The mace serves as a symbol of royal and parliamentary authority. Ten maces are kept in the Jewel House at the Tower of London in addition to those kept by the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Lord Chancellor. As well as carrying their maces, on State occasions each serjeant-at-arms wears a collar of esses as a symbol of his or her office. As a testament to the symbolic power of the insignia, when the Republic of Ireland declared independence from the United Kingdom at the First Dáil in 1919, one of the first decisions declared was that there was to be "no robes, no mace, no velveted sergeant-at-arms".