Lord Speaker the bar, and finish by walking up the Temporal (opposition) side toward the Woolsack. The Mace is placed on the Woolsack, where the Lord Speaker sits after a bishop has led the House in prayers. When the Sovereign appoints Lords Commissioners to perform certain actions on his or her behalf (for example, to open or prorogue Parliament, or formally declare Royal Assent), the Lord Speaker is one of them. The other Lords Commissioners, by convention, are the Leader of the House (who has acted as the principal Commissioner since the Lord Chancellor's functions were transferred to the Lord Speaker), the
Judicial functions of the House of Lords seventeenth century made repeated efforts to ameliorate it. The last trial of a peer in the House of Lords was in 1935, when Lord de Clifford was tried for motor manslaughter. The Criminal Justice Act 1948 abolished the trials of peers by their equals; now, peers are tried by juries of commoners. The House of Lords also has the power to try impeachments. The House of Commons decides on "Articles of Impeachment," which are then brought before the House of Lords. Originally, the House of Lords held that it could try peers only upon impeachment. In 1681, however, the Commons