HOUSE OF LORDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 August 1941, Page 6

HOUSE OF LORDS

WORLD’S OLDEST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. The House of Lords is the oldest legislative and judicial assembly in the world, for it is the direct descendant of the Saxon Witenagemot, which began to function for the whole kingdom about 950, writes Lord Mersey in his book of reminiscences, “A Picture of Life.” As the Norman Great Council, it was already sitting in the 11th century more or less in its present form, a body of prelates, territorial magnates and Royal officers. It meets in the same place it has met in for nine centuries, the King’s Palace at Westminster, and though it conducts its business in a modern way it retains much of its ancient procedure. Yet it cannot be considered as aristocratic in its composition, taking the word as meaning long and noble descent. Of the 750 temporal lords in the House (in 1940), one-half sit for peerages created in the last 70 years; while of the 410 barons only 63 .date from before the 19th century. From a practical point of view, however, the House of Lords is a powerful and real aristocracy—the people who have, or whose ancestors have made their way to the top. About 150 of the present peers have been themselves created, and about 100 have no heirs to their peerages.