§ LORD REDESDALEsaid, he should, on a future occasion, propose that the Law, in the same way as the Church, should, to a certain extent, be represented in that House, by the holders of certain offices—that they should be admitted to that House as Peers of Parliament during the continuance of holding such offices. The form of his notice would be—
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, praying, that for the Advantage of this House and the Suitors thereto, and for the honour of the legal Profession, Her Majesty will be graciously pleased to sanction the Erection of the Offices of Lord Chancellor, Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Chief Baron of the Exchequer, in England into Baronies, which shall entitle the Holders of the said Offices to Writs of Summons to Parliament by Tenure of the said Offices.The effect of that would be, that they would have the three chief Judges of the Common Law Courts to express their opinion with a full voice in that House. He believed it would be most beneficial, and the three first Equity Judges might afterwards be included. The matter was, however, so novel in itself, that he only threw it out as a suggestion. He did not fix any day, nor, if he had fixed any day, should he have proposed it for immediate decision; but it was a matter which he considered well worthy the attention of their Lordships.
LORD CAMPBELLdid not intend to offer any opinion on this suggestion; it might deserve the consideration of their Lordships. His noble Friend proposed that these high officers should have a temporary peerage, to be held only during their tenure of office. Now this could not 1312 be done by an Address to the Crown. The Crown might create, by its prerogative, a peerage for life, but not a peerage during a man's continuance in office; that would require an enactment of the three branches of the Legislature.
§ LORD REDESDALEwas well aware of the objection urged by his noble and learned Friend, but reminded him that a bishop might resign his see, and if he did so he would not continue a Peer for life; for his peerage depended on the temporal barony which he held while a bishop, and which he would cease to hold when he ceased to be a bishop. So, too, with the Scotch Representative Peerage. A man might be a Representative Poor in one Parliament, and not in another.
LORD CAMPBELLsaid, it would be calling on the Queen to exercise a power which the Crown did not possess. There must first be a legislative enactment.
§ LORD REDESDALEreplied that his Motion was directed to obtain Her Majesty's sanction, with the view to subsequent enactments.