| 809 | 810 | 811 | 812 | 813 |
| 1 | 236 | 472 | 708 | 944 |
|
first syllable. Near the Crier stood the Serjeant Mace-Bearer of the
Chancellor.
In royal ceremonies the temporal peers wore coronets on their heads, and
the spiritual peers, mitres. The archbishops wore mitres, with a ducal
coronet; and the bishops, who rank after viscounts, mitres, with a
baron's cap.
It is to be remarked, as a coincidence at once strange and instructive,
that this square formed by the throne, the bishops, and the barons, with
kneeling magistrates within it, was in form similar to the ancient
parliament in France under the two first dynasties. The aspect of
authority was the same in France as in England. Hincmar, in his
treatise, "De Ordinatione Sacri Palatii," described in 853 the sittings
of the House of Lords at Westminster in the eighteenth century. Strange,
indeed! a description given nine hundred years before the existence of
the thing described.
But what is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from
the future on the past.
The assembly of Parliament was obligatory only once in every seven
years.
The Lords deliberated in secret, with closed doors. The debates of the
Commons were public. Publicity entails diminution of dignity.
811
Page
Quick Jump
|