a title of honour, given to those who are noble either by birth or by creation. The title is also by courtesy given to all the sons of dukes and marquises, and to the eldest sons of earls; and it is likewise a title of honour bestowed on those who are honourable by their employment, as Lord Advocate, Lord Chamberlain, Lord Chancellor, and the like. The word is Saxon, but abbreviated from two syllables into one; for it was originally Hlaford, which by dropping the aspiration became Laford, and afterwards by contraction Lord. "The etymology of the word," says Coates, "is well worth observing; for it was composed of laf, a loaf of bread, and ford, to give or afford; so that Hlaford, now Lord, implies a giver of bread, because, in those ages, such great men kept extraordinary houses, and fed all the poor; for which reason they were called givers of bread, a thing now much out of date, great men being much fonder of retaining the title than of observing the practice for which it was first given."

Lords, House of, one of the three estates of parliament, and composed of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal.

1. The Spiritual Lords consist of the archbishops and bishops. Though these lords are in the eye of the law a distinct estate from the lords temporal, and are so distinguished in our acts of parliament, yet in practice they are usually blended together under the name of The Lords; they intermix in their votes, and the majority of such intermixture joins both estates. From the want of a separate assembly, and a separate negative on the part of the prelates, some writers have argued very cogently, that the lords spiritual and temporal are now in reality only one estate; and this is unquestionably true in every effectual sense, though the ancient distinction between them still nominally continues. For if a bill should pass their house, there is no doubt of its validity, though every lord spiritual should vote against it (of which Selden and Sir Edward Coke give many instances); as, on the other hand, it would doubtless be equally good if the lords temporal present were inferior to the bishops in number, and every one of those temporal lords gave his vote to reject the bill, though Sir Edward Coke seems to doubt as to this.

2. The Temporal Lords consist of all the peers of the realm (the bishops not being in strictness held to be such, but merely lords of parliament), by whatever title of nobility distinguished; dukes, marquises, earls, viscounts, and barons. Some of these sit by descent, as do all ancient peers; others by creation, as do all new-made ones; others, since the union with Scotland and Ireland, by election. The Lords have a right to be, and constantly are, attended by the judges of the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, and such of the Barons of the Exchequer as are of the degree of the coif, or have been made sergeants at law; as likewise by the king's learned counsel, being sergeants, and by the masters of the court of Chancery, for their advice in point of law, and for the greater dignity of their proceedings. The secretaries of state, with the attorney and solicitor general, also used to attend the House of Peers, and have to this day their regular writs of summons issued out at the beginning of every parliament, ad tracandum et consilium impendendum; though not ad consentendum; but whenever they have been members of the House of Commons, their attendance here has, for a long period, been dispensed with. Another privilege is, that every peer, by license obtained from the king, may make another lord of parliament his proxy, to vote for him in his absence; a privilege which a member of the other house can by no means exercise, as he is himself but a proxy for a multitude of other people. Each peer has also a right, by leave of the house, when a vote passes contrary to his sentiments, to enter his dissent upon the journals of the house, with the reasons for such dissent, which is usually styled his protest. All bills likewise, which may in their consequences affect in any way the rights of the peerage, are by the custom of parliament to have their first rise and beginning in the House of Peers, and to suffer no changes or amendments in the House of Commons.

LORD Howe's Group, a cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean, discovered by Captain Hunter in 1791. Of these, thirty-two were counted from the mast-head. They are situated in about long. 159. 24. E. and lat. 5. 30. S.