MT LORD-KEEPER. 



FagUad. and the consequent retnoUn*** of Scotland from tint Unme- 

 diauteatof government. 



It b difficult to dean* UM powers and duties of the lord advocate 

 UMT art aid to b* indefinable The molt prominent however b tha 

 of publk prosecutor ; and in thb cpcil.v be ha, brid UM *olicit..r 

 I. four rt*Hini; deputies of hi* own appointment, who retire 

 with him on a change of ruinutry. TbM deputiea a*abt him in tin 

 Court of Justiciary, and are despatched by him to the several circuit! 

 of that court to proMeuU indictment* there. He hat abo a deputy in 

 to* Court of Exchequer ; and a deputy or occasional mibctitute to con 



LORD OF MISRULE. 



M 



duct prosecutions 



i ..... 



the aberiff of Edinburgh, or other county 

 t hat indeed a " procurator fiscal," whote 



duty it b to sue on behalf of the crown in hb county; but that officer 

 b not yet placed on a proper footing, being neither of the bar, nor 

 named by the crown or the lord advocate. 



LORD KEEPER ((.Wat maymi SijOlt), an ancient officer of the 

 crown, who had the custody of the king's great seal, with authority to 

 affix it to public documents, some of the most important of which can 

 only be authenticated in thb formal manner. 



I the reign of Henry 111. the office of keeper of the great seal 

 appears to have been distinct from that of chancellor, and generally 

 subordinate to it The chancellor, a* a high judicial officer, was sworn 

 at hb entrance upon hb duties, but the functions of the keeper beinf 

 considered a* chiefly ministerial, no oath appears to have been requiroc 

 from him. The chancellor was often elected by the baronage parlia- 

 ment, or great council of the nation, but the custody of the great sea! 

 wa* under the control of the king. The ancient entries respecting the 

 appointment of the chancellor generally are A. B. Cancellarius (or in 

 CanceUarium) Angluc electus, or a baronagio, or in pleno parliamento, or 

 per regem et parhamentum, constitutus est. Records of the reign ol 

 Henry L and John show that both office* were held simultaneously by 

 different persons under those princes. Sometimes the offices were 

 united in one individual, who was thus both judge and minister. In 

 11 Henry III., Ralph Nevill was appointed by parliament chancellor 

 for life ; and two year* afterwards he received the custody of the great 

 seal from the king. In 22 Henry III. the great teal was forcibly token 

 from Nevill by the king, who delivered it to two persons, Geoffrey the 

 Templar and John Lexington ; but at Nevill could not be deprived ol 

 hb judicial authority by the crown, he continued to hold the office ol 

 chancellor until hb death. But the great seal was under the control of 

 the chancellor ; and when Henry III. demanded it from the Bishop of 

 Cheater, hb chancellor, he answered, that having received the seal by 

 the common council of the realm, he could not resign it to any one 

 without the like common consent It was matter of complaint against 

 Henry HI. that in 1261 he appointed Walter de Merton to be chan- 

 cellor, " inconsulto baronagio, or without the consent of the baronage. 

 In the following year be appears to have removed Hugh le Despencer 

 the chief-justice, and Nicholas de Ely the chancellor, appointed by the 

 barona. 



Edward L took the great teal with him into Flanders, and after- 

 ward* into Gatcony, leaving hb chancellor in England with a tem- 

 porary aval : and in 6 Edward I. the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the 

 chancellor, on going abroad left the great seal in the custody of Sir 

 John de Kerby, with an injunction to despatch the business of 

 UM chancellery in hb absence. The chancellor cannot now make a 

 deputy, or, at heSvat formerly called, a lieutenant In 16 Edward L, 

 Ayretnin, matter of the rolls, and hb companions, were keepers of the 

 great teal ; Burnell, bishop of Bath and Wells, being at the same time 

 chancellor. Among the restriction* imposed on Edward II. by the 

 ordemoun elected by the barons and common* in parliament, wat one 

 that the king should appoint the chancellor and certain other great 

 officers by the advice and assent of hb baronage, and in parliament 

 Thb seem* to have been the hut interference with the royal authority 

 over the appointment of chancellor until the time of the Long Parlia- 

 ment In the more vigorous reign of Edward III. we find by the 

 parliament roll that in 1843 the commons prayed that no alien might 

 be made chancellor, but the king answered, that he could appoint 

 whom he would. Henry V. had two great seals, one of gold, which he 

 delivered to UM bbhop of Durham, making him lord chancellor of 

 *Tf>nil, and another of silver, which he delivered to the bishop of 

 London to hep. The statute 31 Henry VIII., c. 10, assigned the- some 

 rank to the lord chancellor and the lord-keeper, giving to the pcnon 

 holding the on* office or the other precedence over all by peer*, except 

 those of UM blood royal; and in 5 Elizabeth, c. 18, Sir Nicola* Bacon, 

 lord-keeper, procured an Act which, after reciting that some question 

 bad e/ 6ft arisen whether like place, authority, and power belonged to 

 theomceof lord-keeper of the great seal of England, a* belonged to 

 the lord-chMotOor of England, declare, that the keeper of the great 

 Mel he* always had, used, and executed the some place, authority, pre- 

 Mirinence, jurisdiction, execution of laws, and all other customs, com- 

 modities, and advantage* a* the lord chancellor. 



notwithstanding tites* two statutes the appointment of lord- 

 keeper appear, not to have Mood so high in the estimation of the 

 public a. that of chancellor; and the great Mai has been generally 

 deliver^! with the Utter title. 



Upon the rupture between CbarlM I. and hb parliament the king 

 took the great seal to O*ford. upon which a new eeal was ordered to be 

 made by UM parliament. Thb measure was the subject of severe 



reproaches from the royalist* ; though unless the parliament were pre- 

 pared to submit unconditionally to the king, it is difficult to say how 

 any other course could have been adopted. 



(Matth. Paris ; Parliament KolU ; Coke's 4th In*. ; Bohun's far- 

 fun Ortwor//. ) 



The power and duties of the lord-keeper, as identified with the 

 chancellor, have already been stated. [< . v.j 



l.i'UIM.II.r I T.N ANT. It was formerly usual for the crown, from 

 time to time, to issue commissions of array, requiring cert.. 

 perienced persons to muster and array the inhabitants of the c< 

 to which such commissioners were sent They were directed to put 

 into military order those who were capable of performing m 

 service, and to distrain such at were not qualified to serve, but 

 pci**e*trl of real or personal property, to furnish armour to their more 

 vigorous countrymen ; and they were to erect beacons where necessary. 

 The form of those commissions, after much complaint, was sett 

 statute, and may be seen at length in the Parliament-! a. IV., 



In the 16th century these commissions appear to have given place to 

 commissions of lieutenancy, by which nearly the same power* were 

 conferred on certain persons as standing representatives of the > 

 In l.'ilj a commission " de arraia! pitaneo get, 



Francos" issued to the duke of Norfolk, constituting him the king'* 

 lieutenant, and captain-general of all captains, vice-captains, men-at- 

 arms, armed men, archers, and all others retained or to be retained 

 against the French, in the counties of Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk. II 

 Cambridge, Huntingdon, Lincoln. Rutland, Warwick, Northampton, 

 Leicester, and Bedford. A similar commission issued to the Duke of 

 Suffolk for the counties of Kent, Sussex, s >: ;. . ! I .n:-. Wilt-. Iterks, 

 Oxford, Middlesex, Bucks, Worcester, and Hereford, and London ; and 

 to John Russell, knight, Lord Ruxse.ll, keeper of the privy seal, for 

 the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, and i .l-ueester. 

 (Rymer.) These officers are however spoken of by Canidcn, in the. 

 reign of Elizabeth, as extraordinary magistrates, constituted only in 

 times of difficulty and danger, which waa the cose with commit- . 

 of array, as appears from the recitals in their commission. 



The right of the crown to issue commissions of lieutenancy was 

 denied by the Long Parliament, and formed a proximate cause of the 

 rupture between Charles I. and his subjects. Upon the Restoration 

 the right of the crown to issue such commissions was established by a 

 declaratory Act, 14 Charles II., cap. a. 



The authorities and duties of the lord-lieutenant and of his tem- 

 porary vice-lieutenants, and of hb permanent deputy-lieutenants, have 

 with reference to military affairs been regulated by the Militia Acts. 

 [MILITIA.] The lord-lieutenant, however, nominates to the Lord 

 Chancellor, all the justices of the peace for the county of which he is 



!; >:' l: !' . 



LOUD OF MISIU'LK, the master of the revels at Christmas in any 

 nobleman's or other great house. " First in the feast at < 

 says Stowe, ' Survey of London,' " there was in the king's house, 

 wheresoever he was lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or master of im ny 

 disports, and the like baa ye in the house of every nobleman of Inn . n- 

 or good worship, were he spiritual or temporal ; amongst the which 

 the mayor of London, and either of the sheriil-, had their .-> 

 of Misrule, ever contending, without quarrel or oll'ence, who should 

 make the rarest pastimes to delight the beholders. These lords, 

 Beginning their rule on Alhallow-eve, continued the same till the 

 morrow after the Feast of Purification, commonly called Candlemas- 

 lay : in all which space there*were fine and subtle disguising*, masks, 

 and mummeries, with playing at cords for counters, nailes, ami points 

 n every house, more for pastime than for gain." 



Thb lord of Misrule, or revel-master, was sometimes termed a 



Christmas prince. Warton, in his ' History of English Poetry,' tells ua 



.bat in an original draught of the statutes of Trinity College at 



Cambridge, founded in 1546, one of the chapters b entitled, ' De 



iracfecto Ludorum, qui Imperator dicitur,' under whose direction and 



authority Latin comedies and tragedies are to bo exhibited in the hall 



at Christmas; as also "sex spectocula," or as many dialogues. With 



regard to the peculiar business and office of Imperator, it is ci 



.liat one of the Masters of Art* shall be placed over the juniors every 



Christmas, for the regulation of their gomes and diversions at that 



season of festivity, lib sovereignty was to last during the twelve days 



if Christmas, and he was to exercise the same power on Candlemas- 



' ... . His fee was forty shillings. In an audit-book of Trinity College 



n Oxford, for the year 1559, Mr. Warton found a disbursement 



irmndio Principit ifutalicii." A Christmas prince or lord of misrule, 



le adds, corresponding to the imperator at Cambridge, was a common 



empor&ry magistrate in the colleges at Oxford. The law societies of 



.01,, |. .n had similar commemorations, and in H!35, the expenses of the 



iaster of the Revels in the Middle Temple amounted to Jiiini/., paid 



roin hb own purse, and when he was deposed, or his term of office had 



expired, he waa knighted by the king. After 1040 we hear nothing of 



he Lord of Misrule in England. 



In Scotland, where the Reformation took a more severe and gloomy 

 urn than in England, the "Abbot of Unreason," as ho 

 called, and other festive characters, were suppressed b\ the i 

 ure a* early a* 1655. At Rodez, the capita] of UM province of 

 tovergnc in France, previous to the Revolution, they had an ' 



