SERJEANT-AT-ARMS

Officers whose duty is to at tend the person of the king, the lord-high stew. nil, when sitting in judgment on a traitor, . The whole number is restricted by an ancient law (13 R. 2) to thirty. Two of these are allowed by the king to attend at the houses of parliament during their sittings, and each has a deputy. In the House of Lords, the practical maintenance of decorum below the bar, near the throne, and in the gallery, devolves upon the gentleman and yeoman usher, with their a istants;so that " the serjeant-at-arms attending the House of Lords," has le conspicuous duties to perform than those which devolve upon "the Serjeant attending the House ''I' Commons:" both, however, execute the commands of the house to which they belong, as regards the apprehension m custody of all persons committed by order of parliament. In [s. 1126]