The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-23 00:00:00

accouchement) be. prepared by the Archbishop of Can-
terbury, to be used in all churches and chapels on Sunday
next. That Gazette would have directed also, according
to precedent, that the name of the Prince of Wales should
be inserted in the usual prayers for the Royal family. Yet
there arc several precedents also for inserting the name
of an heir-presumptive in the litany and other parts of the
Book of Common Prayer, where the Royal family are
prayed for. In the Book of Common Prayer, as origin-
ally compiled in the reign of Edward VI., the formula
did not comprehend more than the reigning Sovereign,
and ran thus :—" That it may please thee to kepe
Edward the Sixte thy servaunt our Kyng and Governor."
The prayers for Elizabeth, who, next to the pious,
learned, and amiable Edward VI., was the founder
of the Protestant constitution of England, or rather
the reviver of its primitive Christian character, were
the same as they now are for her present Msjesty,
with only a change of the proper name. No other
member of the Royal family was alluded to in the
Liturgy before the reign of James I. In his reign the
into
the " for the royal family " was first introduced
the morning and evening services and litany. In that
reign, previously to the death of Prince Henry, the form
of prayer ran thus for the royal family, after the usual
prayer for the King :—" Queen Anne, Prince Henry, and
all the King and Queen's royall progeny." After the
death of Prince Henry it was " Queen Anne, Prince
Charles, Fredericke the Elector Palatine, and the Lady
Elizabeth his wife." In the book of Common Prayer, in
the reign of Charles I. (1627), the form runs—" Our
Gracious Queen Mary, Fredericke the Elector Palatine,
and the Lady Elizabeth kis wife, and their princely issue."
issue
must player for the Prince Palatine and his
must have been introduced in consequence of the great
interest which the English nation took in the
struggles and fate of a prince, who, though nearly
connected to the royal family of England, were
still
more closely identified with the progress and for-
tunes of the Protestant cause on the Continent of Europe.
But in the Edinburgh- Prayer Book of the same reign, ten
years later (1637), the form was thus, without any special
mention of the Palatine family :—" Our gracious Queen,
Mary, Prince Charles, and the rest of the royal progeny.'
in the Prayer Book of the reign of Charles 11., the for-
mula is for " our gracious Queen Catherine, Mary the
Queen-mother (Maria Henrietta), James Duke of York
(the first time we find the name of this Popish prince in
the Book of Common Prayer), and all the royal family."
In the reign of James 11., in the Prayer Book which bears
date one year before the glorious and bleodless revolution,
from which, under the Act of Settlement, our present
most gracious Majesty derives her title to the throne, we
find the prayer for the Royal family expressed as fol-
lows :—" Our gracious Queen Maly, Catherine Queen-
dowager, their Royal Highnesses Mary Princess of Orange,
Anne of Denmark (afterwards Queen Anne), and all the
I Royal family." But later in the same year, 1687, the
prayer was ominously altered ky the omission of " Mary
Princess of Orange." Oh strange blindness •f ambition,
and mutability of human affairs ! in the following year the
omitted name of Mary Princess of Orange—Orange, a
name hateful still to the enemies of our Protestant con-
stitution, was restored to the Liturgy as that of a Queen,
and James 11. was a throneless exile! In a later edition
of the Book of Common Prayer (1696), the Royal fa-
mily are prayed for in the following wcrds in the Litany :
" Ut Catherine Regina Dotarie nec non regice Ipsius
Celsitudini Principisse Anna de Dania, et universe stirpi
regie benedicere, eosque servare aigneris.' In the reign
cf Anne the style is thus: " Catherine the Queen Dow-
ager, the Princess Sophia, and all the Royal family.'
This is the first introduction into the Liturgy of the illus-
trious Princess, the head of the House of Hanover, to
the heirs of whose body, being Protestants, the Crown, by
the Act of Settlement, was limited, and from whom'
Queen Victoria is descended is the sixth generation.
The family of Stuart, except as t• that portion of
it whose adherence to Popery excluded them from the
throne, having become extinct in Queen Anne, the House
of Hanover, under the limitation to the Princess Sophia
and her Protestant heirs, came to preserve the religion and
liberties which had been rescued from destruction by the
dethronement of James 11. In the reign of George I. the
prayer for the Royal Family was in the following form :
" their Royal Highnesses George Prince of Wales, the
Princess of Wales, and the Royal issue." In the reign of
George 11., before the marriage of Prince Frederick, the
father of George 111., the formula was as follows our
Gracious Queen Caroline, their Royal Highnesses Fre-
derick Prince of Wales, the Duke, the Princesses, and all
the Royal Family." Here the heir-apparent end heir-pre-
sumptive are both individually mentioned. In a subse-
quent edition of the Book of Common Prayer, in the same
reign (1743), the formula is :—" their Royal High.
nesses Frederick Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales,
the Duke, the Princesses,the issue of the Prince and Prin.
cess of Wales, and all the Royal Family." In the reign
of George II I. , the pious grandfather of our
present Gracious Sovereign, who, in reference
to a proposed change in the laws sheeting Popery, made
the memorable dclaration, "I have courage to descend
from a throne to a cottage—l have courage to lay my bead
upon the scaffold—but I have not courage M violate my
coronation oath," the following form was suhstiteted in the
Book of Common Prayer (1763). 't our Gracious Queen
Charlotte, their Royal Hi.llnesses George Prince of
Wales, the Princess Dowager: of Wales, and the Royal
Family." Aft.;r the death of the Princess Dowager, and
before the marriage of the Prince, afterwards George IV.,
the prayer ran thus :—" our Gracious Queen Charlotte,
his Royal Highness George Prince of Wales, and all the
Royal Family." After the marriage of the Prince, the
" Princess of Wales" was mentioned before the words
" and all the Royal Family," One other alteration was
made in that reign, which was occasioned by the death of
Queen Charlotte, when her name was, of course, omitted.
On the accession if George IV. all names were omitted,
and the prayer was to " bless all the Royal Family," with-
out naming any. Many of cur readers will not fail to
recollect some stormy discussions in Parliament relative to
the propriety of introducing the name of the then Queen
(Caroline) whose strange history, trial, and fate, are asso-
ciated with one of the most troubled periods, both of Parlia-
mentary conflict and popular excitement, that has befallen
England in modern times. We need hardly add that in the
reign of the kind-hearted and lamented William IV. the
prayer was for " our gracious Queen Adelaide and all
the Royal Family"—now prayed for as Queen Dowager,
in the reign of our Sovereign Lady Victoria, whom with
her Royal offspring may God long preserve I Let us
observe in conclusion, that since the compilation of the
Book of Common Prayer,—the most beautiful compo-
sition, with the exception of the Holy Scriptures, in ex-
istence,—there were two periods when it was disused,—
the first during the reign of Mary 1., surnamed " the
bloody," when the land s,noked to Heaven with the sacri-
fice of the martyrs of the Reformation : the other during
the grand rebellion ; viz., from 1645 to the Restoration in
1660, when the form of prayer which the Long Parlia-
ment, that beheaded the King and abolished the House of
Lords, voted " useless and dangerous," was recovered
from the grasp of persecuting intolerance, along with our
Church and monarchical institutions, which may the Provi-
dence that rescued for ever protect I
( From the Morning Post.)

We announced on Saturday the auspicious event of the
birth of a Princess Royal of England. It is gratifying to
us to be enabled to state that up to a late hour last night
the health of the Queen, as well as that of tie Royal
infant, continued to realise every wish that the most de-
voted loyalty to the British Crown and the most ardent
affection to the Sovereign could inspire. We participate
in the feeling of grateful joy which this hvppy event will
impart to the whole people of Great Britain, with whom
loyalty is one of the domestic virtues, and who will re.
joice that a new guarantee is afforded to the perpetuity of
tho throne, and rejoice still more that now another and a
tender tie strengthens and endears the relation between
themselves and their Sovereign.

SECOND EDITION.

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