4G.9 
PEE 
Nature bad fram’d ftrange fellows in her time ; 
Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, 
And laugh like parrots at a bagpiper. Shakefpcare. 
O my mufe, juft diftance keep ; 
Thou art a maid, and muft not peep. Prior. 
In vain his little children, peeping out 
Into the mingling ftorm, demand their fire. Thomjim. 
[From pipio, Lat. piepen, Teut. pepier, Fr.] To chirp; to 
cry as young birds ; to utter in a fmall voice; to whilper. 
— By peeping and muttering are meant the anfwers of 
thofe who, pretending to have familiar fpirits, muttered 
or fpoke imperfe£t!y, as if their voice proceeded out of 
the caverns of the earth ; or fpoke inwardly, fo that their 
words feemed to come out of their belly; from whence 
they were called syyarp*/*v 0 oi in Greek. W. Louth on 
Ifaiah. —Wifards that peep, and that mutter. Ifaiah viii. 
19.—None that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or 
peeped. Ifaiah x. 14.—Thy fpeech fhall whilper [in the 
margin, peep, or ehirp~\ out of the duft. Ifaiah xxix. 4. 
The only oracle, 
That ever peep'd or fpake out of a doublet. B. Jonfon. 
PEEP, /. Firft appearance : as, At the peep and firft 
break of day.—A fly look.—Would not one think the 
almanack-maker was crept out of his grave to take t’other 
peep at the (tars ? Swift. 
PEE'P-HOLE, or Peeping-hole, /. Hole through 
which one may look without being difeovered.—The fox 
fpied him through a peepiug-hole he had found out to fee 
what news. L'EJlrange. 
By the peep-holes in his creft, 
Is it not virtually confeft, 
That there his eyes took diftant aim ? Prior. 
PEEPAROOT, a town of Bengal: fix miles from 
Nattore. 
PEEPAROO'L, a town of Hindooftan, in Rohilcund : 
fifteen miles weft-fouth-weft of Budayoon. 
PEEPEC', a townfliip of Ohio, in Rofs-county ; con¬ 
taining 670 perfons. 
PEE'PER,/ One that peeps.—In familiar language, 
the eye.—A young chicken juft breaking the.(hell; 
Difhes I chufe, though little, yet genteel ; 
Snails the firft courfe, and peepers crown the meal. 
Bramjlon. 
PEE'PING, f. The a£l of looking flily into any thing. 
PEE'PLY, a town of Hindooftan, in Cattack: five 
miles fouth of Cattack. 
PEER, /, [pair, Fr.] Equal ; one of the fame rank.— 
As every one of the nobility, being a lord of parliament 
is a peer, or equal to all the other lords, though of feveral 
degrees; fo the commons are peers to one another, al¬ 
though diftinguifiied as knights, efquires, gentlemen, &c. 
Peers (pares) fignify, in law, thofe who are impanelled 
in an ir.queft upon a man, for convicting or clearing him 
of any offence ; the reafon is, becaufe the cuftom of the 
realm is to try every man in fuch cafe by his peers or 
equals. Jacob. 
His peers upon this evidence 
Have found him guilty of high treafon. Shakefpeare. 
One equal in excellence or endowments.—All thefe did 
wife Uliffes lead, in counfell peer to Jove. Chapman. 
In fong he never had his peer. 
From fweet Cecilia down to chanticleer. Dryden. 
Companion ; fellow.—He all his peers in beauty did fur- 
pafs. Spenfer. 
If you did move to night, 
In the dances, with what fpight 
Of your peers you were beheld, 
That at every motion fwell’d. B. Jonfon. 
PEE 
Who bear the bows were knights in Arthur’s reign, 
Twelve they, and twelve the peers of Charlemagne. 
Dryden. 
A nobleman as diftinct from a commoner; of nobility 
we have five degrees, who are all neverthelefs called peers, 
becaufe their effential privileges are the fame. For almoft 
every particular concerning the creation, privileges, de- 
feent, &c. of the peers of Great Britain and Ireland, fee 
the article Heraldry, vol. ix. p. 416, 487. and Parlia¬ 
ment, vol. xviii. 
The House of Peers is the fupreme court of the 
kingdom to reClify any injuftice or miftake of the law com¬ 
mitted in the courts below. To this authority they fuc- 
ceeded of courfe upon the diffolution of the Aula Regia. 
For, as the barons of parliament were conftituent mem¬ 
bers of that court, and the reft of its jurifdiftion was 
dealt out to other tribunals, over which the great officers 
who accompanied thofe barons were reflectively delega¬ 
ted to preiide, it followed, that the right of receiving ap¬ 
peals, and fuperintending all other jurifdiCtions, (till re¬ 
mained in that noble affembly from which every other 
great court was derived. They are therefore in all cafes 
the laft refort, from whofe judgment no farther appeal is 
permitted ; but every fubordinate tribunal muft conform 
to their determinations: the law repofing an entire con¬ 
fidence in the honour and confidence of the noble per¬ 
fons who compofe this important affembly, that they will 
make themfelves mafters of thofe queftions upon which 
they undertake to decide ; fince upon their decifion all 
property muft finally depend. It was towards the latter 
end of the reign of king Charles I. that the houfe of peers 
firft afferted their jurifdidion of hearing appeals from the 
Chancery, which they do upon a paper petition, without 
any writ directed from the king; and for this their foun¬ 
dation is, that they are the great court of the king, and 
that therefore the chancery is derived out of it, and by 
confequence that a petition will bring the caufeand re¬ 
cord before them. This was much controverted by the 
commons in the reign of Charles II. but is now pretty 
well fiubmitted to, becaufe it has been thought too much 
that the chancellor fhould bind the w'hole property of the 
kingdom without appeal. 
The peers of Scotland or Ireland had no privilege in 
this kingdom before the union ; but, by claufes in the 
refpeftive articles of union, the defied peers have all the 
privileges of peers of parliament; alfo all the reft of the 
peers of Scotland and Ireland have all the privileges of 
the peerage of England, excepting only that of fitting 
and voting in parliament, and of franking letters in Eng¬ 
land. A Roman-catholic peer is not entitled to the 
privilege of franking letters. 
The right of trial by their peers, it feems now gene¬ 
rally admitted, does not extend to bifliops. The bifhops 
may however claim all the privileges of the lords tempo¬ 
ral; except that they cannot be tried by their peers, and 
they cannot, in capital cafes, pafs upon the trial of any 
other peers, they being prohibited by canon to be judges 
of life and death, &c. They ufually therefore withdraw 
voluntarily; but enter a proteft, declaring their right to 
ftay. 
The Peers of France were, anciently, the twelve 
grand lords of that kingdom. The inftitution of thefe 
peers is very uncertain. Some refer it to Charlemagne, 
but with little probability; fince raoft of the fiefs, 
which bear the names of duchies, &c. or give titles to 
the peers, were not ereCted into duchies, &c. till long 
after : the dukes, &c. in thofe days, being no more than 
fimple governors of provinces, without any other title or 
privileges. Others attribute it to Hugh Capet, at the 
time when the dukes and counts changed the offices they 
then'held of the king into perpetual fiefs: but this alfo 
is impoffible; Champaigne, one of the titles, not being 
then ereCted into a county. Of thefe peers, fix were 
dukes, and fix counts, comtes; of thefe, again, fix were 
ecclefiafticsa 
1 
