PEERAGE CHARTERS AND LETTERS PATENT. STEVENS AND SONS, LIMITED, 119 & 120, CHANCERY LANE, PREFACE. PEERAGE law in England possesses a wide and enduring interest. It appeals alike to the lawyer and the states. man, to the student of history and to the antiquarian. It appeals, on personal grounds, to those who are descended (and their number is legion) from ennobled ancestors; and last, not least, it appeals to those who possess or hope to inherit or recover an existing peerage. Yet, attractive as the topic is, it is almost a century now since the last work on the subject (Cruise on Dignities) was given to the public-though during that long interval the important and voluminous Reports of the Committee of the House of Lords on "The Dignity of a Peer" have been published, and a whole series of peerage cases in the House of Lords have illuminated the dark places of the law and established points of the highest importance, with far-reaching consequences. The present Work was planned and partly written more than twenty years ago, but its progress has been greatly retarded and at times suspended by the constant pressure of other work. |