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LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 4 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LORD HIGH See also:CHANCELLOR , one of the See also:great See also:officers of See also:state of the See also:United See also:Kingdom, and in See also:England the highest judicial functionary. The See also:history of the See also:office and of the growth of the importance of the lord chancellor will be found under CHANCELLOR. The lord chancellor is in See also:official See also:rank the highest See also:civil subject in the See also:land outside the royal See also:family, and takes See also:precedence immediately after the See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury. His functions have sometimes been exercised by a lord keeper of the great See also:seal (see LORD KEEPER), the only real difference between the two offices being in the See also:appointment of the keeper by See also:mere delivery of the seal, while a lord chancellor receives letters patent along with it. He is by office a privy councillor, and it has See also:long been the practice to make him a peer and also a See also:cabinet See also:minister. He is by See also:prescription See also:Speaker or See also:prolocutor of the See also:House of Lords, and as such he sits upon the See also:woolsack, which is not strictly within the House. Unlike the Speaker of the House of See also:Commons, the lord chancellor takes See also:part in debates, speaking. from his See also:place in the House. He votes from the woolsack instead of going into the See also:division See also:lobby. The only See also:function which he discharges as Speaker practically is putting the question; if two debaters rise together, he has no See also:power to See also:call upon one, nor can he See also:rule upon points of See also:order. Those taking part in debates address, not the lord chancellor, but the whole House, as " My Lords." The lord chancellor always belongs to a See also:political party and is affected by its fluctuations. This has often been denounced as destructive of the See also:independence and See also:calm deliberativeness essential to the purity and efficiency of the See also:bench. In See also:defence, however, of the ministerial connexion of the chancellor, it has been said that, while the other See also:judges should be permanent, the See also:head of the See also:law should stand or fall with the See also:ministry, as the best means of securing his effective responsibility to See also:parliament for the proper use of his extensive See also:powers.

The transference of the judicial business of the See also:

chancery See also:court to the High Court of See also:Justice removed many of the objections to the fluctuating See also:character of the office. As a great officer of state, the lord chancellor acts for both England and See also:Scotland, and in some respects for the United Kingdom, including See also:Ireland (where, however, an Irish lord chancellor is at the head of the legal See also:system). By See also:Article See also:XXIV. of the See also:Act of See also:Union (1705) one great seal was appointed to be kept for all public acts, and in this See also:department the lord chancellor's authority extends to the whole of See also:Britain, and thus the commissions of the See also:peace for Scotland as well as England issue from him." As an administrative officer, as - a See also:judge and as head of the law, he acts merely for England. His See also:English ministerial functions are thus briefly described by See also:Blackstone: " He be-came keeper of the See also:king's See also:conscience, visitor, in right of the king, of all hospitals and colleges of the king's See also:foundation, and See also:patron of all the king's livings under the value of twenty marks per annum in the king's books. He is the See also:general See also:guardian of all infants, idiots and lunatics, and has the general superintendence of all charitable uses in the kingdom." But these duties and See also:jurisdiction by See also:modern statutes have been distributed for the most part among other offices or committed to the judges of the High Court (see CHARITY AND CHARITIES; See also:INFANT; See also:INSANITY). Under the Judicature Act 1873 the lord chancellor is a member of the court of See also:appeal, and, when he sits, its See also:president, and he is also a judge of the High Court of Justice. He is named as president of the chancery division of the latter court. His judicial patronage is very extensive, and he is by usage the adviser of the See also:crown in the appointment of judges2 of the 1 The great seal, which exists in duplicate for Irish use, is the great seal of the United Kingdom. 2 Except the lord See also:chief justice, who is appointed on the nomination of the See also:prime minister. the office apparently being treated as annexed to the earldom, or honor, of See also:Leicester. See also:John of Gaunt, indeed, at a See also:time when it was possible that he would never obtain the Leicester moiety of the Lancastrian estates, seems to have made an ingenious but quite unfounded claim to the office as annexed to the honor of See also:Hinckley. Strictly speaking, none of the Lancasters after See also:Thomas had any clear See also:title either by See also:grant or otherwise; such title as they had merged in the crown when' See also:Henry IV. usurped the See also:throne.

Meanwhile the stewardship had increased in importance. On the See also:

accession of See also:Edward III., Henry, See also:earl of See also:Lancaster, as president of the See also:council, had superintended the See also:coronation of the infant king; John of Gaunt did the same for the infant See also:Richard II.; and, as part of the duties involved, sat in the See also:White See also:Hall of See also:Westminster to hear and determine the claims to perform coronation services. The claims were made by See also:petition, and included amongst others: the claim of Thomas of See also:Woodstock to act as See also:constable, the See also:rival claims of John Dymock and See also:Baldwin de Frevile to act as See also:champion, and the claim of the barons of the Cinque Ports to carry a See also:canopy over the king. Minutes of these proceedings, in which the See also:duke is stated to have sat " as steward of England," were enrolled by his order. This is the origin of what is now called the Court of Claims. The precedent of Richard II. has been followed on all subsequent occasions, except that in modern times it has been the practice to appoint commissioners instead of a steward to superintend this court. In 1397 John of Gaunt created a notable precedent in support of the steward's claim to be supreme judge in parliament by presiding at the trial of the earl of See also:Arundel and others. When Henry IV. came to the throne he appointed his See also:young son Thomas, afterwards duke of See also:Clarence, to the office of steward. Clarence held the office until his See also:death. He himself never acted as judge in parliament; but in 1415 he was appointed to preside at the See also:judgment of peers delivered in See also:Southampton against Richard, earl of See also:Cambridge, and Lord See also:Scrope of See also:Masham, who had been previously tried by commissioners of oyer and terminer. No permanent steward was ever again created; but a steward was always appointed for coronations to perform the various ceremonial services associated with the office, and, until the Court of Claims was entrusted to commissioners, to preside over that court. Also, in the 15th See also:century, it gradually became the See also:custom to appoint a steward See also:pro hac See also:vice to preside at the trial, or at the proceedings upon the See also:attainder of a peer in parliament; and later, to preside over a court, called the court of the lord high steward, for the trial of peers when parliament was not sitting.

To assist in establishing the latter court a precedent of 1400 appears to have been deliberately forged. This precedent is reported in the printed See also:

Year-See also:Book of 1400, first published in 1553; it describes the trial of " the earl of H " for participation in the See also:rebellion of that year, and gives details of See also:procedure. John Holand, earl of See also:Huntingdon, is undoubtedly the earl indicated, but the See also:evidence is conclusive that he was murdered in See also:Essex without any trial. The court of the lord high steward seems to have been first definitely instituted in 1499 for the trial of Edward See also:Plantagenet, earl of See also:Warwick; only two years earlier Lord See also:Audley had been condemned by the court of See also:chivalry, a very different and unpopular tribunal. The Warwick trial was most carefully schemed: the procedure, fundamentally dissimilar to that adopted in 1415, follows exactly the forged precedent; but the constitution of the court was plainly derived from the Southampton See also:case. The See also:record of the trial was See also:con-signed to a new repository (commonly but wrongly called the Baga de Secretis), which thenceforth became the See also:regular place of custody for important state trials. Latterly, and possibly from its inception, this repository consisted of a closet with three locks, of which the keys were entrusted, one to the chief justice of England, another to the See also:attorney-general and the third to the See also:master of the crown office, or See also:coroner. Notwithstanding the irregular origin of the steward's court, for which Henry VII. must be held responsible, the validity of its jurisdiction cannot be questioned. The Warwick proceedings were confirmed by act of parliament, and ever since this court has been fully recognized as part of the English constitution. For about aeenttity. and a See also:half See also:prior to the reign of See also:James I. the criminal jurisdiction of parliament remained in See also:abeyance, and bills of attainder were the See also:vogue. The practice of appointing a steward on these occasions to execute judgment upon a peer was kept up till 1477, when See also:George, duke of Clarence, was attainted, and then dropped. Under the Stuarts the criminal jurisdiction of parliament was again resorted to, and when the proceedings against a peer were founded on See also:indictment the appointment of a steward followed as a See also:matter of settled practice.

The proper procedure in cases of See also:

impeachment had, on the contrary, never been defined. On the impeachment of See also:Strafford the lords themselves appointed Arundel to be high steward. In See also:Danby's case a See also:commission under the great seal issued in the See also:common See also:form adopted for the court of the steward; this was recalled, and the rule agreed to by a See also:joint See also:committee of both houses that a steward for trials of peers upon impeachments was unnecessary. But, as such an appointment was obviously convenient, the lords petitioned for a steward; and a fresh commission was accordingly issued in an amended form, which recited the petition, and omitted words implying that the appointment was necessary. This precedent has been treated as settling the practice of parliament with regard to impeachments. Of the proceedings against peers founded upon indictment very few trials antecedent to the revolution took place in parliament. The preference given to the steward's court was largely due to the practice, founded upon the Southampton case, of summoning only a few peers selected by the steward, a practice which made it easy for the king to secure a conviction. This arrangement has been partially abrogated by the See also:Treason Act of See also:William III., which in cases of treason and See also:misprision of treason requires that all peers of parliament shall be summoned twenty days at least before every such trial. The steward's court also differed in certain other particulars from the high court of parliament. For example, it was ruled by Lord Chancellor See also:Jeffreys, as steward at the trial of Lord See also:Delamere, that, in trials of peers which take place during the See also:recess of parliament in the steward's court, the steward is the judge of the court, the court is held before him, his See also:warrant convenes the prisoner to the See also:bar, his See also:summons convenes the peers for the trial, and he is to determine by his See also:sole authority all questions of law that arise in the course of the trial, but that he is to give no See also:vote upon the issue of guilty or not guilty; during a session of parliament, on the contrary, all the peers are both See also:triers and judges, and the steward is only as chairman of the court and gives his vote together with the other lords. Lord Delamere was tried in 1685 in the steward's court; since then all trials of peers have taken place before the lords 'in parliament. The most See also:recent trial was that of Earl See also:Russell in 1901, when Lord Chancellor See also:Halsbury was made lord high steward.

The steward is addressed as " his See also:

grace," he has a See also:rod of office, and the commission appointing him is dissolved according to custom by breaking this rod. A court of claims sat and a steward was appointed for the coronation of Edward VII.; and during the procession in Westminster See also:Abbey the duke of See also:Marlborough, as steward, carried " St Edward's crown" in front of the See also:bearer of the See also:Bible (the See also:bishop of See also:London), who immediately preceded the king; this function of the steward is of modern origin. The steward's See also:ancient and particular services at coronations are , practically obsolete; the full ceremonies, procession from Westminster Hall and banquet in which he figured prominently, were abandoned on the accession of William IV. For the See also:early history of the steward see L. W. See also:Vernon-See also:Harcourt, His Grace the Steward and Trial of Peers (1907) ; for the later history of the office see See also:Sir E. See also:Coke, Institutes (1797) ; See also:Cobbett and See also:Howell, State Trials (18o9, seq.) ; S. M. Phillipps, State Trials (1826) ; John Hatsell, Precedents, vol. 4 (1818) ; and Sir M. See also:Foster, Crown Law (18o9). See also the various See also:works on Coronations for the steward's services on these occasions.

(L. W.

End of Article: LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR

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