Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/417

 Ch. 12. lords: and ome are of opinion that there mut be at leat two writs of ummons, and a itting in two ditinct parliaments, to evidence an hereditary barony : and therefore the mot uual, becaue the uret, way is to grant the dignity by patent, which enures to a man and his heirs according to the limitations thereof, though he never himelf makes ue of it. Yet it is frequent to call up the eldet on of a peer to the houe of lords by writ of ummons, in the name of his father's barony: becaue in that cae there is no danger of his children's loing the nobility in cae he never takes his eat; for they will ucceed to their grandfather. Creation by writ has alo one advantage over that by patent: for a peron created by writ holds the dignity to him and his heirs, without any words to that purport in the writ; but in letters patent there mut be words to direct the inheritance, ele the dignity enures only to the grantee for life. For a man or woman may be created noble for their own lives, and the dignity not decend to their heirs at all, or decend only to ome particular heirs: as where a peerage is limited to a man, and the heirs male of his body by Elizabeth his preent lady, and not to uch heirs by any former or future wife.

us next take a view of a few of the principal incidents attending the nobility, excluive of their capacity as members of parliament, and as hereditary counellors of the crown; both of which we have before conidered. And firt we mut oberve, that in criminal caes a nobleman hall be tried by his peers. The great are always obnoxious to popular envy: were they to be judged by the people, they might be in danger from the prejudice of their judges; and would moreover be deprived of the privilege of the meanet ubjects, that of being tried by their equals, which is fecured to all the realm by magna carta, c. 29. It is aid, that this does not extend to bihops; who, though they are lords of parliament, and it there by virtue of their baronies which they hold jure eccleiae, yet are not ennobled in blood, Rh