The office was of great antiquity, being established before the reign of Edward the Confeffor. It was annexed to the lordship of Hinckley in Leicestershire, which, belonging to the family of Montfort earl of Leicester, the poffeffors of that title were, in right of their fief, hereditary lord high ftewards of England. Simon de Montfort, the laft earl of that family, being defeated in the rebellion which he raised against Henry III., and his eftates becoming forfeit, the monarch prudently embraced the opportunity of retrenching the authorities of an office which, in the hands of a turbulent and ambitious man, had been found fufficient to difquiet the rule it was intended to enforce, and fhake the throne it was deftined to fupport. It ftill continued, though reduced in power, an office of inheritance, till Henry of Bolingbroke, who laft poffeffed it in that form, ufurped the throne by the title of Henry IV. From that period lord high ftewards have been appointed pro hac vice only, generally to officiate at coronations, or at trials before the high court of parliament.

A lord high fteward, appointed for a coronation, receives and decides on the bills and petitions of all perfons, peers or others, claiming to hold eftates by grand ferjeanty, and, in virtue of that tenure, to do certain honourable fervices at the king's coronation. In thefe cafes, he is obliged to judge according to the laws and cuftoms of the realm, and is entitled to customary fees and allowances. At the coronation, he carries St. Edward's crown, and the office is never conferred on any but a peer of parliament. Mention has already been made of the duty and office of the lord high steward on the trial of impeachments; he is, on thofe occafions, attended from his own abode to the houfe of lords in great ftate by the judges and officers of arms, and, after reading his commiffion, the white wand is with much ceremony put into his hands, and from that time, during the fittings on the trial, he is ftyled your grace. This office being only occafional, does not affect the general government of the realm, but is noticed in this place on account of its dignity.

2. LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR. The fituation of lord high chancellor is the most dignified of all thofe which are confidered as permanent; it is not indeed abfolutely neceffary that there fhould always be a lord chancellor, fince the great feal may be given to a lord keeper, or put in commiffion. The powers of lord chancellor and lord keeper are the fame, and therefore fince the ftatute, 5 Elizabeth, both cannot be appointed at the fame time; formerly they could, for it is faid Henry V. had a great feal of gold which he delivered to the bishop of Durham, making him lord chancellor; and one of filver, which he gave to the bishop of London, appointing him lord keeper. By ftat.

I W. & M. c. 21., commiffioners appointed to execute the office of lord chancellor may exercife all the authority, jurifdiction, and execution of laws, which the lord chancellor, or lord keeper, of right ought to use and execute. Since that period the great feal has, on various occafions, been in commiffion, either in times when the pretenfions of different perfons could not be adjusted without difficulty by the other members of the cabinet, or when no perfon fufficiently eminent to fill a station fo exalted could be found to accept one from which he might be fo fuddenly removed.

The lord high chancellor or keeper is created by the mere delivery of the king's great feal into his cuftody; whereby he becomes, without writ or patent, an officer of the greateft weight and power of any now fubfifting in the kingdom, and fuperior in point of precedency to every temporal lord: and the act of taking away this feal by the king, or of its being refigned or given up, determines the office. The name chancellor is faid to be derived a cancellando, becaufe all patents, commiffions, and warrants coming from the king, are perused by him before they pafs under the great feal, and he may cancel them if repugnant to law; which is the higheft of his privileges. Others however derive the name from the place where he anciently fate in judgment, which was faid to be, like the chancel of a church, inclofed between lattices, inter cancellos. It is an office of high antiquity, having been certainly known to the courts of the Roman emperors; where it originally seems to have fignified a chief scribe or fecretary, who was afterwards invested with feveral judicial powers, and a general fuperintendency over the reft of the officers of the prince. From the Roman empire it paffed to the Roman church, ever emulous of imperial state; whence every bifhop has, to this day, his chancellor, the principal judge of his confiftory; and when the modern kingdoms of Europe were established on the ruins of the empire, almost every ftate preserved its chancellor, with different jurifdictions and dignities, according to their various conftitutions. In England it is clear that the British and Saxon kings had their chancellors, and the principal circumstance denoting their office, was the delivery to them of the great feal, which was fometimes tied about their necks.

The chancellor is a privy counsellor by his office, and, according to lord chancellor Ellesmere, prolocutor of the house of lords by prefcription. To him belongs the appointment of all juftices of the peace throughout the kingdom. Being formerly ufually an ecclefiaftic, (for none elfe were then fufficiently converfant in writings to be capable of the office ;) and prefiding

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over the royal chapel, he became keeper of the king's confcience; vifitor, in right of the king, of all hofpitals and colleges of the king's foundation; and patron of all the king's livings under the value of twenty pounds per annum in the king's books. He is the general guardian of all infants, idiots, and lunatics; and has the general fuperintendence of all the charitable uses in the kingdom. And all this over and above the vast and extenfive jurifdiction which he exercises in his judicial capacity in the court of chancery, which will be noticed in another divifion of this work. His oath of office engages him to obferve the following particulars:

1. That he will well and truly ferve our fovereign lord the king and his people in the office of chancellor (or lord keeper). 2. That he fhall do right to all manner of people, poor and rich, after the laws and ufages of the realm. 3. That he shall truly counfel the king, and his counfel he fhall keep. 4. That he fhall not know nor fuffer the hurt or difheriting of the king, or that the rights of the crown be decreased by any means as far as he may hinder it. 5. And if he may prevent it, he fhall' make it clearly and exprefsly to be known to the king, with his true advice and counfel; and, 6. And that he fhall do and purchafe the king's profit in all that he reasonably may.

The emoluments of the office of chancellor are very confiderable, derived as well from the court where he prefides, as from fees for affixing the great feal to a great variety of public inftruments, and thofe which are due to him as speaker of the house of lords; but as he only holds his fituation during pleasure, and if a lawyer, as in modern times he invariably is, he cannot accept of any fituation in Weftminfter hall, after having filled. the fuperior one of chancellor; it is ufual to reward thofe who retire with a confiderable penfion; and fome, before they would, by affuming fo precarious an office, facrifice all their other profpects, have ftipulated for a remuneratory penfion, or for the reverfion of fome ample finecure place.

3. LORD HIGH TREASURER. The lord high treasurer rcceives his appointment from the king in perfon, who formerly was used to deliver to him a golden key of the treasury, but now only a wand. When appointed, he goes in state to the court of chancery, and takes an oath fimilar to that of the lord chancellor, and to the court of exchequer, where he takes his feat among the barons as chancellor of that court. He is a lord by his office, and governs the upper court of exchequer; has the cuflody of the king's treasure, and of foreign and domestic records there depofited. He has the appointment of all commillioners and other ollicers employed in collecting the revenues

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of the crown; the nomination of all efcheators, and difpofal of all places in any wife relating to the revenue of the kingdom; and power to let leafes of the crown lands.

In modern times a lord treasurer has not been appointed, but the office has been executed by five lords commiflioners, of whom the chief, called the first lord of the treafury, poffeffes most of the powers formerly held by the lord treasurer, and is generally, though not invariably, chancellor and under treasurer of the exchequer. It is not exactly true that the chancellor of the exchequer cannot fit on the bench of that court for the decifion of law questions; he has done fo even in modern times, but, as the confideration of that part of the jurifdiction of the exchequer belongs to another branch of the work, it will not be treated on in this place, but those matters only will be noticed which belong to the office of revenue in which the first lord of the treafury and chancellor of the exchequer ordinarily and properly prefides. The falary of the first lord of the treafury is 4000l; the other lords have 1600l. each.

At the treasury, befides the lords commiffioners, are two joint fecretaries, four chief clerks, fix fenior clerks, fix junior clerks, a minute clerk, two copying clerks, one principal clerk, with fix affiftants for keeping and ftating the accounts of the revenue department, a receiver of fees, a keeper of the papers, a solicitor, a chamber keeper, four exchequer meffengers, and one custom houfe meffenger, a ranger of books and bag bearer, a housekeeper, a housekeeper to the levee rooms, and a door keeper; befides which there are five extra clerks, and three extra meffengers employed in the treafury.

The bufinefs of the board of treasury is to confider and determine upon all matters relative to his majesty's civil lift or other revenues; to give directions for the conduct of all boards and perfons entrusted with the receipt, management, or expenditure of the faid revenues; to fign all warrants for the neceffary payments thereout, and generally to fuperintend every branch of revenue belonging to his majeity or the public.

The duty of the joint fecretaries is to attend the board, to receive their orders, fee to the execution of the fame, and generally to fuperintend the conduct of the business in every department of the office. The attendance of the joint fecre taries is in general conflant and unremitting, and that of the chief and other clerks daily from about ten in the morning till the business of the day is finished; excepting very few inftances, in which their attendance has, for fpecial reafons, been dispensed with. Each of the fecretaries has a falary of 32291. 175.

The duty of the chief clerks is occafionally to attend the board,

to diftribute the official bufinefs among the other clerks, to prepare themselves all inftruments that are of a fpecial nature, to examine all thofe which are prepared by others, to prefent them for fignature to the board, or to the fecretaries, as the cafe may require, and to deliver them over to one of the fix fenior clerks, among whom the official bufinefs of the treasury is divided, each having a department for which he is refponfible, and being affifted therein by one of the junior clerks.

The duty of the fix fenior clerks, with their affiftants, is to prepare all inftruments whatever that arife in each of their faid departments, and deliver them to one of the chief clerks to be prefented for fignature, and, when returned, to give them over to the receiver of the fees, whofe duty is to deliver them to the respective parties upon the receipt of the fees payable thereon, with which he charges himself, and accounts weekly for the fame to one of the chief clerks.

. The duty of the principal and other clerks of the revenue department is, to make up books containing a state of the income and iffues of the customs and other duties and revenues payable at the receipt of the exchequer; for this purpose they receive weekly certificates from the exchequer, checked by other certificates received from the customs, and other offices of the revenue, from which they make out weekly for the treafury board what is called a cafh paper, fhewing the balance of money remaining in the exchequer for the ufes of the civil government, or for the public fervice of the current year: they likewife make out for his majefty a monthly statement of the civil lift receipts, and payments, and keep fuch other books and accounts as are required by the board of treafury, or are neceffary for the public fervice. Each of the chief clerks has a falary of 1080/., the appointments of the inferiors are from 700l. to about 100%.

The duty of the keeper of the papers is to schedule and digeft all papers of any import tranfmitted to his repofitory; to inspect the books of office, to range and dispose them in presses, and be ready to inform the fecretaries and clerks of .their respective contents, when neceffary: this officer has a deputy.

The foliciter confiders it as his duty to folicit, profecute, defend, and manage all caufes and affairs from time to time directed by the lords of the treafury, the principal fecretaries of ftate, or attorney general; to perufe all papers and memorials referred to him from the treafury, and to make his report in writing to their lordships thereon. His attendance on this duty is generally daily, and at all hours; but naturally varies according to the degree of bufinefs that occurs. His fixed falary is 2000, but the bufinefs continually arifing in all parts of the

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