Editing Representative peer

{{short description|Peers elected by members of the Peerages of Scotland and Ireland to the British House of Lords}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Peerage|Types}}

In the [[United Kingdom]], '''representative peers''' were those [[Peerage|peers]] elected by the members of the [[Peerage of Scotland]] and the [[Peerage of Ireland]] to sit in the British [[House of Lords]]. Until 1999, all members of the [[Peerage of England]] held the right to sit in the House of Lords; they did not elect a limited group of representatives. All peers who were created after 1707 as [[Peerage of Great Britain|Peers of Great Britain]] and after 1801 as [[Peerage of the United Kingdom|Peers of the United Kingdom]] held the same right to sit in the House of Lords.

Representative peers were introduced in 1707, when the [[Kingdom of England]] and the [[Kingdom of Scotland]] were united into the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]]. At the time there were 168 English and 154 Scottish peers.<ref name=nicholls>{{cite web |author=Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10806.htm |title=Opinions of the Committee |work=Select Committee on Privileges Second Report |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> The English peers feared that the House of Lords would be swamped by the Scottish element, and consequently the election of a small number of representative peers to represent Scotland was negotiated.<ref name=nicholls/> A similar arrangement was adopted when the Kingdom of Great Britain and the [[Kingdom of Ireland]] merged into the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] in January 1801.

Scotland was allowed to elect sixteen representative peers, while Ireland could elect twenty-eight.<ref name="May p228">{{cite book |last=May |first=Erskine |author-link=Erskine May, 1st Baron Farnborough |title=The Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George III 1760–1860 |publisher=Crosby & Nichols |year=1862 |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/constitutionalh33maygoog/page/n229 228] |url=https://archive.org/details/constitutionalh33maygoog}}</ref> Those chosen by Scotland sat for the life of one Parliament, and following each dissolution new Scottish peers were elected. In contrast, Irish representative peers sat for life. Elections for Irish peers ceased when the [[Irish Free State]] came into existence as a [[dominion]] in December 1922. However, already-elected Irish peers continued to be entitled to sit until their death. Elections for Scottish peers ended in 1963, when all Scottish peers obtained the right to sit in the House of Lords.

Under the [[House of Lords Act 1999]], a new form of representative peer was introduced to allow some hereditary peers to stay in the House of Lords.<ref name="types of member"/>

==Scotland==
{{See also|List of Scottish representative peers}}

[[File:Articles of Union between England and Scotland 28 Jan 1707.png|thumb|upright|The Act of Union 1707 was ratified in Scotland on 16 January 1707, and by the English Parliament on 19 March 1707]]

Under articles XXII and XXIII of the [[Act of Union 1707]], Scottish peers were entitled to elect sixteen representative peers to the House of Lords.<ref name="May treatise on law"/><ref name="Price">{{cite journal |last=Price |first=Jacob M |title=The Sixteen Peers of Scotland: An Account of the Elections of the Representative Peers of Scotland, 1707–1959 by James Fergusson |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=33 |issue=4 |date=December 1961 |page=439 |doi=10.1086/238935 }}</ref> Each served for one Parliament or a maximum of seven years, but could be re-elected during future Parliaments. Upon the summons of a new Parliament, the Sovereign would issue a proclamation summoning Scottish peers to the [[Holyrood Palace|Palace of Holyroodhouse]]. The elections were held in the Great Gallery, a large room decorated by eighty-nine of [[Jacob de Wet]]'s portraits of Scottish monarchs, from [[Fergus Mór]] to [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]. The [[Lord Clerk Register]] would read out the Peerage Roll as indicates his presence when called.{{clarify|date=November 2023}} The Roll was then re–read, with each peer responding by publicly announcing his votes and the return being sent to the clerk of the crown at London.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYIDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA17 |pages=17–8 |title=A Treatise on the Election Laws in Scotland: To which is Added an Historical Inquiry Concerning the Municipal Constitutions of Towns and Boroughs |last1=Connell |first1=Arthur |year=1827}}</ref> The same procedure was used whenever a vacancy arose.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wight |first=Alexander |title=An Inquiry into the Rise and Progress of Parliament, Chiefly in Scotland |chapter=The Scottish Peers |volume=1 |publisher=W. Creech & J. Murray |year=1806 |page=127 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i2euAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA127}}</ref>

The [[Plurality-at-large voting|block voting]] system was used, with each peer casting as many votes as there were seats to be filled. The system permitted the party with the greatest number of peers, normally the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]], to procure a disproportionate number of seats, with opposing parties sometimes being left entirely unrepresented. The Lord Clerk Register was responsible for tallying the votes. The return issued by the Lord Clerk Register was sufficient evidence to admit the representative peers to Parliament; unlike other peers, Scottish representatives did not receive [[Hereditary peer#Writs of summons|writs of summons]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo990429/text/90429-16.htm |title=House of Lords Hansard for 29 Apr 1999 (pt 16) |work=House of Lords Hansard |volume=600 |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref>
The position and rights of Scottish peers in relation to the House of Lords remained unclear during most of the eighteenth century. In 1711, [[James Douglas, 4th Duke of Hamilton|The 4th Duke of Hamilton]], a peer of Scotland, was made [[Duke of Brandon]] in the [[Peerage of Great Britain]]. When he sought to sit in the House of Lords, he was denied admittance, the Lords ruling that a peer of Scotland could not sit in the House of Lords unless he was a representative peer, even if he also held a British peerage dignity.<ref name="debrett p358">{{cite book |last=Debrett |first=John |author-link=John Debrett |title=Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland |publisher=J. G. & F. Rivington |year=1839 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/debrettspeerage02debrgoog/page/n465 358] |url=https://archive.org/details/debrettspeerage02debrgoog}}</ref> They reasoned that the Act of Union 1707 had established the number of Scots peers in the House of Lords at no more and no less than sixteen.<ref name="connell treatise">{{cite book |last=Connell |first=Arthur |title=A treatise on the election laws in Scotland |publisher=William Blackwood |year=1827 |location=Edinburgh |pages=9–11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYIDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA11 |access-date=11 February 2013}}</ref> In 1782, however, the House of Lords reversed the decision,<ref name="debrett p358"/> holding that the Crown could admit anyone it pleases to the House of Lords, whether a Scottish peer or not, subject only to qualifications such as being of full age.<ref name="connell treatise"/>

Under the [[Peerage Act 1963]], all Scottish peers procured the right to sit in the House of Lords, and the system of electing representative peers was abolished.<ref name="Peerage Act 1963">{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10820.htm |title=Peerage Act 1963 |publisher=The Committee Office, House of Lords |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> Scottish as well as British and English [[hereditary peer]]s lost their automatic right to sit in the Upper House with the passage of the [[House of Lords Act 1999]]. During the debate on the House of Lords Bill, a question arose as to whether the proposal would violate the [[Treaty of Union]].<ref name="Slynn">{{cite web |author=Lord Slynn Hadley |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10805.htm |title=Select Committee on Privileges Second Report |publisher=The Committee Office, House of Lords |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> In suggesting that the Bill did indeed violate the Articles of Union, it was submitted that, prior to Union, the [[Parliament of Scotland|Estates of Parliament]], Scotland's old, pre-Union parliament, was entitled to impose conditions, and that one fundamental condition was a guarantee of representation of Scotland in both Houses of Parliament at [[Westminster]]. It was implied, furthermore, that the Peerage Act 1963 did not violate the requirement of Scottish representation, set out in the Article XXII of the Treaty of Union, by allowing all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords: as long as a minimum of sixteen seats were reserved for Scotland, the principles of the Article would be upheld.<ref name="Slynn" /><ref name="case for the Lord Gray">{{cite web |author=Richard S. Keen |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10810.htm |title=Case for the Lord Gray |publisher=The Committee Office, House of Lords |access-date=23 February 2010}}</ref> It was further argued that the only way to rescind the requirement of Article XXII would be to dissolve the Union between England and Scotland,<ref name="case for the Lord Gray"/> which the House of Lords Bill did not seek to do.<ref name="Peerage Act 1963"/>

[[File:Holyrood from Calton Hill by James Valentine. 1878 or earlier..jpg|thumb|Scottish representative peers were chosen in the [[Palace of Holyroodhouse]]]]

Counsel for the Government held a different view. It was noted that the Peerage Act 1963 explicitly repealed the portions of the Articles of Union relating to elections of representative peers, and that no parliamentary commentators had raised doubts as to the validity of those repeals. As Article XXII had been, at least purportedly, repealed, there was nothing specific in the Treaty that the bill transgressed. It was further asserted by the Government that Article XXII could be repealed because it had not been [[Entrenched clause|entrenched]]. Examples of entrenched provisions are numerous: England and Scotland were united "forever",<ref>{{cite web |title=Treaty of Union 1707 |work=The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707 |publisher=School of History at the University of St Andrews |year=1706 |url=http://www.rps.ac.uk/trans/1706/10/257 |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref> the [[Court of Session]] was to remain "in all time coming within Scotland as it is now constituted",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10813.htm |title=Union With England Act 1707 |publisher=The Committee Office, House of Lords |access-date=7 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070802055031/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10813.htm |archive-date=2 August 2007 }}</ref> and the establishment of the [[Church of Scotland]] was "effectually and unalterably secured".<ref name="case for HMG">{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10811.htm |title=Appendix 3 'Case for Her Majesty's Government' |work=Select Committee on Privileges Second Report |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> Article XXII, however, did not include any words of entrenchment that would have made it "fundamental or unalterable in all time coming".<ref>{{cite web |author=Hector L. MacQueen, Scott Wortley |url=http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/sln/blogentry.aspx?blogentryref=7400 |title=House of Lords reform and the Treaty of Union |publisher=University of Edinburgh |date=September 1998 |access-date=9 August 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927160116/http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/sln/blogentry.aspx?blogentryref=7400 |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref>

Further, the Government pointed out that, even if the election of Scottish peers were entrenched, [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] could amend the provision under the doctrine of [[Parliamentary sovereignty]]. Though the position of the Church of Scotland was "unalterably" secured, the [[Universities (Scotland) Act 1853]] repealed the requirement that professors declare their faith before assuming a position.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10812.htm |title=Union with Scotland Act 1706 |work=Select Committee on Privileges Second Report |publisher=The Committee Office, House of Lords |access-date=7 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930032832/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/108i/10812.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref> In [[Ireland]], the [[Church of Ireland]] was entirely disestablished in 1869,<ref>{{cite book |last=Hunt |first=Jocelyn |title=Britain, 1846–1919 |publisher=Routledge |year=2003 |page=225}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Evan |first=Anna Laura |title=The disestablishment of the Church of Ireland in 1869 |location=Lancaster |publisher=James & Naomi |year=1929}}</ref> though the Articles of Union with Ireland had clearly entrenched the establishment of that body. In December 1922, the Union with most of Ireland was dissolved upon the creation of the [[Irish Free State]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/Library3.nsf/pagecurrent/8B9125171CFBA78080256DE5004011F8?opendocument |title=Early Irish Law and Brehon law |publisher=Courts Service of Ireland |access-date=7 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070406145704/http://www.courts.ie/Courts.ie/library3.nsf/pagecurrent/8B9125171CFBA78080256DE5004011F8?opendocument |archive-date=6 April 2007 }}</ref> though [[Great Britain]] and all of Ireland were supposedly united "forever." It was therefore suggested that Parliament could, if it pleased, repeal an Article of Union as well amend as any underlying principle.

The Privileges Committee unanimously found that the Articles of Union would not be breached by the House of Lords Bill if it were enacted.<ref name="case for HMG"/> The bill did receive [[Royal Assent]], and from 1999, hereditary peers have not had the automatic right to sit in Parliament.<ref>{{cite web |title=Different types of Lords |work=About Parliament |publisher=Parliament of the United Kingdom |url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/about-lords/lords-types/ |access-date=21 January 2013}}</ref>

==Ireland==
{{See also|List of Irish representative peers}}

[[File:Irish House of Lords chamber 1.jpg|thumb|The Chamber of the [[Irish House of Lords]] in [[Irish Houses of Parliament|Parliament House]] on [[College Green, Dublin|College Green]] in [[Dublin]] was the location of the first election of Irish representative peers.]]
Irish representation in the Westminster parliament was outlined by articles IV and VIII of the agreement embodied in the [[Acts of Union 1800]], which also required the Irish Parliament to pass an act before the union providing details for implementation.<ref>Malcomson 2000 p.312; {{cite book |chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433035269780;view=1up;seq=397 |chapter=(40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.]) An Act to regulate the Mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons to Serve in the United Kingdom on the Part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament |title=The statutes at large, passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland  |volume=20 |pages=349–358 |date=12 June 1800 |location=Dublin |publisher=Boulter Grierson}}</ref>

Irish peers were allowed to elect twenty-eight representative peers as [[Lords Temporal]], each of whom could serve for life.<ref name="May p228"/> The Chamber of the [[Irish House of Lords]], located in [[Irish Houses of Parliament|Parliament House]] on College Green in central [[Dublin]], housed the first election, attended by the peers or their proxies. [[First Pitt ministry|The government]] mistakenly circulated a list of the successful candidates before the vote.<ref name="Malcomson311"/> The [[Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper]] in Ireland was responsible for electoral arrangements; each peer voted by an open and public ballot. After the Union, new elections were held by [[postal vote]] within 52 days of a vacancy.<ref name="Malcomson313">Malcomson 2000 p.313</ref> Vacancies arose through death or, in the case of [[Frederic Trench, 3rd Baron Ashtown|Baron Ashtown]] in 1915, [[bankruptcy]]. No vacancy was created where a representative peer acquired a UK peerage, as when [[George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston|Lord Curzon]] was made [[Viscount Scarsdale|Earl Curzon of Kedleston]] in 1911.

The [[Lord Chancellor]] of Great Britain—the presiding officer of the House of Lords—certified the vacancy,<ref>Finnelly, (1830), p 164</ref> while the [[Lord Chancellor of Ireland]] directed the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper to issue ballots to Irish peers, receive the completed ballots, determine the victor, and announce the result, which was then published in both ''[[The Dublin Gazette]]'' and ''[[The London Gazette]]''.<ref>May, ''A practical treatise&nbsp;... of Parliament'' (1851), p 169; {{Cite book |last=Finnelly |first=William |title=The Law and Practice of Elections in England, Scotland, and Ireland |publisher=A. Maxwell |year=1830 |location=London |pages=161–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TZ4yAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR161}}</ref> Roman Catholic peers could not vote or stand for election until the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829]].<ref name="Malcomson311">Malcomson (2000) p. 311</ref> The process of being recognised by the Westminster [[Committee of Privileges]] as an elector was more cumbersome and expensive than being recognised as a (British or Irish) peer, until the orders drawn up in 1800 were amended in 1857.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Peerage of Ireland—Proof of Right To Vote.—Resolutions. |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1857/jul/03/the-peerage-of-ireland-proof-of-right-to |website=Hansard |access-date=5 February 2019 |pages=HL Deb vol 146 cc855–6 |no-pp=yes |date=3 July 1857}}</ref> Successive governments tried to prevent the election of [[absentee landlords]].<ref name="Malcomson311"/> An exception was [[Lord Curzon]], who [[January 1908 Irish representative peer election|won election as a representative peer in 1908]], despite never having claimed the right to be an elector;<ref>{{cite web |title=Representative Peers For Ireland. |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1908/jan/29/representative-peers-for-ireland |website=Hansard |access-date=5 February 2019 |pages=HL Deb vol 183 cc5–7 |no-pp=yes |date=29 January 1908}}</ref> he had been refused a peerage of the United Kingdom by [[Liberal government, 1905–1915|the Liberal government]] of the day.<ref name="Malcomson311"/>

The Acts of Union united the [[Church of England]] and [[Church of Ireland]], whose bishops and archbishops had previously sat as [[Lords Spiritual]] in their respective Houses of Lords. In the united Parliament, there were at first four Irish prelates at any one time, one [[archbishop]] and three [[diocesan bishop]]s, who sat for a [[Legislative session|session]] before ceding their seats to colleagues on a fixed rotation of [[Dioceses of Ireland|dioceses]].<ref>40 Geo. 4 c.39 [Ir.] sec.5</ref><ref name="May treatise on law">{{cite book |last=May |first=Thomas Erskine |author-link=Erskine May, 1st Baron Farnborough |title=A practical treatise on the law, privileges, proceedings and usage of Parliament |publisher=Butterworths |year=1851 |url=https://archive.org/details/practicaltreatis00mayt |pages=[https://archive.org/details/practicaltreatis00mayt/page/6 6]–8, 15 |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref><ref>Malcomson (2002), p. 325</ref> The rotation passed over any bishop already serving as an elected representative peer, as when [[Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton|Charles Agar]] sat as [[Viscount Somerton]] rather than as [[Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland)|Archbishop of Dublin]]. The rotation was changed by the [[Church Temporalities Act 1833]] ([[3 & 4 Will. 4]]. c. 37), which merged many dioceses and degraded the archbishoprics of [[Archdiocese of Tuam (Church of Ireland)|Tuam]] and [[Archbishop of Cashel|Cashel]] to bishoprics.<ref name="diocese"/> No Irish bishops sat in Westminster as Lords Spiritual after the [[disestablishment]] of the Church of Ireland in 1871, brought about by the [[Irish Church Act 1869]],<ref name="diocese">{{cite web |title=A Brief History |publisher=[[Diocese of Dublin and Glendalough]] |url=https://dublin.anglican.org/about-us/history |access-date=21 September 2017 }}</ref> although [[Robin Eames]] was made a [[life peer]] in 1995 while [[Archbishop of Armagh (Church of Ireland)|Archbishop of Armagh]].

[[File:1stEarlOfNormanton.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[The Most Reverend|The Most Rev.]] the [[Charles Agar, 1st Earl of Normanton|Earl of Normanton]], [[Archbishop of Dublin (Church of Ireland)|Lord Archbishop of Dublin]], one of the first 28 Irish representative peers]]

===Abolition and attempts to reintroduce===
Following the establishment of the [[Irish Free State]] in December 1922, Irish peers ceased to elect representatives, although those already elected continued to have the right to serve for life; the last of the temporal peers, [[Francis Needham, 4th Earl of Kilmorey]], by chance a peer from an [[Ulster]] family, died in 1961.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gadd |first=R.P. |title=A short account of the peerage of Ireland |publisher=[[The Heraldry Society]] |url=http://www.theheraldrysociety.com/articles/ireland/peerage_of_ireland.htm |access-date=18 January 2013}}</ref> Disputes had arisen long before as to whether Irish representative peers could still be elected. The main [[Irish Free State Constitution Act 1922]] was silent on the matter, to some seeming to mean that the right had not been abolished, but the ancillary [[Irish Free State (Consequential Provisions) Act 1922]] had abolished the office of [[Lord Chancellor of Ireland]],<ref>{{cite web |author=Brigid Hadfield |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/history/stateapart/agreement/constitutional/support/ci_c021.shtml |title=The Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Act of Union |publisher=BBC NI |year=1998 |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> whose involvement was required in the election process. The Irish Free State abolished the office of Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in 1926, the last holder becoming [[Master of the High Court (Ireland)|Master of the High Court]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Court Officers Act 1926 s.31 |url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1926/act/27/section/31/enacted/en/html#sec31 |website=electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB) |access-date=12 November 2020 |language=en}}; Committee For Privileges 1966 [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435072671522&view=1up&seq=994 p.xl s.6]</ref> After 1922 various Irish peers petitioned the House of Lords for a restoration of their right to elect representatives. In 1962, the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform again rejected such requests.<ref name="Lysaght">{{cite web |last=Lysaght |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Lysaght |title=The Irish Peers and the House of Lords |work=106th Edition |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Baronetage |year=1999 |url=http://www.burkes-peerage.net/articles/ireland/page93.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716064928/http://www.burkespeerage.com/articles/ireland/page93.aspx |archive-date=2011-07-16 |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> In the next year, when the [[Peerage Act 1963]] (which, among other things, gave all peers in the [[Peerage of Scotland]] the right to sit in the House of Lords) was being considered, an amendment similarly to allow Irish peers all to be summoned was defeated, by ninety votes to eight. Instead, the new Act confirmed the right of all Irish peers to stand for election to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] and to vote at parliamentary elections, which were rights they had always had.<ref name="Peerage Act 1963"/>

In 1965, the [[8th Earl of Antrim]], another peer from Ulster, and other Irish peers, petitioned the House of Lords, arguing that the right to elect representative peers had never been formally abolished. The House of Lords ruled against them. [[James Reid, Baron Reid|Lord Reid]], a [[Lord of Appeal in Ordinary]], based his ruling on the Act of Union, which stated that representative peers sat "on the part of Ireland."<ref name="Lysaght" /> He reasoned that, since the island had been divided into the Irish Free State and [[Northern Ireland]], there was no such political entity called "Ireland" which the representative peers could be said to represent. Lord Reid wrote, "A statutory provision is [[Implicit repeal|impliedly repealed]] if a later enactment brings to an end a state of things the continuance of which is essential for its operation."<ref>{{cite web |author=Brigid Hadfield |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/learning/history/stateapart/agreement/constitutional/support/ci_c022.shtml |title=The Belfast Agreement, Sovereignty and the State of the Union |publisher=BBC NI |year=1998 |access-date=7 April 2007}}</ref> In contrast, [[Richard Wilberforce, Baron Wilberforce|Lord Wilberforce]], another Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, disagreed that a major enactment such as the Act of Union could be repealed by implication.<ref name="Lysaght" /> He argued instead that since the posts of Lord Chancellor of Ireland and Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper had been abolished, there was no mechanism by which Irish peers could be elected. Here too, the petitioners lost.<ref name="Lysaght"/>

The petitioners failed to raise the status of [[Northern Ireland]] as part of the United Kingdom. [[Charles Lysaght]] suggests that if this fact had been foremost, Lord Wilberforce's arguments relating to the removal of the electoral mechanism for the election could be rebutted, as the Lord Chancellor of Ireland and the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper did have successors in Northern Ireland. The reason for excluding the arguments relating to Northern Ireland from the petition "was that leading counsel for the petitioning Irish peers was convinced that the members of the Committee for Privileges were with him on what he considered was his best argument and did not want to alienate them by introducing another point."<ref name="Lysaght" /> To prevent further appeals on the matter, [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] repealed, as a part of the [[Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1971]], the sections of the Acts of Union relating to the election of Irish representative peers.<ref name="Lysaght" />

==House of Commons==
After the Union of England and Scotland in 1707, Scottish peers, including those who did not sit as representative peers, were excluded from the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephenson |first=Charles |title=The Admiral's Secret Weapon: Lord Dundonald And the Origins of Chemical Warfare |publisher=Boydell Press |year=2006 |location=Woodbridge |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmENMRjhgtcC&pg=PA35 |isbn=1-84383-280-1}}</ref> Irish peers were not subject to the same restrictions. Irish members not nominated as representative peers were allowed to serve in Parliament as representatives of constituencies in Great Britain, although not in Ireland,<ref>{{cite book |last=Ruvigny |first=Melville H. |author-link=Melville Henry Massue |title=The Nobilities of Europe |publisher=Melville and Company |year=1910 |location=London |page=1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHKBWAz9MMQC&pg=PA1 |isbn=1-4021-8561-8}}</ref> provided they gave up their [[rights and privileges of peers|privileges as a peer]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Geo3/40/38/section/wrapper7#comref-887699 |title=Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 (c.38) |publisher=The UK Statute Law Database |access-date=11 February 2013}}</ref> [[Lord Curzon]], for example, specifically requested an Irish peerage when made [[Viceroy of India]], so that he would not be debarred from sitting in the House of Commons on his return.<ref>Malcomson 2000 p.320</ref>

The Peerage Act 1963 allowed all Scottish peers to sit in the House of Lords;<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-lords-faqs/lords-legislation |title=Legislation affecting the House of Lords: Legislation affecting the House of Lords |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref> it also permitted all Irish peers to sit in the House of Commons for any constituency in the United Kingdom, as well as to vote in parliamentary elections, without being deprived of the remaining privileges of peerage.<ref name="Peerage Act 1963"/>

==Hereditary "representative peers"==
{{Main article|List of excepted hereditary peers}}
During the passage of the House of Lords Bill in 1999, controversy surrounding House of Lords reform remained,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199899/ldhansrd/vo990727/text/90727-03.htm#90727-03_head2 |title=Hansard, Vol 604 No 127 Cols 1399–1422 |date=27 July 1999 |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref> and the Bill was conceived as a first stage of Lords reform.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo981202/debtext/81202-18.htm#81202-18_spnew3 |title=HC Hansard, Vol 321 Col 874 |date=2 December 1998 |access-date=17 January 2013}}</ref> The "Weatherill" amendment—so called since it was proposed by former House of Commons Speaker [[Bernard Weatherill]]—provided for a number of hereditary peers to remain as members of the House of Lords, during the first stage of Lords reform.<ref>{{cite news |author=Michael White and Lucy Ward |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/1999/may/12/uk.lords |title=Suspicious peers back reform |newspaper=The Guardian |date=12 May 1999}}</ref> It could then be reviewed during the next stage of the reform, when the system of appointed life peerages came under examination. In exchange for the House not delaying the passage of the Bill into law, the Government agreed to this amendment, and it then became part of the [[House of Lords Act 1999]], and 92 hereditary peers were allowed to remain.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldbrief/10402.htm |title=Annual Report and Accounts 1999–2000 |publisher=United Kingdom Parliament |access-date=9 August 2009}}</ref>

The ninety-two peers are made up of three separate groups. Fifteen 'office-holders' comprise deputy speakers and deputy chairmen, and are elected by the house, while seventy-five party and Crossbench members are elected by their own party or group.<ref name="types of member">{{cite web |title=Membership: Types of Member |page=2 |publisher=House of Lords |year=2009 |url=http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-information-office/hoflbpmembership.pdf |access-date=31 January 2013}}</ref> In addition, there are two royal appointments: the [[Lord Great Chamberlain]],<ref name="types of member"/> currently [[Rupert Carington, 7th Baron Carrington|Lord Carrington]], is appointed as the King's representative in Parliament, while the post of [[Earl Marshal]]<ref name="types of member"/> remains purely hereditary; the office has been held since 1672 by the [[Duke of Norfolk|Dukes of Norfolk]] and is responsible for ceremonies such as the [[State Opening of Parliament]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Earl Marshal |work=Official Royal posts |publisher=The Royal Household |url=http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/OfficialRoyalposts/EarlMarshal.aspx |access-date=17 January 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117000406/http://www.royal.gov.uk/TheRoyalHousehold/OfficialRoyalposts/EarlMarshal.aspx |archive-date=17 January 2013 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |title=Report on the Petition of the Irish Peers, together with the Cases of the Petitioners, Proceedings of the Committee, and the Minutes of Evidence |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32435072671522&view=2up&seq=954 |author=Committee For Privileges |series=Sessional papers |volume=HL 1966–67 VIII (53) 896 |date=5 July 1966 |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |location=London }}
* [[Erskine May, 1st Baron Farnborough|Farnborough, Thomas. Erskine. May, 1st Baron]]. (1863) ''[https://archive.org/details/constitutionalh20maygoog Constitutional History of England since the Accession of George the Third.  Volume 1]'' Boston: Crosby and Nichols.
* {{cite web |last=Lysaght |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Lysaght |title=The Irish Peers and the House of Lords |work=106th Edition |publisher=Burke's Peerage & Baronetage |year=1999 |url=http://www.burkes-peerage.net/articles/ireland/page93.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716064928/http://www.burkespeerage.com/articles/ireland/page93.aspx |archive-date=2011-07-16 |access-date=7 April 2007}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Malcomson |first1=A.P.W. |title=The Irish Peerage and the Act of Union, 1800–1971 |journal=Transactions of the Royal Historical Society |date=December 2000 |volume=10, 6th series |pages=289–327 |doi=10.1017/S0080440100000141 |jstor=3679383 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521793520 |s2cid=143607711 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HYs_8oTQTDIC&pg=PA289 |access-date=6 February 2019 |language=en|url-access=subscription }}
* [http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/anglo_irish/dfaexhib2.html Documents on Irish Foreign Policy Series: Anglo-Irish Treaty: Text of.] Anglo-Irish Treaty, 6 December 1921. The National Archives of Ireland. Retrieved 2007-04-07
* [http://www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-information-office/hoflbpmembership.pdf Briefing Paper: Membership of House of Lords] (pdf). House of Lords, 2009. Retrieved 2013-01-31
* ''Peerage'' (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. London: Cambridge University Press.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080908100412/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199899/ldselect/ldprivi/106i/106i01.htm Privileges – First Report]. House of Lords, 18 October 1999. Retrieved 2007-04-07

{{featured article}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Representative Peer}}
[[Category:Elections in Scotland]]
[[Category:Political history of Ireland]]
[[Category:Politics of Scotland]]
[[Category:Representative peers|*]]
[[Category:Peerage of Ireland| ]]
[[Category:Peerage of Scotland| ]]