Lord High CHANCELLOR of Great Britain, or Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, is the highest honour of the long robe, being created by the mere delivery of the king's great seal into his custody: whereby he becomes, without writ or patent, an officer of the greatest weight and power of any now subsisting in the kingdom; and superior, in point of precedence, to every temporal lord. He is a privy counsellor by his office; and, according to Lord Chancellor Ellesmere, prolocutor of the house of lords by prescription. To him belongs the appointment of all the justices of the peace throughout the kingdom. Being in former times usually an ecclesiastical, (for none else were then capable of an office so conversant in writing,) and presiding over the royal chapel, he became keeper of the king's conscience; visitor, in right of the king, of all hospitals and colleges of the king's foundation; and patron of all the king's livings under the value of L. 20 per annum, in the king's books. He is the general guardian of all infants, idiots, and lunatics; and has the general superintendence of all charitable uses in the kingdom. And all this over and above the vast extensive jurisdiction which he exercises in his judicial capacity in the court of chancery. See CHANCERY.