Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/681

 APPENDIX H 663 domina do ct coiicedo GautVido de Magnavilla pro servitio sue et hcicdibus suis post eum hereditabiliter utsit comes de Essex[ia] et habeat tertium dcnarium Vicccomitatus de placitis sicut comes habere debet in comitatu suo i3'c.(*) It will be observed that the wording of these grants is very simple; and there is no reason to suppose that when the dignities were conferred anyone had a doubt as to the meaning of the terms employed: nor do they appear to have been seriously questioned until the Lords' Committee on the Dignity of a Peer issued its Reports. This Committee, presided over by Lord Redesdale, collected a vast amount of material relating to the history of our peerage, and a high value has been placed on the results of its deliberations. It is believed that the Committee was much under the influence of Lord Redesdale, who is credited with having drawn up the Reports. In all recent peerage cases these have been referred to constantly by both counsel and the Committee for Privileges in support of arguments and in formulating judgments. Great authority is attached to the Reports by all concerned on these occasions; indeed, they appear to have acquired the force of law. C') While it must be conceded that the labours of Lord Redesdale's Committee were in many respects admirable, and that many of their recommendations were very valuable, it is impossible to accept all their conclusions without reserve. This is especially so with regard to the interpretation they place on the words of inheritance in early charters of earldoms. They suggest that an estate in a dignity in fee had no existence, that a grant to a man and his heirs meant to him and the heirs ot his body, and that " the heirs of his body " meant heirs male of his body. The obvious desire of the Committee to limit claims to ancient dignities is doubtless accountable for these extraordinary propositions; for extraordi- nary they prove to be when we examine some statistics of the limitations of earldoms in the I2th, 13th, and 14th centuries. Sir Francis Palmer gives a useful table of the terms of inheritance of peerages " created or evidenced by charters or letters patent between the years 1135 and 1450. "(") The first thirteen were granted in fee simple, or such limitation is to be inferred from the terms of the charter. The 14th is in tail special (inferred); the 15th and i6th are in fee simple; the 17th in tail general; the i8th, 19th, 20th and 21st in fee simple. Then comes the first creation in tail male — the Earldom of Carlisle, 15 Edw. II.('') The next nine contain 8 in fee simple and i in tail general. The 32nd is in tail male; the next six contain 5 in fee simple and i in tail male, and thereafter most of the limitations are in tail male. (•) Text by J. H. Round, Idem, pp. 88-95. C") "This [that no peer can surrender his dignity] has been repeatedly held to be the law for some centuries, and finally in the Reports on the Dignity of a Peer it is stated that such must now be held to be the law. This is binding on your Lordships." (Earl of Halsbury, in his Opinion, Earldom of Norfolk case). if) Peerage Law in England, pp. 76-79. {^) Prof. T. F. Tout points out to the writer the significance of this creation, tor the military importance of this Border earldom demanded fighting successors.