any one of several
disqualifications. He must have attained the age of twenty-one; he
must not be an alien; he must not be a bankrupt; he must not be under
sentence for felony. On the other hand, a man who inherits a peerage
cannot renounce the inheritance. Upon more than one occasion this rule
has been a matter of political consequence, for its operation has
sometimes meant that an able and ambitious commoner has been compelled
to surrender his seat in the more important chamber and to assume a
wholly undesired place in the upper house. In 1895 Mr. William W.
Palmer, later Lord Selbourne, inheriting a peerage but desiring to
continue for a time in the Commons, put this rule to a definite test
by neglecting to apply for a writ of summons as a peer. The decision
of the Commons, however, was that he was obligated to accept
membership in the upper chamber, and hence to yield the place which he
occupied in the lower.

The House of Lords numbers to-day 620 members. In earlier periods of
its history it was a very much smaller body, and, indeed, its most
notable growth has taken place within the past one hundred and fifty
years. During the reign of Henry VII. there were never more than
eighty members, the majority of whom were ecclesiastics. To the first
parliament of Charles II. there were summoned 139 persons. At the
death of William III. the roll of the upper chamber comprised 192
names. At the death of Queen Anne the number was 209: at that of
George I. it was 216; at that of George II., 229; at that of George
III., 339; at that of George IV., 396; at that of William IV., 456.
Between 1830 and 1898 there were conferred 364 peerages--222 under
Liberal ministries (covering, in the aggregate, forty years) and 142
under the Conservatives (covering twenty-seven years). More than
one-half of the peerages of to-day have been created within the past
fifty years, and of the remainder only an insignificant proportion can
be termed ancient.

II. THE REFORM OF THE LORDS: THE QUESTION PRIOR TO 1909

*107. The Status of the Chamber.*--As a law-making body the House of
Lords antedates the House of Commons. At the beginning of the
fourteenth century the theory was that the magnates assented to
legislation while the Commons merely petitioned for it. In a statute
of 1322, however, the legislative character of Parliament as a (p. 102)
whole was effectively recognized, and at the same time the legislative
parity of the commons with