it in two, and declared the commission to be dissolved. Among the earlier cases noted by Burke is that of Lord Byron, granduncle and imme diate predecessor of the famous poet, who was tried before the House of Lords for killing William Chaworth in a quarrel. Unlike Lord Cardigan the prisoner had no counsel to plead for him, counsel at that time not being permissible. Lord Byron was brought to the bar by the deputy governor of the Tower, who carried the axe before him and stood with it on the left hand of the prisoner, with the edge turned from him. Lord Byron, when he approached the bar, made three reverences and then fell on his knees at the bar where he remained until bidden to rise. When the case had been fully heard the peers present declared the prisoner to be guilty of manslaughter, and he was called upon to say why judgment of manslaughter should not be pronounced upon him. " His lordship," says Burke, " immediately claimed the benefit of the 1 Edward VI, Cap. 12, a statute by which whenever a peer was convicted of any felony for which a com moner might have benefit of clergy, such peer on praying the benefit of that act, was always to be discharged without burning in the hand or penal consequence whatsoever. This' singular privilege was supposed to be abrogated by the 7 and 8 George IV, Cap. 28, 5, 6, which abolished benefit of clergy, but some doubt arising on the subject, Lord Byron was allowed to go free on payment of his fees." Another famous trial before the House of Lords was that of the Duchess of Kingston for bigamy, in 1776. She also made three reverences and fell upon her knees at the bar. She pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and formally demanded to be tried " by God and her peers," whereupon the clerk of the crown
said, " God send your ladyship a good deliver ance." The judgment of the lords was that she was guilty, though one of them qualified his opinion by saying that she was guilty "erroneously but not intentionally." The duchess then prayed the benefit of the peer age according to the statutes, and after much argument this was granted. Her only punish ment was a warning not to let such a thing occur again. Philip, seventh earl of Pembroke, appeared for trial before the House of Lords twice, once for manslaughter, of which he was found guilty, but the punishment for which he escaped by claiming his privilege of peer age; and again for a brawl with a brother earl. For the latter he was condemned to confinement in his own castle " until further orders," and prohibited from sending any letter or message to the man with whom he had quarreled. But this is not the only privilege which may be claimed by the peers of England. If any member of the House of Lords should ever find himself upon the scaffold he may demand to be hanged with a silken cord. The last peer to avail himself of this consol ing advantage was Lord Ferrers, who was hanged at Tyburn in 1760 for the atrocious murder of his steward. This execution was one of the most remarkable judicial cere monies ever witnessed in England. Lord Ferrers was a man of great conceit, even with the brand of Cain upon him. He was conveyed to the gallows, wearing his wedding clothes, in a landau drawn by six horses, es corted by parties of horse and foot. Behind came the hearse and six horses, for the pur pose of taking his dead body from the place of execution to Surgeon's Hall, to be dissected. His death agony was prolonged, to please his own vanity, for nearly three hours, for that was the time occupied by the procession to the gallows. " His lordship," says Burke,
