PETITION PRESENTED. (Hansard, 10 April 1883)

THE EARL OF GALLOWAY,

in presenting a Petition from the Members of the Learned Professions in Scotland and others, praying that in any legislation bearing upon the Peerage of Scotland the jurisdiction of the Court of Session may be provided for, said: My Lords, in allusion to the two Bills of very grave importance which stand on your Lordships Orders to-day for second reading—namely, the Representative Peers (Scotland) Bill and the Representative Peers (Scotland) Election Procedure Bill, I hope I may be allowed to read a Petition which I have been requested to present. It is signed by two-thirds of the Sheriffs of Scotland. Perhaps I may be allowed to remind English Peers that the Sheriffs of Scotland are learned men, their qualifications being very different from those of Sheriffs in other parts of the United Kingdom; and I may say that the absence of the signatures of the other Sheriffs is due to various causes, some of them being absent from this country, and this Bill having been brought on for second reading rather hurriedly, there has been no opportunity of getting the Petition forwarded in time for their signatures. The Petition also contains the signatures of the Lord Provosts of Edinburgh and Glasgow as representing the people of Scotland; but the object of its promoters was not to get numbers of signatures, but specially to secure names representative of all the men learned in law and history. The noble Earl presented the Petition accordingly:— That, previous to the Treaty of Union, questions involving the right to a Peerage of Scotland were decided by the Court of Session—the Supreme Court of Scotland; that questions of precedence between Peers were expressly reserved to that Court in the decree of ranking, and that by the 19th Article of the Treaty of Union the 'authority and privileges' of the Court of Session were upheld unimpaired; That, nevertheless, subsequently to the Union the practice has been introduced of Scottage Peerage claims being referred, in the first instance to, and virtually decided by, the resolutions of the Committee for Privileges of your Lordships' House; That such Committee, composed of members of your right hon. House, not necessarily conversant with the law of Scotland, has not been found in all respects a satisfactory substi- 1939 tute for the Supreme Court of Scotland in dealing: with the rights of Peers of that kingdom, and that its proceedings have not always secured that general acquiesence of opinion which the rulings of your Lordships' House should command; That it appears from one of the bills before your Lordships it is proposed to empower your right hon. House to make alterations in the Union Roll, and that as a matter affecting both public and private interests, as well as one in which Scottish national sentiment is concerned, it deserves your Lordships' earnest solicitude not to prejudice the rights of precedency of any of the ancient and historic dignities of Scotland as established by that roll. And praying— That in any legislation hearing upon the Peerage of Scotland your Lordships will provide for the jurisdiction of the Court of Session, subject to appeal to your right hon. House, as a judicial tribunal, and that in the case of petitions relating thereto Her Most Gracious Majesty be advised to direct reference in the first instance to the said Court of Session, and your petitioners will ever," &c. Petition that in any legislation bearing upon the Peerage of Scotland the jurisdiction of the Court of Session may be provided for; of Members of the Learned Professions in Scotland and others.—(The Earl of Galloway.)