The Privileges of a Peer.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVI, Issue 12, 22 March 1911, Page 55

The Privileges of a Peer.

If a peerage were suddenly granted tc you it would make a eonsideraole difference in your daily lite, for a peer has certain rights and privileges denied to the. man in tlie slreei. ■ • — *s \..For one thing, Jf a peer is required to attend at a Police Court- he may take his seat' and remain covered—he need not remove his hat, but, as a matter qf fact, no peer sitting hi a court of law -would seek to remain covered. The average peer would, of course, remove -hia: hat just like any other man.; Still, if he elected to keep it <m, no magistrate can order its removal. If a commoner ~ssa dts a peer the unfortunate man runs ihe risk of being charged with contempt towards the whole House of ParliamentI—it? 1 —it? you assault a peer, in short, you have insulted'the Houses of Parliament. On the other hand, if a peer assaults a commoner, he can be duly summoned to appear in court, but Whilst he is in court he has a few privileges, we will not call them rights, that most certainly are not shared in by the ordinary person. Thus, a peer charged with assaulting an ordinary man can stand, in open court and revile his accuser—he can even go the length of threatening to half kill him once he gets him outside, so to speak, and no judge can commit him for contempt of court, nor yet can he be bound over to keep the peace.

Perhaps one of the most extraordinary privileges possessed by a peer iS» this. Supposing an earl of the United Kingdom is charged with murder. Well, he can demand to be tried by his own peers -7-tlie members of the House of Lords—and, granted they convict him and he is sentenced to death, he need not be hanged with a hempen rope round his neck. The law allows him to demand that a silk rope be used! Of.course, it would make very little difference, but it very likely is a fact that were a peer condemned to die on the scaffold he would not 'be hanged with an ordinary hempen rope; very probably a silk one would be used. Tn a former day a peer had very many privileges, and theoretically these privileges are quite in force to-day. However, one never hears of them. Ono privilege was this, a peer did not require to stamp his correspondence in the ordinary way. All he had to do was stamp any letter with his own private stamp. In a word, peers used to be able to frank all their letters. The law has the power to come down heavily on anyone who assaults a servant of a peer, and a constable has not the same powers when arresting a peer as he has where the ordinary man is concerned. On the whole, however, one hears very little of peers’ privileges nowadays; for the most part they are quite obsolete, although they have never been repealed by law.