The number of the Lords was unlimited. To create Lords was the menace of

royalty; a means of government.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century the House of Lords already

contained a very large number of members. It has increased still further

since that period. To dilute the aristocracy is politic. Elizabeth most

probably erred in condensing the peerage into sixty-five lords. The less

numerous, the more intense is a peerage. In assemblies, the more

numerous the members, the fewer the heads. James II. understood this

when he increased the Upper House to a hundred and eighty-eight lords; a

hundred and eighty-six if we subtract from the peerages the two duchies

of royal favourites, Portsmouth and Cleveland. Under Anne the total

number of the lords, including bishops, was two hundred and seven. Not

counting the Duke of Cumberland, husband of the queen, there were

twenty-five dukes, of whom the premier, Norfolk, did not take his seat,

being a Catholic; and of whom the junior, Cambridge, the Elector of

Hanover, did, although a foreigner. Winchester, termed first and sole

marquis of England, as Astorga was termed sole Marquis of Spain, was

absent, being a Jacobite; so that there were only five marquises, of

whom the premier was Lindsay, and the junior Lothian; seventy-nine

earls, of whom Derby was premier and Islay junior; nine viscounts, of

whom Hereford was premier and Lonsdale junior; and sixty-two barons, of

whom Abergavenny was premier and Hervey junior. Lord Hervey, the junior

baron, was what was called the "Puisné of the House." Derby, of whom

Oxford, Shrewsbury, and Kent took precedence, and who was therefore but

the fourth under James II., became (under Anne) premier earl. Two

chancellors' names had disappeared from the list of barons--Verulam,

812

The Man Who Laughs