Page:The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of the British Empire Part 1.djvu/40

xxviii arraigned can only be tried by his peers, and he is acquitted or condenmed by the verdict of the majority, which is given in the form "guilty," or, "not guilty, upon my honour." He also answers to bills in Chancery upon his honour and not upon his oath; but as a witness in civil or criminal cases, or in the High Court of Parliament, he must be sworn, and on all charges of misdemeanour he is tried by a jury. He cannot be bound over to keep the peace in any other than the Courts of Queen's Bench and Chancery. Scandal against a peer is termed Scandalum Magnatum, and subject to special penalties.

It is said that peers have the privilege of sitting covered in courts of justice; and the Barons of Kingsale have enjoyed, exclusively, the hereditary privilege, alleged to have been granted by King John to their ancestor Sir John de Courcy, of being covered in the royal presence after having made their obeisance.

All the privileges of peers, except the right of sitting in Parliament and on the trial of peers, are enjoyed by the Scotch and Irish peers, and also by peeresses, whether in their own right or by marriage; but the widow of a peer loses her privilege on marrying with a commoner.

On occasions of state the peers wear parliamentary robes of scarlet cloth, differenced from each other by the number of bars of ermine, a Duke having four, a Marquis having four on the right side and three on the left; an Earl three, and a Viscount and Baron having two rows of plain white fur only. They have coronets according to their degree, which encircle a cap of crimson guarded with ermine and surmounted by a tassel of gold bullion. All newly-created peers are entitled to a grant of supporters to accompany their coat armour according to the laws of arms, as incidental to their dignity; yet there are some peers who decline to avail themselves of this ancient privilege, although they do not hesitate to use that which is spurious. In the few cases in which supporters and armorial bearings have been assumed without the authority of the officers of the Earl Marshal, these emblems are regarded as unauthorised.

A peer can only be deprived of his dignity by attainder. If he is attainted of high treason nothing but a reversal of the attainder by Act of Parliament will restore the honour. If the attainder is of felony a dignity created by writ and descendible to heirs general is forfeited entirely, but one entailed by patent is forfeited only for the life of the person attainted.

The children of peers are commoners, but by courtesy are entitled to certain titular distinctions. The eldest son of a Duke, Marquis, or Earl, enjoying several honours, assumes a secondary title of his father. The younger sons of Dukes and Marquises prefix the title of Lord to their Christian and surnames, and the daughters of Dukes, Marquises, and Earls are distinguished in like manner with the title of Lady. The younger sons of Earls and all the sons and the daughters of Viscounts and Barons have the title of Honourable.

BARONS.

It is not doubted that the English Parliament had its origin in the great feudal Council of the King. The right and duty of attending this Council attached to the tenants in chief of the Crown, who, according to the ordinary feudal usage, constituted the "suitors" of the court of their lord. These persons were in feudal language denominated Barons in relation to the King, and Peers in relation to each other. It is presumed that for some time after the Conquest all those who held their lordships or lands directly under the King were members of the Great Council. In the time of King John the practice, as approved by Magna Charts, was to summon the archbishops, bishops, earls, and greater barons of the realm, singly by writ, and further to cause all other tenants in chief to be summoned generally by the sheriffs. Little more is known of the constitution of those early Councils. The first writs now extant, issued 49 Hen. III. 1264, when the King was a prisoner in the