THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20522, 25 September 1928, Page 11

THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

5, “ ♦ h GREAT SEAL AND ITS BAG. >£ ll The Lord Chancellor’s bag, an eightie eenth-century example of which is being presented to Lord Birkenhead, is a very r handsome and decorative receptable, being : s embroidered with the Royal arms in t . heraldic colours, and having thick silken 3, tassels. Lady Hardwicke is said to have employed the large number that came 5 into the possession of her husband, dur--4 ing his Jong tenure of the Woolsack, in the embellishment of her home at Wimpole. Others, it is said, have made hands ’ some chair covers, and one is reputed to '* survive as an effective fire screen. • A certain amount of misconception > exists both with regard to the bag and -■ the “ pestiferous lump of metal,” as Roger ["» North inelegantly described the Great 11 Seal, which is deposited in it (writes a i- correspondent of the Daily Telegraph 1. Some suppose the Great Seal to be merely an emblem or ornament, nevei put to j practical use. Others suppose it to be d used for sealing all documents issued from the Crown Office. The latter supposition c " was' correct down to the passing of the s Crown Office Act, 1877. In that year, s and under that Act, the Water Seal was invented, and rules made under the Act determine what documents are to be sealed with the Great Seal and what _ with the Wafer Seal. Broadly, the Great Seal is used for sealing letters >, patent creating peers, baronets, lordslieutenant, bishops, and judges, and on the commission appointing H.M. Lieutenants for the City of London. A word may be said of the operation of sealing. The Seal is made of silver hardened with some alloy, and consists 0 of two separate engraved parts. The two parts are brought together over softened wax, and the * sandwjph ” is then put into a press. The hardened disc of , wax which appears when the plates are removed is the seal attached to the letters patent. It weighs 220 z and is fastened by means of a silk cord which is embedded in the mass. The Great Seal itself weighs 171 b. At ’ one time it was actually carried by the Chancellor himself in the bag, but it is stated that this practice was discontinued because the seamstress who made one particular bag did her work so badly ’ that tlie heavy Seal fell through the bottom and damaged a toe of the Lord Chancellor. Nowadays when the public see the bag being borne before the Chancellor they may rightly judge it to be empty. The weight of the Great Seal was so well appreciated by Charles II that when handing it to Francis North (Lord Guildford), on his appointment to the Chancellorship, he remarked: ■ “Here, my lord, take it; you will find it very heavy.” Like the bag, the Great Seal when “ broken ” to make way for a new one becomes a perquisite of the Lord Chan- ' cellor. It is renewed at the commencement of every new reign, or for some ’ special reason at some other time, as, for instance. _ the present moment, when a new Seal is being made owing to the change in the King’s title through the creation of the Irish Free State as a Dominion. The reversion of the Seal of George IV led to a singular dispute. It was claimed by Lord Lyndhurst, who was in office when the King died, and also by Lord Brougham, who was Chancellor when the Seal was actually “ broken ” and the new one ready. William IV settled the matter by following the example of Solomon when called upon to decide the ownership of the disputed infant; he ordered a half to go to each; but, unlike the rival mothers, the two Chancellors agre’d to the division.