mally delivering the great seal, and addressing its recipient by the title of office. There is not necessarily any patent or writ, although it is customary for letters patent to be afterwards prepared. After he has taken the oath of office, the Lord Chancellor is duly invested with full authority to exercise all the functions appertaining to his place and dignity. Being held during pleasure, the office is vacated by the voluntary surrender of the great seal into the hands of the sovereign, or by its being delivered up, at the command of the king, either to himself in person, or to a messenger bearing a warrant for its delivery under the privy seal or sign manual.* In ancient times, the king used occasionally to deliver The Sea's. to the Chancellor several seals of different materials, as one of gold and one of silver, but with similar impressions, and to be used for the same purposes. Hence the phrase of 'the seals' being in commission, &c. But for several centuries there has been but one great seal in existence at a time. At the commencement of a new reign, when it becomes necessary to make a new seal, the old one is broken, and the fragments are presented to the Chancellor for the time being.' The great seal is considered as the emblem of sovereignty-the clavis regni-the only instrument by which, on solemn occasions, the will of the sovereign can be expressed. Absolute faith is invariably given to every document purporting to be under the great seal, as having been duly authenticated by royal authority. The law, therefore, takes anxious precautions to guard against any abuse of it. To counterfeit the great seal is high treason; and there are only certain modes wherein the seal can be lawfully used. Since the Revolution of 1688, it has been an acknowledged principle that, in order to prevent the crown from acting without the sanction of its responsible advisers, the great seal can only be constitutionally made use of by the proper officer to whom it has k Campbell's Chancellors, vol. i. pp. 22, 23, 490. Ibid. Seal. The Great been entrusted, and he becomes personally responsible for every occasion in which he affixes the great seal to any document; and cannot plead his sovereign's command as sufficient justification, apart from his own agreement to the act.m With some few exceptions-where the Lord Chancellor has a prescriptive right of making appointments or passing certain grants without first taking the royal pleasure thereupon the great seal cannot be used without the express command of the sovereign. By the statute 27 Henry VIII. c. 11, all crown grants (with certain exceptions) must issue upon a warrant under the signet to the Keeper of the Privy Seal, whose warrant becomes the authority to the Lord Chancellor to pass the same under the great seal. But, in practice, there are certain instruments appointing to office, or for the issue of certain royal commissions or warrants, for which a warrant of privy seal is not required; but which pass the great seal pursuant to warrants signed by the king, without being entered either at the Office of Privy Seal or of the Signet. Nevertheless, the law pays little regard to any other manifestation of the royal authority than those written instruments to which one or more responsible ministers of the crown have given their sanction. Any declaration of the intention of the crown to make grant,' says Sir Harris Nicolas, 'whether expressed verbally, by letters under the signet, or even by warrant of privy seal, is wholly useless, unless those preliminary measures be completely carried into effect by the great seal.'" m n Campbell's Chancellors, vol. i. pp. 23-27. The forms whereby the Great Seal is authorised to be affixed to any document are herein described. Proceedings of Privy Council, vol. vi. pp. clxxxiii., cc., ceiv.-cexi. This volume contains a learned and curious history of the Great Seal and sundry of the other signets by which from time to time validity has been given to the written commands of the monarchs of England, pp. cxl.ccxix. And see the case of Chancellor Yorke, in 1770, who died after his patent of peerage had passed through all the forms, except that the Great Seal had not been affixed to it, so that the title did not descend to his heirs. Campbell's Chancellors, vol. v. pp. 416, 427. Such is the constitutional importance which is attached to the custody of the great seal, that whilst, comparatively speaking, little regard has been shown, as a matter of record, to the movements of the king, except when he quitted the realm, and none has ever been paid to the custody of the crown, even though it be the peculiar emblem of sovereignty, and is, metaphorically, the representative of monarchical authority, the great seal has very rarely been placed by the king in the hands of his Chancellor, or in those of any other person, even for a single day, without the fact being recorded.° the House The Lord Chancellor is, by prescription, ex-officio Speaker Speaker of of the House of Lords, though he is not necessarily a of Lords. member of that assembly." It is only in modern times that it has become the practice to confer a peerage upon the Lord Chancellor; the first instance of the kind having occurred in 1603. On November 22, 1830, Henry Brougham, being then a member of the House of Commons, was appointed Lord Chancellor, and thereupon took his seat on the woolsack' as Speaker of the House of Lords. On the 23rd, he was created a peer of the realm; and on the same day a new writ was ordered to be issued by the House of Commons for the election of a member in the place of the Right Hon. Henry Brougham, 'now Lord Brougham.' According to the standing orders of the House of Lords, it is the paramount duty of the Lord Chancellor to be in his place, as Speaker, during their lordships' sittings, and not to suffer any other duty to interfere therewith. In 1722, Lord Chancellor Macclesfield incurred the displeasure of the House for being absent at the hour of meeting, even though he pleaded that he had been sent for, at that time, by the king. The modern usage, Proceedings of Privy Council, vol. vi. p. 149. P Campbell's Chanc. vol. i. p. 16. According to constitutional practice, the woolsack, upon which the VOL. II. Lord Chancellor sits, is not con- Y Y Campbell's Chancellors, iv. 384. Political importance of this office. however, is less strict. The occasional absence of the Chancellor, for a reasonable cause, excites no complaint, provided he gives notice to a Deputy Speaker to be in attendance, so as to protect the royal prerogative, and not oblige the House to have recourse to their ancient privilege of choosing their own Speaker." But, whether a peer or commoner, the Lord Chancellor is not, like the Speaker of the Commons, moderator of the proceedings of the House over which he presides. He is not addressed in debate; he does not name the peer who is to speak; he is not appealed to as an authority in points of order, and he may cheer, without offence, the sentiments expressed by his colleagues in the ministry. This arises from a constitutional distrust of a functionary who retains his office at the pleasure of the crown, and who is naturally an active political partisan. Nevertheless, the lack of a recognised authority to maintain order, without the necessity for appealing to the House collectively, is often productive of most inconvenient consequences.t He In consideration of his exalted position, the Lord Chancellor is necessarily a member of the Privy Council. has always been one of the principal advisers of the crown in affairs of state. In former times, he was frequently Prime Minister. The Earl of Clarendon, in the reign of Charles II., was the last who occupied this position; but his successors in office have invariably been leading members of the Cabinet, and have taken a prominent part in the direction of the national councils." In his legal capacity, the Lord Chancellor is the highest judicial officer in the realm; the visitor of all hospitals and colleges of royal foundation; and the general guardian, on behalf of the crown, of all infants, idiots, and lunatics. He issues writs for summoning and proroguing Parliament, and transacts all business connected with the custody of the great seal. He presides over the Court of Chancery; and also exercises a special jurisdiction, conferred upon him by various statutes, as original or appellate judge, in certain cases. And it is his duty to take the pleasure of the sovereign upon Bills that have passed the two Houses of Parliament and await the royal assent." political Objections have frequently been urged against the Union of combination of judicial and political functions in the judicial and office of Lord Chancellor. But the weightiest authority functions. appears to be in favour of this apparently anomalous union. The late Sir Robert Peel has borne testimony to the great advantage accruing to the Cabinet in its having the assistance of the highest equity judge, and to the fact that there is no proof of any injury to the interests of justice having taken place in consequence of the frequent changes of this functionary which are incidental to parliamentary government. He was of opinion that there was no ground for the apprehension that because this office is held upon a political tenure, unfit or unworthy persons might be selected to fill it. The peculiar advantages of a Lord Chancellor to a government would be wholly lost, if he were not a man of the highest character and professional reputation. If a ministry were to select an inferior man as Lord Chancellor, in order to obtain thereby political aid apart from professional service, they would sink immeasurably in public estimation, as well as in the opinion of the bar. It would be manifestly to their interest to choose a man of the highest character and legal ability, whose political views were, at the same time, of the same complexion as their own.` There is a very considerable amount of patronage annexed to this office. He is the patron of all the king's livings (i.e. church Church benefices) of the value of twenty pounds and under. Out patronage. of 840 church livings' at the disposal of the crown, 720 See Campbell's Chancellors, in trod. to vol. i. Ibid. vol. v. p. 670. * Sir R.Peel, before Com. on Official Salaries, 1850, Evid. 225, 226, 241, &c. And see ante, p. 159. |