* THE EARL OF BELMOREMy Lords, I rise to ask His Majesty's Government whether there would be any objection to there being laid on the Table of this House, at the beginning of each session of Parliament, a list of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal arranged in the order in which they first sat in Parliament, with the dates. This is not a very important matter, but at the same time it is one that excites a little curiosity outside this House. We see from time to time statements in the newspapers as to who is Father of the House, and who are the senior sitting Members, and naturally inaccuracies creep in because the persons who write these paragraphs forget that it does not follow that a noble Lord has taken his seat immediately after either he has succeeded to his title or come of age. I do not think that to make a list of this sort would be a very difficult matter. Some twenty years ago there was in the library a manuscript list of the sort I allude to, and if that list is not in existence I think it would be possible to make a new one.
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (The Marquess of LANSDOWNE)My Lords, I awaited with some curiosity the statement of the reasons for which the noble Earl has made this inquiry. I am advised that it would be possible to compile a list of the kind he suggests, but that it would take a 1288 certain amount of trouble. I understand that the noble Earl desires this list in order to set at rest any doubts which may exist in the minds of your Lordships or outside this House as to the seniority of certain Peers, and particularly with regard to the seniority of the particular Peer who has the good or ill fortune to be the Father of your Lordships' House. I cannot help thinking that some means might be found of establishing the point of seniority as between that particular Peer and his competitors simpler than that of compiling a list of the whole of the Members of your Lordships' House, with the dates at which they took their seats. Perhaps the noble Earl will allow me, having heard what he has said, to confer with the officers of the House and see whether we cannot hit upon some simpler expedient for giving him the information he desires.
* THE EARL OF BELMOREI am glad to hear the answer which the noble Marquess has given, and to concur in his suggestion.