monpleas, and ſuch of the barons of the exchequer as are of the degree of the coif, or have been made ſerjeants at law; as likewiſe by the maſters of the court of chancery; for their advice in point of law, and for the greater dignity of their proceedings. The ſecretaries of ſtate, the attorney and ſolicitor general, and the reſt of the king’s learned counſel being ſerjeants, were alſo uſed to attend the houſe of peers, and have to this day their regular writs of ſummons iſſued out at the beginning of every parliament[1]: but, as many of them have of late years been members of the houſe of commons, their attendance is fallen into diſuſe.
Another privilege is, that every peer, by licence obtained from the king, may make another lord of parliament his proxy, to vote for him in his abſence[2]. A privilege which a member of the other houſe can by no means have, as he is himſelf but a proxy for a multitude of other people[3].
Each peer has alſo a right, by leave of the houſe, when a vote paſſes contrary to his ſentiments, to enter his diſſent on the journals of the houſe, with the reaſons for ſuch diſſent; which is uſually ſtiled his proteſt.
All bills likewiſe, that may in their conſequences any way affect the rights of the peerage, are by the cuſtom of parliament to have their firſt riſe and beginning in the houſe of peers, and to ſuffer no changes or amendments in the houſe of commons.
There is alſo one ſtatute peculiarly relative to the houſe of lords; 6 Ann. c. 23. which regulates the election of the ſixteen repreſentative peers of North Britain, in conſequence of the twenty ſecond and twenty third articles of the union: and for that purpoſe preſcribes the oaths, &c, to be taken by the electors; directs the mode of balloting; prohibits the peers electing from
