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the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the three principal Secretaries of State, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and commonly some others of the principal officers of government. The First Lord of the Treasurer is considered as the Premier or Prime Minister of the country. It has sometimes happened that the offices of the First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been held by the same person. The King removes his confidential servants, or "the administration," as it is called, at his pleasure.

The Lord Chancellor

Keeps the Great Seal, not to judge according to the common law, as other courts do, but to dispense with such parts as seem, in some cases, to oppress the subject; and to judge according to equity, conscience, and reason. He presides in the High Court of Chancery, which is the most important of all the King's civil courts of justice. He takes precedency of every temporal lord, and is by office Speaker of the House of Lords. To him belongs the appointment of justices of the peace throughout the kingdom; and he is patron of all the ecclesiastical benefices under the yearly value of £20 in the King's Books. He is also the general guardian of all infants, idiots, and lunatics. The Court of Chancery in which the Lord Chancellor alone sits and determines without a jury, judges causes in equity, in order to moderate the rigor of the law, to defend the helpless from oppression, and especially to extend relief in cases of accident, fraud, and breach of trust. From this court an appeal lies immediately to the House of Peers, which is the Supreme Court of Judicature in the kingdom.

The Lord Privy Seal

Is so called from his having the King's Privy Seal in his custody, which he must not put to any grant without warrant under the King's signet. This seal is used to all charters, grants, and pardons, signed by the King, before they come to the Great Seal.

The Lord President of the Council

Holds his post by letters patent durante beneplacito. By stat. 21, Henry VIII., he is to attend the King's person; to manage the debates in Council; to propose matters from the King at the Council; and to report to the King the resolutions thereupon.

The Treasury.

Formerly there was a Lord High Treasurer; but for upwards of a century the management of the Treasury has been put in commission, the commissioners being the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, (to whom is entrusted, in an especial manner, the revenue and expenditure of the nation, and who often takes the lead on the ministerial side in the House of Commons), and three other Commissioners. The First Lord of the Treasury has the appointment of all officers employed in collecting the revenues of the Crown; the nomination of all escheators; the disposal of all places and ways relating to the revenue; and power to let leases of the crown lands.

The Three Secretaries of State.

The Secretary of State for the Home Department has the management of, and control over, the internal affairs of the kingdom; issues all directions and commands to Lord Lieutenants, Sheriffs, and other magistrates; and makes out and executes all grants, pardons, and regulations in civil matters of every kind. The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has the management of all correspondence and transactions with foreign nations. The Secretary of State for the Colonial Department has the management of all the affairs relating to the colonies of Great Britain.

The Admiralty.

The superintendence of the navy is seldom now entrusted to a Lord High Admiral; but a board of admiralty is appointed, consisting of a first Lord and several subordinate members. The duty of the admiralty is to consider and determine on all matters relating to the navy; to give directions for all services that are to be performed therein, both in its civil and naval branches, and generally to superintend the naval and marine establishment.

The Lord Chamberlain.

The office of the Lord Chamberlain is to take care of all officers and servants (excepting those belonging to the King's bedchamber, who are under the groom of the Stole), belonging to the King's chambers, who are sworn in their places by him. He has the oversight of the officers of the wardrobe at all the King's houses; of tents, revels, music, comedians, huntsmen, messengers, and artisans; also of the King's chaplains, heralds, physicians, apothecaries, &c. It is his duty to inspect into the charges of corronations, marriages, public entries, cavalcades, and funerals; and into all furniture for and in the parliament house, and rooms of addresses to the King.

The Lord Steward.

The estate of the King's household is entirely committed to the Lord Steward, to be ruled and governed by his discretion; and all his commands in court are to be obeyed. His authority reaches over all the officers and servants of the King's house, except those of the King's chamber, stable, and chapel. Under the Lord Steward, in the counting-house, are the treasurer of the household, comptroller, cofferer, master of household, clerks of、 the green cloth, &c. It is called the counting-house, because all the accounts and expenses of the King's household are daily taken and kept in it.

The Master of the Horse

Has the charge of all the King's stables and horses; also power over equeries, pages, footmen, grooms, farriers, smiths, saddlers, and all trades relating in any way to the stables. He has the privilege of applying to his own use one coachman, four footmen, and six grooms, in the King's pay, and wearing the King's livery. In any solemn cavalcade he rides next behind the King.

PARLIAMENT.

The Parliament of Great Britain is the great council of the nation, constituting the legislature, which is summoned by the King's authority, to consult on public affairs, and enact and repeal laws. It consists of Lords Spiritual and Temporal, called the Peers or Upper House; and Knights, Citizens, or Burgesses, who are comprehended under the name of the Commons or Lower House.

THE HOUSE OF LORDS OR PEERS.

The Lord High Chancellor Lyndhurst, Speaker.

The House of Lords is composed of all the five orders of nobility of England, dukes, marquesses, earls, viscounts, and barons, who have attained the age of 21 years, and labor under no disqualification; of 16 representative peers from Scotland; 28 representative peers from Ireland; 2 English archbishops and 24 bishops; and 4 representative Irish bishops :-the number of each, in 1830, being as follows:

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A List of the House of Lords, with the Date of the Creation of the Family, and the Birth of the present Peer.-The Titles here given are those by which the Noblemen sit in the House of Peers.

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1558 Saint John

1597 Howard de W. 1603 Petre

1603 Say and Sele
1605 Arundel
1608 Clifton
1615 Dormer

1616 Teynham 1640 Stafford 1643 Byron 1672 Clifford 1703 Gower 1711 Boyle

1711 Hay

1712 Middleton
1725 King
1728 Monson
1741 Mountford
1749 Ponsonby

1760 Sondes
1761 Grantham
1761 Scarsdale
1761 Boston

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K. A. Howard

St. And. Saint John

C. A. Ellis

W. H. F. Petre

1776 1794 Selsey

1773 1794 Dundas 1767 1794 Yarborough 1811 1796 Stuart 1779

1793 1796 Stewart

G. W.E. T. Fiennes 1769

Everard Arundel 1786 1796 Saltersford J.Bligh(E.Darn., I.)|1767|

J. T. Dormer

1796 Dawnay

H. F. R. Curzon 1768 G.W.S.Jernyngham 1771 1796 Brodrick

G. A. Byron
Charles Clifford
G. G. L. Gower

Edmund Boyle (E.of

1689

1759 1796 Calthorpe

1786 1796 De Dustanville 1796 Rolle

Cork & Orrery, i.) 1767|| 1797 Wellesley T. R. H. Drummond

(E.of Kinnoul, Sc.) 1785 1797 Carrington

H. Willoughby

Peter King

J. G. Monson

H. Bromley

1761 1797 Bayning 1776 1797 Bolton 1809 1797 Wodehouse 1773 1797 Northwick 1797 ford 1797 Ribblesdale 1799 Fitzgibbon

1792

1781

1751 1801 Moore 1777

1773 1801 Loftus

1767 1801 Carysfort

1803

1776 1801 Alvanley

F. Ponsonby (E. of Besborough, Irel'd) 1758 L. R. Watson T. P. Weddell Nathaniel Curzon George Irby H. R. N. Fox Hol-John Perceval (E. of Egmont, Ireland) G. C. V. Vernon T. R. Moreton G. W. Campbell (D. of Argyll, Scot.) E. W. Hawke Thomas Foley G. T. Rice G. de Grey Wm. Bagot Charles Fitzroy Fletcher Norton George Rodney George Thynne Thomas N. Hill John Dutton H. J. M. Scot

1780 Walsingham 1780 Bagot 1780 Southampton 1782 Grantley 1782 Rodney 1784 Carteret 1784 Berwick

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1801 Abercromby 1768 1801 t. Helens 1799 1802 Redesdale 1780 1802 Rivers

1765 1802 Ellenborough 1776 1802 Arden 1773 1802 Sheffield

1804

1796 1805 Barham

1782 1806 Erskine 1770 1806 Mounteagle 1770

1779 1806 Ardrossan ' 1776

H. de la P. Beresford
M. of Waterf'd, I.) 1815

1806 Lauderdale

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