted can, after his term of servitude, become a member of the House of Commons.

" In former times insolvency or bankruptcy did not cause any disability, but since the year 1871 a Peer has been disqualified for sitting and voting in the House of Lords during bankruptcy, and no writ of summons to him will issue." Ibid., p. 275.

The same law applies to a member of the House of Commons.

The words of the Bankruptcy Act, 1883 (46 & 47 Viet., cap. 52, sec. 32), are as follows :

" Where a debtor is adjudged bankrupt he shall, subject to the provisions of this Act, be disqualified for (a) Sitting or voting in the House of Lords, or on any committee thereof, &c., (6) Being elected to, or sitting or voting in, the House of Commons, or on any committee thereof."

A bankruptcy may be annulled when the debts of the bankrupt have been "paid in full " (see sec. 35). As to the mode in which the seat of a member is vacated on bank- ruptcy, see sec. 33. The disqualifications to which a bankrupt is subject shall be removed and cease if and when

" he obtains from the Court his discharge, with a certificate to the effect that his bankruptcy was caused by misfortune without any misconduct on his part."

Moreover, the disqualification of a bankrupt does not exceed a period of five years from the date of the discharge. H. B P.

FATHERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS (8 th S. ii. 327; iii. 34; iv. 249, 418; vi. 74).- Since my latest contribution on this subject, which was given at the last reference, three "Fathers of the House of Commons" Mr. Charles Vil- liers, Sir John Mowbray, and Mr. Bramston Beach have died, and Mr. Samuel Whitbread (who, if he had not withdrawn from public life, would have succeeded Mr. Villiers in the position) is now in retirement. The following extract from the ' Political Notes ' of the Times for 5 August may therefore be added, in order to bring up to date the information previously given on the matter :

" The following is a complete list of the ' Fathers of the House of Commons since the passing of the Reform Act of 1832 :

"George Byng, 1832-46; Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 1846-50 ; Sir Charles Merrik Burrell, 1850-62 ;

Henry Cecil Lowther, 1862-7; Henry Thomas Lowry Corry, 1867-73 ; George Cecil Weld Forester, 1873-4 ; Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot, 1874-90 ; Charles Pelham Villiers, 1890-8 ; Sir John Robert Mowbray, 1898-9; William Wither Bramston Beach, 1899-1901 ; Sir Michael Edward Hicks Beach, 1901.

"Of the earlier members who have attained to this dignity no exhaustive record has been kept. John Maynard, who was returned for Totnes in 1640, and who, after the expiration of the Long Parliament, sat for Plymouth, with the customary vicissitudes of that period, until his death in 1690, is sometimes referred to by contemporary chroniclers as Father of the House ; and in an explanatory foot- note to a picture of the popular Chamber painted by Hogarth and Sir James Thornhill, with Arthur Onslow (Speaker, 1726-61) in the Chair, Sidney Godolphin, who was first elected for Helston in 1698, and who successively represented, with a break of two years (1713-15), Helston, St. Mawes, and St. German's, until his death in 1733, is similarly described. Other members to whom the title has been applied are Whitshed Keene, who sat continu- ously from 1768 to 1818, first for Wareham and afterwards for Ludgershall and Montgomery Borough ; John Blackburn, who was one of the representatives of the undivided county of Lan- caster from 1784 to 1830; and Thomas William Coke (afterwards first Viscount Coke and Earl of Leicester), who sat for Norfolk from 1776 (except during the Parliament of 1784-90) until 1832."

POLITICIAN.

ISAAC PENINGTON THE YOUNGER (9 th S. viii. 16). His works, folio, first edition, 1681, are scarce and worth about 15s.

A BOOKSELLER.

"A FEEDING STORM" (9 th S. viii. 13). MR. BAYNE is inclined to be rash when he differs from Scott That a *' feeding storm " is recognized in Scottish non-pastoral districts is not a strong argument against Scott's explanation of the term. Similar sayings of the shepherd fathers have been transmitted to their bourgeois descendants. It seems unintelligible to attach such a meaning as that of "a lingering period of snowy weather, when the snow actually on the ground is increased or fed by intermittent falls." " Fed " in this sense loses its original meaning, but even in this sense no lingering period of rainy weather is ever called a "feeding storm." Lengthened periods of rain would never cause the idea of a " feeding storm " to form in one's mind. Let, however, the rain take the form of frogs or sawdust, and it would deprive the snow of its monopoly of the term. The cor- rectness of Scott's derivation is after all almost admitted by MR. BAYNE when he says that the non-pastoral usage includes Sir Walter's explanation as well as that which attributes the name " feeding storm " to the habit of birds gorging themselves on the approach of a snowstorm. The term " feed- ing storm " as explained by Scott was cer-